Tom Cleverley admitted Plymouth Argyle’s nine-goal top scorer Lorent Tolaj deserved to be sent-off during the second half of the 3-0 League One defeat by Northampton Town at Home Park.
Tolaj received a straight red card from referee Stephen Parkinson after an off-the-ball incident with Northampton’s Jack Burroughs, who he caught with an arm in the 65th minute, with the Pilgrims already trailing 1-0 at the time.
The striker made his way off the pitch on the Lyndhurst Road Stand side and walked past the Devonport End and then the Mayflower Grandstand.
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As he did so he appeared to have an exchange of words with Northampton boss Kevin Nolan, who was in the away team’s technical area, and then angrily kicked away a spare ball from beside the touchline.
Tolaj will get an automatic three-match suspension, which means he will miss the games at home to Bradford City next Saturday, the trip to Wycombe Wanderers on Tuesday, December 9 and the visit of Rotherham United four days later.
It leaves the unproven duo of Owen Oseni and Bim Pepple, who has had a calf strain but should be fit for the game against Bradford, as the only two striker options for Argyle.
Cleverley about the red card to Tolaj: “I’m not going to dress this one up, I’m disappointed with him and he knows why. It was something that was addressed at half-time, how they were trying to provoke him.
“He must learn from that. We will have a conversation tomorrow to make sure he does learn from that because he’s an important player for us.
“Today and for the next three games it’s time for Owen Oseni and Bim Pepple to step forward now and give their best version of themselves to the team.
“We have been working hard with them on the training pitch to help them do that but, yeah, really disappointed with Tolly’s actions today. He deserved to be sent-off and he must learn from it.”
Cleverley added about Northampton’s approach to Tolaj: “They have done their job. He’s not done his. You want your players to be on the edge, to be on the competitive edge, but that can’t boil over.
“They have probably seen in recent weeks you can get under his skin. They are not the first team to do it and the best thing he can do from this now is learn from it, apologise to his team-mates, and it never happen again in his career.”
Asked about Tolaj’s reaction following the red card, Cleverley said: “I will speak to Tolly. I think football players should always be respectful to the opposition manager and he has completely lost his head.
“I hope Tolly is in many more big football games, in big pressure situations, possibly even in the future at top 10 Championship or wherever he may end up, but he needs to keep his head in those hostile environments, under those conditions. Today he didn’t but it should be a big learning curve for him.”
