DARWEN could face disciplinary action after four of their players were sent off in the 5-1 defeat at Leek CSOB on Tuesday night.

Dennis Hill, Lee Webb, Matt Anderton and Andrew Smith all saw red and Wilkes blasted the standard of refereeing claiming that three of the four red cards were undeserved.

He said only Matt Anderton's sending off for a second yellow card, for dissent, was deserved and that the club would be appealing against the other three.

"I had to take the day off work on Wednesday to calm down!" said Wilkes.

"When you get four players sent off you look at yourself and ask if there is anything you could have done but there wasn't because three of them shouldn't have been sent off.

"But it doesn't reflect well on the club. It has cost us three points and that's the important thing.

"We could have gone second in the league if we'd won and now I am going to lose four players through suspension and that could have repercussions too in terms of picking up points."

Darwen face Chadderton at home in NWCL Division Two tomorrow and new signing Martin Horsfield, from Nelson, could make his debut.

Craig Shaw and Rob Kleiser, who were both out of Tuesday's game due to work commitments, are back in contention. Paul Baker sits out his 10th and last match suspended.