YOUNG Bury defender Danny Swailes has been cleared of blame by his manager after seeing red against Luton at the weekend.

Boss Andy Preece - livid at seeing his side reduced to ten men for the third successive match - had sympathy with Swailes.

The defender lost the ball 30 yards out and in attempting to win it back fouled Luton's Liam George. Referee. He received a straight red card from referee Steve Tomlin who claimed Swailes was the last defender.

But Preece wasn't so sure and will not be taking the matter any further.

"I can't blame Danny Swailes for what he did," confirmed the manager. "It all came from the build up. Paddy (Kenny) shouldn't have thrown it to Paul Reid, Reidy shouldn't have played it inside and Danny suffered. I thought he went in for a genuine challenge and he suffered for it."

What angered Preece further was the fact that Luton's Steve Howard was allowed to get away with a clear elbow in the face of young defender Chris Armstrong moments after the Swailes incident.

Howard, somewhat fortunately, escped with a booking.

"You don't like to see anybody get sent off but when you see a challenge like that and you're already down to ten men then it's upsetting that they've still got 11," pointed out Preece.

"It made it an uphill struggle for the rest of the match but it was perhaps a good thing because we needed a kick up the backside. Up until that point we hadn't really started playing."

The manager's anger eventually subsided when Colin Cramb marked his last appearance of the season by scoring the winner at Kenilworth Road in injury time.

Preece gave his players four days off and the squad reports back at Gigg Lane today to begin preparing for the visit of Wycombe on Saturday, the final home match of the season.

"It is going to be a vital match for Wycombe but we won't be making it easy for them," added Preece.

Despite reaching the semi-finals of the FA Cup, Lawrie Sanchez's side need another win to guarantee safety which should make Saturday's Gigg Lane encounter a little more interesting.