Notts County’s Kwame Thomas was sent off last night for leaving the pitch too slowly

Kwame Thomas was always going to leave the pitch last night.

But referee Richard Clark took the control out of the hands of Notts County manager Shaun Derry when the striker seemed to be taking his sweet time leaving the pitch. With five minutes left in Notts' 0-0 draw away to Doncaster, Clark showed Thomas a second yellow card for time-wasting while being substituted. Confusion surrounded the Keepmoat Stadium as the official initially failed to realise that he had already booked Thomas before finally giving Thomas, who is on-loan from Derby, his marching orders.

#Notts' Billy Daniels had to return to the bench after replacing Kwame Thomas. Thomas was sent off being subbed. pic.twitter.com/im701TiXNO — Sky Sports News HQ (@SkySportsNewsHQ) January 21, 2015

As players and staff protested the rash decision, the Notts boss was also sent to the stands. After the game, County's assistant manager Greg Abbot said: "I think, to be fair, in defence of the referee, if he’d have realised it was his second one he would have rushed over and ushered him off without doing the card. “I’ve never seen a sending off like that. In hindsight the referee maybe, so late in the game, would have thought twice if he’d have known it was his second.”