Blues boss Paul Lambert believes red-carded midfielder Flynn Downes will learn to control his aggression as he gains experience but says that playing on the edge is what will make him go on to be a top player.
Downes was shown the second red card of his career late on in Tuesday’s 0-0 draw with Northampton - a straight red for offensive language to referee Darren Drysdale immediately followed a yellow for a foul - and will now miss two games. He was previously dismissed for a headbutt in a friendly at Cambridge.
That dismissal was Town’s third in five games, while the Blues have now been shown 11 red cards in Lambert’s two and a half years in charge.
Questioned about the number of dismissals, something which is uncharacteristic for Town. Lambert said: "There are two ways to look at it, you don’t want players to be walked all over at certain times, I think what happened the other night was a knock-on effect [from the incident where the referee squared-up to Alan Judge following Town’s penalty claim].
"Bish’s one I thought was pretty harsh up at Crewe. Kayden’s was Kayden’s [against Sunderland] and that was rightly a sending off.
"You don’t want red cards, Flynn’s a young kid. I always think Flynn, he lives on the edge the way he plays and I think that’s why he’s going to be a top player because he lives on the edge.
"You can’t take that away from him. I’m pretty sure you can’t take that away from him, that’s the way the lad plays.
"As he gets older, he’ll get more experience and he’ll learn to curtail it but at the moment he’s 22 years of age, he captained the team the other night, he has done in the games Luke Chambers hasn’t played and he’s done well with it.
"I think it was the whole frustration thing of maybe the penalty not getting given. But we try and keep 11 men on the pitch.”