STEVE Cotterill plans to appeal against his sending off in the wake of Burnley's second damaging defeat in three days.

The Clarets chief was dismissed during a stormy encounter with Gillingham that saw referee Richard Beeby also send off Micah Hyde and book eight players.

And Cotterill, who was forced to witness the 2-1 defeat from the confines of the Bob Lord Stand, insists he will not take his punishment sitting down.

"The bottom line is I had the hump with the referee because their player pushed John McGreal and the ball ended up going out for a corner," fumed Cotterill.

"Yes, I am going to be biased because I am Burnley's manager, but I think it would be very difficult for anyone to see things differently.

"The fourth official told me ten times "any more and you will go in the stand".

"I told him ten times that I'd heard him and never gave him any more verbal, but he called the ref over and I was sent to the stand.

"I'll appeal against it and I only hope his pillows are nice and soft because he will have a hard time sleeping!"

Goals from Iwan Roberts and Darren Byfield punished a sluggish performance from the Clarets, whose sole response was a late consolation goal from Ian Moore.

But it was the performance of referee Richard Beeby that most concerned Cotterill, who must now plan without Hyde for three games following his dismissal.

The Burnley midfielder inexplicably threw the ball into Byfield's face after he earned a penalty through John McGreal's trip.

And even Danny Coyne saving the controversial, twice-taken spot kick failed to lighten the manager's mood.

"I don't think I've got any complaints about Micah," he added. "He threw the ball at their lad when he should have just left it alone because it was going to be a penalty anyway.

"There's an element of disappointment there, even though it's more difficult out there in the heat of the moment.

"But there's also a lesson to be learned there and we've spoken about it because he won't be the first referee like that and he won't be the last.

"He certainly won't go down as a homer, even though it looked a penalty from the comfy seat I was in.

"But I don't know what was wrong with Danny saving it the first time. You have just sent someone off, you have sent the manager off. Is a penalty not enough?"

Cotterill, whose side now have a 12-day break before facing Crewe at Turf Moor, added: "We started very poorly and looked tired. We didn't have a spring in our step from the beginning and then we got wrong footed with a deflection that went in.

"That probably set the tone. It's always hard to dig out the good games after a bad start and, unfortunately, we saved all the good things about us until the last 20 minutes.

"Then we still did enough to win the game. That's the disappointing thing because now we have 12 days to suck it.

"It's been a long jaunt all the way from pre-season. We were unbeaten until we went to West Ham and that didn't taste very nice.

"This one doesn't either, so we have to make sure we get back to winning ways as soon as possible."