Brentford chairman Greg Dyke has weighed into the row surrounding striker Nathan Elder’s second red card of the season at the weekend, claiming referees are spoiling the game for fans.

Elder, who saw his appeal against the decision turned down this week, got his marching orders only eight minutes in to his return from the three match suspension handed out following his sending off at Gillingham.

The 23-year-old striker will serve a four-match ban after an alleged elbow on Mike Edwards in the 1-1 draw with Notts County, which will see him miss clashes with Macclesfield Town, Aldershot, Shrewsbury Town and Morecombe.

Boss Andy Scott slammed the decision from ref Stuart Attwell - famed for awarding a phantom goal in a clash between Watford and Reading earlier in the season - suggesting it might be an idea to hand officials suspensions in the same way as players.

And Dyke, chair of joint League Managers Association and Professional Footballers Association working party aimed at improving refereeing, has backed his manager to the hilt.

“This is the first time in all the years I’ve been involved with football that I have felt compelled to speak out about a refereeing decision,” he said.

“There was not a person in the ground I met from either Notts County or Brentford who believed the decision was fair or reasonable.

“One wonders what you have to do to win an appeal at the FA, who seem intent on protecting this particular referee.

“What is sad is there is nothing we can do about this. I can only say what our manager said that decisions like these are spoiling the enjoyment of the game for fans.”

Scott admitted in the wake of the decision that he had little faith in FA’s appeal process after seeing the club’s challenge turned down on Tuesday.

He risked the wrath of the governing body when he criticised a system that sees referees continue to take charge of games, despite making persistent errors.

“My players get dropped if they play poorly. It is the third game this season in which he has made mistakes,” he added.

“There is no doubt about it that everyone makes mistakes and we can accept honest mistakes, but when it happens over and over again it has got to be looked at.

“There has got to be some contingency for other teams not to suffer in the way others have so far.

“I want him to get better. We talk about the ‘Respect’ campaign and we try and do our best, but it doesn’t half test you.”

A late Mark Phillips goal salvaged a point for the Bees at the weekend and the Griffin Park chief admitted he preferred to concentate on the positives of extending their nine match unbeaten run.

“I don’t want to criticise referees. I’ve got a fantastic football team and fantastic club and I want to highlight how good we are and how well we’ve done,” he said.

“We’ve come up against some really tough teams in difficult circumstances and we should be talking about them. Not about decisions that are made out of our control.”