However, McLeish had no complaints about the red card shown by referee Mike Dean to the Blues skipper for a two-footed lunge on Kevin Kilbane 37 minutes into the game at The JJB Stadium and admitted that the better team on the day had won the game "But every referee must now do that every time if that kind of challenge goes in. "I don't think Damien touched the guy and Kilbane got up very quickly. "But when you lunge and you show the studs, it can be difficult for the referee not to give a red card. "It was tough playing with ten men for such a long time. It's hard enough for us when we're playing with 11 men.
"The lunge has been outlawed in the game. More and more referees are now showing a red card, regardless of contact or not," the Blues boss said after the 2-0 defeat against former boss Steve Bruce's side.
"The better team won today. They were much stronger than us physically and played well also.
"We never got anywhere near the level we've shown in recent weeks and to play for such a long time with 10 men was doubly hard."