Peterborough United assistant Kieran Scarff angered at lack of consistency from referees as Darren Ferguson dismissed

Scarff conducted the post-match media duties for Posh after Darren Ferguson was sent off in the 70th minute of Posh’s 4-2 defeat at home to Derby County.

Ferguson was shown two yellow cards in the space of less than a minute, with the second one appearing to be for applauding after he was shown the first one.

The Posh boss was slow to leave the technical area, but was eventually persuaded to leave.

EFL rules then prevented Ferguson from speaking to the media after the match.

Scarff defending his manager, insisting that he felt nothing inappropriate had taken place and that referees should review the way the new stricter rules are being applied.

He said: “There’s a real confusion around football with the new rules. I’ve got no problem with these new rules and them trying to do things for the betterment of the game but the lack of consistency still remains.

"I’m not going to go into too much detail but in every single game there is a lack of consistency with certain things.

"Their dugout can’t believe the decision either.

“We’ve got to be really careful, there’s always going to be emotion in football- whether it be on the touchline, on the pitch or in the stands- it just has to be appropriate. There was nothing inappropriate as far as I’m far concerned.

“They’ve put these rules in place and all I can hope is that- as they should be- they are constantly reviewing the changes they are making because they need to.

“Not that it would have made any difference in the grand scheme of things but I’ve never been involved in a game where there was five and a half minutes of injury time. I don’t know where they got 30 seconds from, it’s always been a whole minute.

“They just need to keep looking at the way they are doing things and adjust things accordingly.”

Ferguson will return to media duties on Monday ahead of Posh’s trip to Portsmouth in the EFL Cup second round on Tuesday (August 29, 7:45pm).