Wolves left-back Stephen Ward insists he will be “cuter” next time as he counts down to Sunday’s FA Cup tie at Tranmere.

Ward suffered the first sending off of his career in the 2-0 defeat at Anfield on Boxing Day and was suspended for Monday’s 3-0 setback to Manchester City.

The Irish full-back was brandished a second yellow card for brushing Lucas five minutes after he was booked for tugging the shirt of Yossi Benayoun.

“I suppose I just have to learn from the experience and be a little bit cuter next time,” said Ward.

“I hardly touched him (Lucas) and, in my opinion, he went down fairly easily.

“Even so, I would have accepted him (the referee) giving the foul but it was nowhere near another yellow card. Looking back at it, I think the ref had the card out of his pocket before I’d made the so-called foul.

“He seemed intent on making the booking straight away even though it was the linesman that gave the foul.

“I was gutted because not only did I think it was a very harsh decision, I felt I’d let the boys down as well. We were well in the game and had dealt with everything they’d thrown at us. It’s hard to say what would have happened if it had stayed at 11 v 11, but we’d have been in with a strong chance of getting something.”