THERE is no getting away from the fact that the officials have played a big part in our last two games.

This isn't a case of sour grapes as I can see why Louis Carey, the previous week at Reading, and James Wilson and Yannick Bolasie on Saturday received red cards. However, in all cases a degree of leniency could have been afforded and. I'm sure, on another day with another ref, none would have seen red.

Another element which has, sadly, become prevalent in the English game is opposition players rushing up to the ref waving imaginary cards after any sort of challenge. It's completely unnecessary.

The red cards against Leeds undoubtedly had an impact on the game, even though when we were already a goal down when Wilson was dismissed.

I thought Wilson's was an honest challenge and the Leeds forward still had a way to go for goal, with Wilson keeping pace alongside him. I'm not sure that the ref was even going to book the young centre-half until Leeds players intervened.

The second sending-off was down to naivety and also to a poor tactical decision by manager Derek McInnes. Bolasie came to the attention of other clubs and match officials over the recent incident with Doncaster Rovers' James Coppinger, who was left with a fractured cheekbone after what looked like a slightly mistimed challenge. As soon as the youngster went up for an aerial ball yesterday, the Leeds bench were on their feet claiming an elbow.

Bolasie was booked for a foul early in the second half and just needed to recompose himself. I would like to have seen senior pros in the team and the City bench have a word with him. Unfortunately, within a couple of minutes, a Leeds player cut in front of Yannick, who, in his somewhat ungainly style, tangled with him. There was nothing nasty in the clash, but the ref wasted no time in getting a card out.

I would have taken off Bolasie at half-time and brought on Ryan McGivern, moving Kalifa Cisse back and keeping Neil Kilkenny on. Kilkenny is the only creative central midfielder we have and we must look at getting a similar player on loan.

Without one, I don't think we will score the goals needed to stay up. We need a midfielder first and foremost, as well as a defender and a striker who is quick to make things happen in and around the box.

We controlled large parts of the first half against Leeds and yet didn't really look like scoring. Chris Wood struggled, but if you play one up front, the ball has to stick and he has to bring others in to play.

This didn't really happen. At times we allowed Leeds to run at us when we just needed to put in a challenge. We were a little too nice and when we did have the ball, we didn't make the most of it.

McInnes has a real task on his hands and has to be backed by the chairman in the loan market.