RYAN Bowman was accused of a lack of thought after being shown his second red card of the season during York City’s 2-1 defeat at Southend.

The former Hereford striker, who scored City’s goal at Roots Hall, received his marching orders in the 86th minute for a reckless challenge on home right-back John White.

City were drawing 1-1 at the time with Southend having earlier gone down to ten men themselves when first-half marksmen Kevan Hurst was punished for a second bookable offence.

But Luke Prosser went on to head in a scarcely-deserved stoppage-time winner for the Shrimpers.

Bowman will now be banned for the Minstermen’s next four fixtures, meaning he has played his last match before Christmas.

On his forward’s dismissal, City boss Nigel Worthington said: “The sending off was one that didn’t need to happen. He did not need to go in like that when they were a man down.

“It’s about using your head but Bowey just flew at their player. He didn’t catch him thankfully, but a little bit of thought needs to be applied to keep things right and see the game through.”

City also saw a centre-back stretchered out of the action for second time in as many games when Dan Parslow suffered knee ligament damage after colliding with advertising hoardings.

About that misfortune, Worthington added: “We lost Chris Smith on Tuesday and now Pars looks like he will be out for a bit. He has some sort of knee ligament damage and we will have to get a scan to see how serious it is.

“This game is a great leveller and can be cruel at times but you have to take the rough with the smooth. We have got to stay focused, keep believing, work hard and stick together because, if we do that, we have enough quality around the club to get some wins.”

Despite his irritation at Bowman’s actions and the fact Southend’s second goal was conceded from a free-kick, the City chief was pleased with his players’ overall performance, reasoning: “The result was very harsh and I could not fault the players’ honesty and quality.

“We created chances and worked hard during the course of the game but they got a free-kick that should have been awarded to us and ended up winning although we should have dealt better with it.

“They had come out of the blocks sharp, which they always do at Southend, but we came through that and the players stuck to their task and worked their way into their game.

“We got a good goal back, hit the post and their ’keeper made a few good saves. We could have scored four or five goals so there were a lot of plusses but the result is the one that really knocks you.

“We have another big game tomorrow though and have got to get ready for that.”

On-loan debutants Keith Lowe and goalkeeper Nick Pope are both likely to retain their places for tomorrow’s trip to Morecambe after Worthington praised both players for their contributions in Essex.

He said: “Keith Lowe’s a very competent and assured player, who has a turn of pace so I was very pleased with him. I was also delighted with the ’keeper.

“I thought he commanded his area exceptionally well and made a big save when they went through once. There were no bad performances though.

“Everybody put a real good shift in with a lot of quality. The only unfortunate thing was the result.”

Worthington will now need to decide which of his seven loan players to leave out of his squad at Morecambe.

Blackpool shot-stopper Chris Kettings and Middlesbrough winger Ryan Brobbel did not feature at Roots Hall as the City boss chose Pope, Lowe, Luke O’Neill, Ben Davies and Elliott Whitehouse as his five permitted loan selections, deciding against naming a goalkeeper on his bench.

“That situation is difficult for us at the moment but the injuries we got to Michael Ingham and Chris Smith on Tuesday created the current circumstances,” Worthington explained.

“Ryan fully understands the situation and it might even happen to somebody else over the coming weeks until January when things sort themselves out again. We’ve just got to get through it for the moment.”