JOEY Barton felt ‘severely aggrieved’ by the referee as his Bristol Rovers side were beaten by Oxford United.

Both sides ended with players sent off, with Jevani Brown the first to be red carded after collecting his second yellow for the Pirates shortly after the half hour mark.

Oisin Smith and Stanley Mills then saw red for the U’s deep in stoppage time, however Rovers boss Barton was left frustrated by other decisions he felt went against his side.

The former Manchester City midfielder reckoned Aaron Collins should’ve been awarded a penalty in the first half, while Barton also believed Collins was onside when he netted seven minutes before half-time, however the flag was raised against the forward.

“I don’t really want to come here speaking about refereeing calls and decisions because I feel severely aggrieved by his performance today,” said Barton.

“You know what it’s like, we’ll get fined if we tell the truth, but clearly anybody who observed that or watched that will see a lack of control from the officiating team for most of the game.”

Barton also claimed Josh Murphy dived in the incident which saw Brown shown his second booking, while he felt United skipper Elliott Moore deserved more than a yellow card for a foul on Brown early in the second period.

“Jevani doesn’t make any contact with the boy – he dives and gets him the second yellow,” said Barton.

“Moore comes right through the back of our player with the foot really high and out of control, and he’s given him a yellow card.

“To compound that, Jevani ends up picking up his second yellow.

“I think the officials will look at that game and certainly when they debrief it, I think there’ll be a lot of things they wished they’d done differently.”

Barton added: “We have to accept there’s going to be an element of human error.

“Sometimes they’re going to get it right and have great games, like players, and sometimes they’re gong to get it wrong and have poor games.

“We’ve got to give them the accountability and responsibility of running the game.”

Away from the officiating, Barton believed his side were better than the U’s when it came to the match itself.

He said: “Everyone knows who was here today that we were the better side. If they don’t, then they don’t understand the game of football.

“They were in the lead against the run of play in their own stadium, where we’re told they’ve got their tail up, but I think we showed who the strongest group is.

“Oxford are a good side on a good run, but they’re no way near as good as us.”