HARRY REDKNAPP did not hide his disappointment at David Prutton's sending off - but now hopes his fiery midfielder can learn from Saturday's incident.

Prutton had already been cautioned eight times this season and it was his sixth dismissal of a 224-game career, which has also included some 50 bookings.

"He's got to learn that it ain't doing us no favours," said Redknapp.

"I could stand and defend him and say it was a shame. The first booking was his ninth of the season. You would think he would say to himself 'I can't afford to dive in, it's important I don't get sent-off here.'

"He could have gone for the first one, it was a horrendous tackle.

"If he had gone into a tackle and it was slightly mistimed and he had caught somebody, you could say it was unlucky.

"But (Robert) Pires is going backwards and he comes in and whacks him. There is just no sense in it.

"I couldn't believe the referee didn't send him off straight away. Without the linesman the referee wasn't going to send him off and I thought 'how is he going to get away with this?'

"I was sick with the tackle he had just done - it was a nonsense.

"He has got booked and we are playing well. We are at home, it's a massive game for us, the lads are working their socks off and he goes and jumps into another tackle."

Mathieu Flamini was on the receiving end of Prutton's first tackle and then Pires had to be stretchered off with an ankle injury that will rule him out for around ten days following the second challenge.

Prutton manhandled referee Alan Wiley as he tried to get towards linesman Paul Norman, although Redknapp said he did not clearly see that incident.

"Everyone in the country will see what he has done," he said.

"If he's done it, it's there for all to see and he will get done.

"I'm walking back to the bench shaking my head at what he had just done saying to Kevin (Bond) what a silly boy he had been.

"I turned round and Prutton was arguing. I don't know what he was arguing about, what did he have to argue about? I saw the tackles.

"It's not about kicking people up in the air late. We are in a relegation battle, it is about a game of football. Make your tackles fair and square, close people down."

Redknapp admitted Saints were lucky that Arsenal's Robin Van Persie was similarly indisciplined.

Van Persie had been lucky to stay on the pitch after his elbow collided with Rory Delap and he also left ref Wiley with no option by diving in dangerously on Graeme Le Saux.

Redknapp admitted Van Persie's dismissal had helped Saints rescue what had looked an impossible situation from being 1-0 and a player down.

He smiled: "Lucky enough they had a stupid player on their team as well. I think he thought 'We're one-nil up, why should we take the mick out of them, I'll get sent-off and make it a fair game!'

"Van Persie let us back in the game for sure. They would have used the extra man, the width and we would have been run ragged."