Paul Heckingbottom did not try to defend Milutin Osmajic after he bit Blackburn Rovers' Owen Beck.

The striker will now face an FA enquiry which will likely end in a ban. The Liverpool loanee was left with a bite mark on his neck shortly before being sent off against Preston North End on Sunday.

John Eustace was quick to condemn Osmajic's actions and Heckingbottom insisted there was no room for that sort of incident in football, though he hadn't seen the footage at the time.

“No, I’ve not seen it or spoken to John or anyone about that,” said Heckingbottom. 

“I’ve just been told there when I did the Sky interview. Listen, all I can say is that there is no place for that and we know we can’t do that. 

"Mistimed tackles, things like that are part and parcel of the game - you accept them. Anything that is not, we know how that’s dealt with. But, I have not seen anything so I am just going off you saying there has been an incident.”

On Beck's red itself, he said: "I haven't seen that. There didn't seem to be many complaints, but I just saw the fracas. 

"Someone said he kicked out, but I haven't seen it."

The PNE boss had few complaints about Sam Greenwood's dismissal either. The on-loan Leeds United man was sent off at the end of the first half for a reckless challenge on Lewis Baker from behind.

“Yeah, watching it back I can see why it’s a red,” said Heckingbottom. “At the time, I thought he won the ball and it was a yellow card. He probably does, but Baker’s leg gets trapped underneath it. 

"If they are reds, that’s fine, but we just want to see that consistency. No problem with that, but I saw a far worse tackle than that in the Sunderland game yesterday - and they ended up with 11 men and won the game one-nil. I think they are pretty easy ones to get right."