Flowers was given his marching orders after just 17 minutes at Darlington on Saturday as the Bucks went on to suffer a 3-1 defeat.

Although not directly critical of Flowers, Wilkin said: “I was a little bit distant, and I haven’t had the opportunity to speak to Harry about it, but whatever’s gone on, you can’t allow the referee to have the decision to make in that situation.

He (referee Paul Cooper) was pretty sure about what it was and what he was going to do, pretty much from the outset, so it does indicate it was a sending-off. If that was any different, then clearly we’d appeal that, but we need to see it again on the video to make an assessment.”