BRIAN Kidd refused to hide behind excuses and condemn referee Kevin Lynch for sending off two Blackburn Rovers players against Grimsby on Saturday.

The Ewood boss felt the ref had got it right.

And, in fact, he even suggested that if Mr Lynch had made a mistake it might have been to give Rovers the penalty which saved a point for them!

That's honesty for you.

"By the letter of the law the referee was right. There will be no excuses about the red cards from us," said Kidd.

"And, to be honest, I wasn't even so sure it was a penalty for us."

Kidd knows the pressure is on the club to lift results as well as the level of performances and he feels everyone should be prepared to meet that challenge.

"The expectations are there but we have to play with a lot more patience, keep the ball better than what we did before we got anybody sent off and, for me, there was some really elementary bad defending," said the manager.

"We keep hearing about systems and patterns of play but there's a load of nonsense comes out. I'll take the responsibility that's down to me.

"But you can't be hiding behind excuses.

"The expectations are there and you have to be up for that part of the game."

He was also reluctant to fall into the trap of praising players as heroes for holding onto a point after playing with only nine men for so long.

"You always get that don't you and I think sometimes that can be an excuse as well," he said.

"They think 'Oh well we've lost a man , or we are down to nine men, haven't we done well'.

"But that doesn't wash with me."

Kidd knows it's the bottom line which matters.

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