ROY Hodgson's appeal over two of the six bookings handed out to Blackburn Rovers players by controversial referee Jeff Winter in Saturday's draw at Newcastle will fall on deaf ears.

The Rovers boss, clearly infuriated but keeping his emotions in check, stated his intentions of trying to have cautions for Kevin Gallacher and Garry Flitcroft wiped out.

But a spokesman for the FA Premier League confirmed today: "There is no appeal against a straightforward caution.

"The only time there can be an appeal as such is if there is a dismissal and three-match ban, or is a case of mistaken identity. Then the video can be passed on to the referee."

Hodgson refused to blast the referee directly after Saturday's showdown but his general comments made it clear how he felt.

"We will contest two of the bookings," he said. "We will contest the booking for Kevin Gallacher who, in my opinion and the opinion of many others, was fouled on the halfway line.

"When a goal was scored due to the fact that he didn't receive a free kick, he went to ask the referee why and was booked. "I think video evidence will show it was a clear foul and he is entitled to ask why.

"We will also contest the last one for Garry Flitcroft, because with 38,000 people in the stadium we couldn't hear any whistles.

"And I think when someone has chased 45 yards and strikes a ball across the face of goal he doesn't deserve to get booked."

Those two incidents apart, there were others which must have made the manager wince - not least when Gallacher was hacked down from behind on the halfway line yet, again, didn't even get a free kick.

"I didn't enjoy that very much but Kevin Gallacher enjoyed it even less," said Hodgson, who had promptly belted the ball down the touchline to relieve his frustration.

Rovers, in general, felt that they had a constant cause for complaint about the referee.

"It amazes me sometimes," he said. "I would like a referee one day to sit me down and talk me through free kicks - when it's a free kick for the centre forward and when it's a free kick for the defender.

"These days, every time there's a duel between a centre forward and a centre half I just sit and wait to see which way it's going to break. Because it seems to me it's purely in the lap of the gods."

Hodgson used his substitutes to good effect at St James's Park, though the arrival of Damien Duff two minutes before Rovers' equaliser was simply co-incidence. After they had levelled he then withdrew Stuart Ripley to put on another more central midfielder in Flitcroft to make sure they didn't give anything away.

"I would like to claim that one (Duff) as a stroke of tactical genius but my honesty doesn't permit it," smiled Hodgson.

"I don't think Damien had touched the ball when when we scored.

"Needing a goal we thought that playing with two wingers might cause them more problems defensively.

"We also realised that it might weaken our midfield block somewhat because wingers are notoriously less apt to defend than classic midfield players.

"But, having said that, I thought we did stretch the play better, we did look a bit more dangerous going forward and Damien defended very well so we didn't lose anything by it."

Luke Staton, James Thomas and Ciaran Ryan scored in a 3-0 win for Rovers A against Morecambe. Gary Hamilton's double strike gave the B team a 2-1 win at Marine.

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