GRAEME Souness did not know whether to laugh or to cry but left the Reebok on Saturday convinced Rovers had been the better side - even after having Andy Cole sent off.

"I'm frustrated," the Rovers boss admitted, "because having Coley sent off affects us not only today by putting us down to ten men but it also means he misses three games.

"He deserved to be sent off but he's frustrated because (Mike) Whitlow's come through from behind. As a striker of some experience he should have known better than to respond in the way he did but he was frustrated because he was tackled from behind. The referee's got it right but on another day he might have sent both of them off because that was a dangerous tackle.

"You can't defend him though. You have to hold your hands up and Andy will hold his hands up but there were other things that went on which were not nice to talk about ... like Whitlow lying on the ground whispering to his team-mates 'Has he been sent off yet'?

"That's the source of the anger but I would rather talk about the way we played in the second half when we re-adjusted. I thought my players were magnificent.

"The way we lost our goal was frustrating too because it was an absolute cock up by Henning (Berg). But he's big enough and he responded in a positive way and didn't let it affect his game. That's what you want from your big players.

"With ten men we were sitting there wondering what we should do because it was 0-0 and they (Wanderers) weren't causing us any problems. We were going to stay with it for 15-20 minutes in the second half and change it then but it was forced upon us with them getting the kind of goal they got.

"But second half we were better than them, played the better football than them, had the better chances and their goalkeeper was busier than our goalkeeper. On another day we would have won the game."

Souness claimed Rovers were denied a penalty on the hour when the ball appeared to strike Gudni Bergsson's arm when he challenged Henning Berg for David Dunn's corner.

"It was a stonewall penalty and I can't understand why Mr Durkin can miss it because he was as close as he possibly could get to the incident," he argued.

"I saw it from the touchline and Brad Friedel, who was at the other end, saw it from his position. So how does Mr Durkin not see it?"

Taking a point under the circumstances was a good return for Rovers at the end of a week which kicked off with them beating Spurs to lift the Worthington Cup.

But Souness had mixed emotions. "We'd have taken a point before the game," he admitted, "and it has been a really good week but the downside is that we lose Andy Cole for three games and that could cost us."