Blackburn Rovers manager Tony Mowbray has backed young midfielder John Buckley to bounce back from the disappointment of picking up the first red card of his career in last week's 3-0 defeat at Derby County last week.

Buckley was shown a straight red card in stoppage time at Pride Park for a late challenge of Derby defender Curtis Davies, having been brought on as a 72nd-minute substitute with Rovers chasing the game.

Consequentially, Buckley is now facing a three-match suspension as a result of his dismissal, although Mowbray does have sympathy with the 20-year-old.

Speaking to the Lancashire Telegraph about Buckley's sending off, Mowbray said: “He’s just a young guy trying to block a centre half clearing the ball up the pitch.

“If anything Curtis’s reaction got John sent off because if he hadn’t have reacted in the manner he did I think a yellow card would have sufficed. He’s tried to block the clearance."

Indeed, it seems Mowbray has also been passing on what he learned from his own playing career to Buckley, with the Blackburn manager adding: “When I was a young player at Middlesbrough Malcolm Allison was my manager and he told me to tackle six inches in front of the ball. Never tackle the ball, tackle six inches in front of the ball.

“I’ve passed that advice on because if he’d have tackled six inches in front of the ball the clearance would have come off his foot and it would have been a great block."

That is a piece of advice that Mowbray is hopeful that the midfielder will take on board, as he continued: “Hopefully it’s a learning curve for him and he’s going to be a very talented young player for this club moving forward as we’ve said before."

Since making his senior debut for Blackburn back in March 2019, Buckley has made a total of 21 appearances in all competitions for Rovers, scoring twice.

The Verdict

I do have some sympathy for Buckley here.

The challenge that the midfielder put in on Davies did look a bad one, and you can understand why he received his marching orders as a result.

It should however be noted that the midfielder had at least been showing some intent to drag his side back into the game following his introduction, something which had not been entirely been evident prior to that point.

As a result, you feel this dismissal is indeed something he should learn from, while the desire and commitment he showed to give his side a lift - something which combined with his inexperience may well have led to the red card - should at least bode well for him later in his career.