Wellens has apologised but head of referees both penalties were harsh and in his opinion they weren’t penalties.

Richie Wellens has apologised for kicking a water bottle in the direction of Plymouth Argyle fans.

The Doncaster Rovers boss, who was frustrated at the award of a stoppage time penalty against his side, was shown a red card by referee Trevor Kettle for dissent.

Wellens is expected to now have to serve a three-game touchline ban, starting with tomorrow’s visit to Ipswich Town.

Conor Grant converted Plymouth’s second penalty of the game to seal a 2-1 come-from-behind win for his side and inflict a sixth league defeat from eight games on Rovers.

"I apologise to the Plymouth fan,” said Wellens. “I’m not actually sure it hit anybody.

“We gave away a penalty and there’s a water bottle that is empty at the side of my foot and I kick it.

“I don’t know where it went. I’m informed that the fan actually threw it back at me so fair play to him.

“I’ll send an email to Plymouth Football Club and apologise because that’s not acceptable.

“I’ll pay the consequences with a three-game ban and I’ll pay the consequences with whatever the fine is.

“But I spoke to Mike Jones, the head of referees, this morning and he apologises because he thinks that both penalties were harsh and in his opinion they weren’t penalties.

“That’s 11 [major decisions] they’ve got wrong now and we’ve played eight games. They’re things that we can’t control but they obviously frustrate you. You just want a referee to be out of sight and out of mind during a game.

"We’ve just got to control what we can control. I thought we did that very well against Plymouth and I think we should be coming away with definitely a point but we could have easily won the game if it wasn’t for a game-defining moment

I thought we were very lucky to get the 2nd pen.

Looked at the replay for the second penalty and still don't know what it was for.

But does 2 dodgy penalties mean the crowd is influencing the ref? Is tonight's match going to go on until we win-Lowe time, replaces Fergie time?

Grovehill wrote:

Looked at the reply for the second penalty and still don't know what it was for.

Biu does 2 dodgy penalties mean the crowd is influencing the ref? Is tonight's match going to go on until we win-Lowe time, replaces Fergie time?

Did not work at Portsmouth

if it weren't for the two pens i truly didn't see how we would have scored another way tbh so whether the 2nd was legit or not it was a most welcome decision regardless.

Les Miserable wrote:

I thought we were very lucky to get the 2nd pen.

Agard certainly used his "seasoned professionalism" methinks. Mind you if i was Wellens it would be more a case of how the keeper managed to cock up a bread and butter ball in the first place.

Still looks like two pens to me, looking at replays.

There's a good vlog on youtube with clear footage from the Devonport end of the incident for the second pen. Really don't think it was a penalty.

Freathy wrote:

There's a good vlog on youtube with clear footage from the Devonport end of the incident for the second pen.  Really don't think it was a penalty.

I watched that and totally agree with you. I have seen hundreds of way more obvious pens not awarded. On the flip side we have lost hundreds of points over the years on dodgy pens being awarded against us so I'm happy to take the points.

Freathy wrote:

There's a good vlog on youtube with clear footage from the Devonport end of the incident for the second pen.  Really don't think it was a penalty.

Will have a look.

I thought neither were pens I said that Saturday