Peterborough United manager believes there should have been four red cards in fiery Championship relegation battle against Derby

Posh were beaten 1-0 by a late Derby goal but both sides finished the match with ten men after both Hayden Coulson and Tom Lawrence were sent from the field.

Coulson picked up two cautions within six minutes, while Lawrence was dismissed for a nasty lunge on Nathan Thompson, just two minutes into the second half.

There were also 11 cautions given out, split five to Derby and six to Posh.

Ferguson also thought Curtis Davies was lucky to get away with a hack on Ricky-Jade Jones on the halfway line in the second half as was Reece Brown for a reckless challenge on Max Bird.

He said: “The first one was in the middle of the pitch, apparently for being too aggressive. That’s what the game is at the moment, you can’t be too aggressive or you’ll get booked. Then if you go to ground on a yellow against a dangerous opponent, it’s a red card.

“Their one is clear. It’s a horrendous tackle. I actually felt there could have been four sending offs. I thought the referee was very lenient. The tackle from Curtis Davies on Ricky was horrendous and I thought Brown could have gone aswell, it was by his knees.

“You don’t want lots of red cards but we knew it would be a feisty game and there would be tackles.