Huddersfield Town's Adam Clayton accused Derby players of influencing the sendings off of his Town teammates Joel Lynch and Peter Clarke at Pride Park.
The midfielder questioned both of Peterborough referee Darren Deadman’s red cards.
Both were shown for second bookable offences, in Lynch’s case, time-wasting then a high tackle and in Clarke’s, two fouls, the second of which brought Derby the penalty from which they went 3-1 up.
“We started the game well but the referee had too much of an impact,” claimed Clayton.
“I don’t know how much you can say about referees these days, but it wasn’t the best performance for him.
“Just because Derby are going for promotion doesn’t mean we have to run for every throw-in and free-kick.
“We have our own things to do but the referee was influenced by their players and that is what got Lynchy the first booking.
“His second was definitely a yellow card but Peter Clarke was nowhere near Will Hughes.
“With 11 men, we would have got something out of the game.”
Meanwhile Derby defender Craig Forsyth believes Town will still be in the Championship next season.
“They have had a few bad results recently,” said the left-back, whose cross led to the own goal by keeper Alex Smithies which put the home team 2-1 ahead.
“The red cards affected the game.
“They took the lead and had something to hang on to.
“For us it was all about getting back on level terms as quickly as possible, and we managed that before the first red card.
“But they have good players at Huddersfield and they showed belief and confidence despite the run they’re on.
“I definitely think they have enough to stay up.”
Derby boss Steve McClaren said: “We had to come from behind and I am pleased at the way we did that.
“We exerted plenty of pressure and our equaliser was a fine goal to get the ball rolling.
“You won’t see a better pass and finish than that and credit goes to George Thorne and Johnny Russell.
“We got a slice of luck, which we probably deserved for our pressure, to go 2-1 up with Craig Forsyth’s cross and then the penalty just rounded things off nicely for us.”
Derby County 3 Huddersfield Town 1: Doug Thomson's match analysis - click here to read
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