GRAHAM Alexander slammed referee Leigh Doughty’s display after claiming Doncaster’s time-wasting tactics “took the game back 15 years”.

Blackpool official Doughty booked nine players and both managers in last night's 1-1 draw at Valley Parade.

And the City chief claimed Sam Stubbs was yellow-carded for being elbowed in the face.

Alexander said he was booked for “sarcasm” for his reaction to Doncaster keeper Thimothee Lo-Tutala’s yellow card in stoppage time.

“It was like the game went back 15 years with all that time-wasting,” he said. “The amount of free-kicks that were given against us for nothing but they just fell on the ball and he gave it.

“Our centre half Sam Stubbs got booked for being elbowed in the face. (It was) unbelievable.

“The keeper played like one I played with 20 years ago, time-wasting on every opportunity. Then he gets booked with 15 seconds to go, ‘come on’.

“The fourth official could see what the keeper was doing and said they were going to deal with it.

“I just said to him, ‘don’t let it be a booking in the last 15 seconds’. Lo and behold it was a booking in the last 15 seconds.”

Doughty booked six players and McCann before half-time. Alexander thought the referee had backed himself into a corner by going to his pocket too early.

“I thought the bar for yellow cards was set really low and the ref gave himself too tough a task.

“He set the standard for the rest of the night with a couple of early ones.”

Bradford Telegraph and Argus: Jon Tomkinson was one of five City players yellow-cardedJon Tomkinson was one of five City players yellow-carded (Image: Thomas Gadd)

Alexander also felt that Doncaster were allowed to continually slow the game down – something that refereeing authorities had promised to crackdown on this year.

“We were given really stringent directives at the start of the season with examples that this wouldn’t go on anymore in football.

“But that was a game I haven’t seen for a long time. It was quite extreme on that side of it.

“That wasn’t anything to do with our performance in the first half. That had no bearing on it.

“You have to understand the conditions of the game and play accordingly.

“What you don’t want to do is give away a poor goal to the away team and allow that to manifest itself.”