Middlesbrough boss Gareth Southgate had no complaints with Jeremie Aliadiere's dismissal in yesterday's 3-2 defeat at Liverpool.
Referee Lee Mason revealed the sending-off was because the player raised his hands at Javier Mascherano, and not for spitting as was first thought.
"He hardly floored the opponent but you have to accept in the modern game that if you do something like that, and it is in front of a young referee, you will be sent off.
"The biggest punishment for him will be missing three games and knowing we now have plenty of competition for forward positions."
Southgate added: "We feel we have given Liverpool a hell of a game and we did enough, we felt, to have taken something from the match.
"But the sending-off came when we looked to have turned the tide with our second goal. An equaliser after that was always unlikely.
"But there were spells in the game when Liverpool were edgy and we should have been able to take advantage of that.
"But we have several young players who are very down because they felt they had done well. We leave here, though, with plenty of positives."
