IT'S about time Graeme Souness and his players realised that the referee is in charge of the game.

No matter how bad a decision appears to be -- and Lucas Neill's sending off at Middlesbrough was diabolical -- the only person who will get the referee to change his mind is his assistant.

No amount of ranting and raging from the manager will change things.

If players show dissent, it results in a booking and the free kick being moved 10 yards. Rovers are in enough trouble without getting needless bookings followed by suspensions.

On Saturday even players with the experience of Henning Berg were booked for dissent. The goal was the result of bad marking from our central defenders for a free kick which had been moved 10 yards and Matt Jansen booked for dissent.

Survival in the Premiership is the most important thing right now so why were players like Damien Johnson, who has never let us down, and other fringe players not put in the "shop window" for the Middlesbrough game?

What was the point of risking injury and suspension to key players like Berg, Duff, Jansen and Cole?

G WEARDEN, Thwaites Road, Oswaldtwistle.