BLACKBURN boss Graeme Souness accused Bolton defender Mike Whitlow of play-acting after Andy Cole was sent off in Saturday's stormy Lancashire derby at the Reebok.

Cole saw red after stamping on Whitlow in retaliation for a crunching late tackle by the Wanderers centre-back in the 18th minute.

But, though Souness later agreed with referee Paul Durkin's decision to send Cole off, he was furious at the way Whitlow reacted to the incident, insisting the veteran stopper tried to get his player dismissed.

"I thought Andy Cole deserved to be sent off but he fell for the three-card trick," said Souness.

"Mike Whitlow clattered into him and then stayed down.

"And, as he was lying on the floor, he was then asking his team-mates 'Has he been sent off yet? Has he shown him the red card?'

"Then once that happens, he's fine and dandy, and he's up and winking at his own players.

"So that's unacceptable for me.

"How the Hell can you do that? Is that what it's come to? Well, we're all in trouble then if that is the case."

Despite his condemnation of Whitlow for his part in the incident, Souness was disappointed with the way Cole reacted to the situation.

And he now faces the prospect of losing his star striker for three vital Premiership games in the next few weeks.

"Andy knows he's guilty but unless you've been there yourself you don't know how frustrating it can be. He felt it was a late tackle and he reacted," said Souness.

"But I've seen players sent off for that kind of tackle before because it was a serious injury type of tackle coming straight through like that from the back.

"So Andy responded which was wrong of him and he'll be frustrated by that because the big picture is he's now going to be missing for three games.

"But I thought Matt Jansen was outstanding so we now need to keep both him and Yordi fit and healthy because they will be a threat between the two of them."

In light of Cole's dismissal, Souness was therefore delighted to see his side then claw back a 1-0 deficit with a battling second half performancve to claim what could be a vital point come the end of the season.

"On reflection, I think we have to be delighted with a point considering we were 1-0 down with 10-men," said Souness.

"All the players were very angry and frustatred at half-time but they focused that anger on getting a result and for that they deserve great credit.

"I was frustrated by the sending off and the manner in which we lost our goal.

"It wasn't exactly a great piece of football in fact it was an absolute cock-up by Henning.

"But he's big enough to respond to that and he did respond by not letting it affect the rest of his game and that's what you want from your big players.

"In the second half, we then changed our system and I thought we played very well.

"We had the better of the chances and played the better football in the second half.

"Their goalkeeper was busier than ours and on another day we would have won it."