SAMMY Igoe leapt to the defence of team-mate Lee Bradbury following his sending off in Cherries’ incident-packed FA Cup win over Bristol Rovers yesterday.

Bradbury received his marching orders for his part in a second-half flashpoint with Rovers defender Ryan Green as referee Clive Penton dished out nine yellow and two red cards.

Booked earlier for a shove on Rovers goalkeeper Steve Phillips, Bradbury was shown a second yellow card following a heated exchange with Green when the two players appeared to clash foreheads.

Bradbury was sent packing shortly after Jason Pearce had headed Cherries into the second round and earned them £20,000 in prize money by netting the only goal of the game 13 minutes from time.

Igoe, who had a good view of the incident, told the Daily Echo: “I made a beeline for the linesman to ask him what he had seen and he said Bradders hadn’t touched him.

“To then turn around to see the referee dishing out a second yellow card made me wonder what was going on. The ref consulted his linesman and if he told him what he had told me then he wouldn’t have booked him.

“As Lee was retreating from the incident, Ryan Green was pushing and shoving him. In my eyes, that is a sending off or at least a booking. I’ve been sent off for that in the past. I thought there were some good and bad decisions and Bradders definitely got a bad one.”

Igoe was also in the thick of the action when Rovers were reduced to 10 men, the midfield schemer the victim of a dreadful lunging challenge from Byron Anthony who collected a second yellow card just minutes after he had been booked for diving.

“It probably should have been a straight red but at least justice was done,” said former Rovers man Igoe. “I know all the Rovers lads, I know exactly how they play and I know their strengths and weaknesses.

“As soon as he was under pressure, he took a big touch and I just knew he was going to have a massive lunge at me. Although he caught me, luckily I half rode the tackle because I was in the air. If my feet had been planted it might have been a lot worse.

“He’s a centre-half and most centre-halves are clumsy. He went in to win the ball or whatever else but I’ve got no hard feelings against him.”

Rovers boss Paul Trollope said he had “no arguments” with the Anthony sending off but declined to elaborate on referee Penton’s performance.

Trollope said: “If you’re going to start about refereeing decisions, I could go on all day and so could Jimmy Quinn. I’m not going to get involved in it. There were a lot of issues with both teams, not just ourselves, but I’m only going to talk about the performance.”