Crystal Palace skipper Luka Milivojevic has vowed to keep his temper in check if matters boil over on the pitch.
Milivojevic was given his marching orders after clashing with Derby’s Tom Huddlestone in Palace’s third-round FA Cup defeat last month.
Though Huddlestone provoked Milivojevic, the Serbian international was punished with a three-game ban and missed important matches for his side.
But the 28-year-old says he has learned his lesson and has vowed not to let down his teammates again.
“You know, it’s my first red card in my career for this kind of situation,” he said to the Palace programme. I will not try to get some excuses about what I did. But to be honest, I lost my head. I lost my head.
“A lot of games, a lot of pressure – I was tired as well: mentally and physically. In one situation I got provoked, when I tried to stand up the guy pushed me twice.
“What can I say? OK, it’s a cliche – but you must learn from your mistakes. Much better to learn on other people’s mistakes than yours, but it happened – I must change it, because it never happened to me to be honest.”
He added: “I didn’t solve it in the way I should. You have to learn on your mistakes, try to never repeat again – you don’t leave your team a man down.
“I lose a lot from this red card as a person, I know that. But the other players can learn from my mistake too. I let the players down, which is something you cannot do. But it happened, but I cannot now judge myself. But I will try to never repeat again and to be honest, to keep my focus.”