Hanley says sorry

Rovers manager Gary Bowyer has confirmed that defender Grant Hanley has apologised for the daft red card that threw what was otherwise a comfortable afternoon’s work up to that point into jeopardy.

Hanley was red carded in the 31st minute, whilst Rovers were 1-0 up and in the ascendancy at the DW Stadium, for an elbow to the face of Nick Powell which left Rovers facing playing an hour with a man deficit away from home.

Rovers ultimately went on to lose 2-1 with Emerson Boyce’s late, late header proving hard luck on Rovers, who up to that point had enjoyed scant joy from the referee and had defended stoutly with a makeshift back four.

But the Hanley sending off will of course be seen as the turning point.

“Grant called me on Sunday night and asked if he could come in and see me on Monday morning.’ Bowyer told the Rovers official website.

“The rest of the lads were off but he was very keen to come in and he was very apologetic.

“He`s not meant to do what he`s done – he just went to shrug him off – but he accepts that you can`t raise your hands on a football pitch.

“He`s gutted for himself because he`s got a three-game ban and he could be out of the team longer because you`ve got Matt Kilgallon and Scott Dann to form a partnership, so he`s aware of the consequences of that.’

The sending off marked Grant Hanley’s first sending off of his professional career and means he’ll be out of the matches against Charlton, Blackpool and Middlesbrough.

“He`s also aware of the consequences of letting his team-mates down,’ Bowyer added.

“But the biggest thing for him – and you have to remember he is only 21 – is his relationship with the fans.

“He has a special relationship with them and he was gutted to let them down as there were over 3,500 of them, which was a fantastic figure, so he has apologised via me to the supporters. It`s one of those things he`s got to learn from and live with.”

Time to move on, Hanley has been a consistent performer over a number of months now.

Mistake made, hopefully lesson learnt. We’ve all done something stupid at some point.