Dean Smith will appeal Sergi Canos’s red card after claiming the referee decided the outcome of Brentford’s heavy loss to Derby County at Pride Park on Saturday.

An early red card and tenuous offside decision awarded by referee Peter Banks swung the game in the Rams’ favour, as Spanish midfielder Sergi Canos was sent off after 20 minutes for a challenge from behind on Martin Olsson in the centre circle.

Goals from Tom Huddlestone, Cameron Jerome and a stoppage-time penalty from Matej Vydra condemned Brentford to defeat, with Smith’s side now 11th in the table and eight points from the top six.

“It’s never a red card. We will probably appeal it,” he said.

“Sergi gets there early and wins the ball. He may catch him on the follow through but it’s the reaction of the Derby players that gets him sent off.

“The referee told me he was out of control and used excessive force, but I don’t know how you can tackle on that greasy surface without force.”

Canos tweeted an apology to his teammates and the travelling fans.

He said: “I didn’t mean to hurt anyone or something bad. Heads up and I will try to learn from this. Let’s support the team for next week!”

Smith’s disappointment was compounded as Derby responded to the numerical advantage with two quickfire goals before the break from Huddlestone and Jerome – the latter scoring his first for the Rams.

“The second one was another borderline offside decision,” said Smith. “Surely the assistant referee can only see a white shirt in front of him but unfortunately, he didn’t flag.”

He admitted that Matej Vydra’s 92nd-minute penalty was the correct decision, after Sam Winnall was brought down by Chris Mepham.

Despite the result, Smith felt the teams were evenly matched.

“The scoreline certainly doesn’t reflect how my players played. We had the better chances,” he said.

“Florian Jozefzoon put one over the bar and Ollie Watkins dragged one wide but then the referee decided to change the game.

“Second half we were very good with ten men. We were brave, used the ball well, and went and pressed them when we could.

“We knew we were always in danger on the counter attack but this is what we wanted to do. We didn’t want to come here and lie down. We wanted to score and get back into it.

“At full time I told them well done. It should have been a good game but it was spoiled by the officials. Unfortunately, the referee decided the outcome of the game.”