Buxton wait on appeal against Brad Roscoe's third red card of the season

Roscoe was shown a straight red for a shove on ex-Buck Alex Byrne which left them short-handed for almost an hour and made the 2-1 win at Gainsborough Trinity even more impressive for Buxton’s third win in a row this month.

Byrne drew Roscoe into the retaliation with two pushes with the ball out of play and Roscoe responded with a two-handed shove that saw him dismissed.

“I feel sorry for the boy as he has been punished twice already this year,” said joint manager Steve Halford.

“The first one was a bad decision – he was naïve and will learn from it.

“The second one was a red card, but on Saturday, to be fair, the kid has played a game on him.

“He is only 21 and if the boy wants to progress he has got to learn by it when people try to sucker him into stupid things like that.

“He has got a decent future. He wants to learn and wants to listen. He travels a long way to come and play for this club.

“For me it was a bit of handbags. But nowadays you can’t do anything.

“We will deal with it. The problem will be bringing someone in to replace him depending on the length of the ban if we don’t win the appeal.”

With a busy Festive period ahead, Buxton are still trying to bolster their squad with Greg Young and Ant Wilson leaving for Frickley followed out the door by Tolani Omotola and James Handley.

“We had a defender training with us last night, but we don’t want to name names,” said Halford.

“We put seven days in for a centre half but that one hasn’t materialised. The lad has decided to stay with his club.

“So we are now looking at possibly taking a lad on loan.

“We have only conceded one goal in three games so to bring in another defender is harsh. But what we don’t want to do is get caught short over the busy Festive period when there are so many points to play for.

“We have had a conversation with the chairman and we had someone train with us last night.”

He added: “We are probably looking to extend John Pritchard’s loan from Chester. He has come in and done okay. We have competition for places.

“The big thing for me now is we have key people back from injuries. The only person that’s struggling is Diego (De Girolamo). He will be another two weeks or so.

“We are always looking to bring in better quality players if people become available, but we won’t bring in people for the sake of it.”

After the win at fifth-placed Gainsborough, Buxton, sitting in eighth place, now travel to a Warrington side in fourth position and five points ahead of them.

“Our game at Gainsborough on Saturday was a six-pointer for them,” said Halford.

“But we won it and we’ve sort of dragged six points back off them now.

“The Warrington game will be exactly the same – it will be very hard.

“I know the manager there – I played with him – and it will be a physical battle.

“But at this time of year teams under Paul and myself seem to do okay. We seem to know how to scrap and battle for everything and that won’t change.”

He added: “Momentum is key in football and I have said to the lads that over this Christmas period there are so many points to play for.

“We can either climb the table or drop down. At the end of the day it’s about self-discipline.

“The lads are part-time footballers with jobs and lives outside of here. But they also have a responsibility of care to look after themselves.

“I know not every lad in non-League football will look after themselves over the Christmas period. I know that for a fact.

“The lads know, if they want to do anything, they have to be disciplined and they will gain it back somewhere along the line.

“Within the space of a week or so we could be nine points higher or you could be nine points lower – it’s massive.”