TONY PULIS has urged Championship referees to provide Adama Traore with more protection after the Middlesbrough winger was subjected to a succession of fouls in Saturday’s 1-1 draw at Brentford.

Traore scored Boro’s first-half goal at Griffin Park, but his effectiveness was blunted by Brentford’s crude defensive tactics, which saw the home side’s players look to chop down the Spaniard as soon as he received possession.

Referee Simon Hooper issued four yellow cards to Brentford players, and also dismissed Romaine Sawyers for two bookable offences, with all bar one of the decisions relating to fouls on Traore.

However, he also let a lot of questionable challenges go, and while Sawyers was sent off for two fouls in the space of three minutes, Pulis feels Traore is still not getting the level of protection he deserves.

To his credit, the 22-year-old winger refused to retaliate despite being targeted for so many bad challenges, but his manager thinks things are starting to get out of hand.

“The referees have got to understand and recognise what’s happening,” said Pulis. “Every time he’s getting in motion, people are bringing him down. They had three booked here, just stopping him at source. The referees have got to protect the boy. He’s a special talent, and he’s got to be protected.

“They’re not letting him get in motion. He’s starting his movements off, and they’ve got one or two players who are just prepared to bring him down. If they’re prepared to do that, then they have to be punished for it.”

Saturday’s game was hardly the first this season that has seen opposition sides target Traore for special attention.

Opponents are regularly doubling up on the winger, who has scored five goals in his last ten matches, and are clearly fearful of his dribbling ability once he gets the ball under control.

Traore made a series of effective breaks at the weekend, especially in the first half of the game, but there were other times when he was literally hauled to the floor before he had an opportunity to outsprint his marker.

Brentford manager Dean Smith admits he spent plenty of last week pondering how to deal with Traore’s attacking threat, having watched a series of clips of the former Barcelona trainee in action.

However, the Bees boss does not believe his players over-stepped the mark, and instead argued that Sawyers was only dismissed because of the reaction of members of the Middlesbrough side.

Having already been booked, the Brentford substitute checked Traore’s run close to the halfway line, although it could be argued that he was unable to get out of the way such was the speed at which his opponent changed direction.

With Traore on the floor, three Boro players immediately sprinted over to Hooper, and Smith was clearly unhappy at what he perceived as a blatant attempt to influence the official.

“I could probably send five clips of Middlesbrough players making similar challenges that don’t get booked,” said Smith. “What pains us on the sidelines is that he (Hooper) doesn’t make the decision straight away, gets surrounded by players, and then pulls the card out.

“The authorities told us we can’t do it, but it still goes on. If more than three players surround the referee then there’s meant to be fines, so maybe that’s something the FA should look into.”

With Sawyers seeing red in the first minute of stoppage time, Boro were unable to make their extra man count despite the late efforts of Grant Leadbitter, who floated in a deft chip that Daniel Bentley did well to tip over the crossbar.

The Teessiders were not at their best as they saw their three-game winning run come to an end, but their willingness to scrap and battle for a point means they have now not lost in the last six games.

That is an impressive sequence at such a crucial stage of the season, and while Pulis was disappointed with elements of his side’s play on Saturday, he could not fault his players’ application or effort.

“I didn’t think we were at our best, and I didn’t think we played as well as we can,” said the Boro boss. “Having taken the lead, you would have hoped that we would have moved on from there, but you have to give Brentford credit.

“It’s a tough place to come and they’ve got a decent side. We’ve ended up grinding out a 1-1. At the end, you were thinking we might even nick it, but I’m pleased with the point and pleased we’ve kept the run going.

“They’ve got one of the best home records in the league. They’re bright, they’ve got good movement and I thought we restricted them well. They didn’t have too many clear-cut chances. They had shots from the edge of the box that Darren (Randolph) dealt with quite comfortably. We’re disappointed because we didn’t really commit ourselves forward as well as we can.”

Boro now have a fortnight break because of the international hiatus before they return to action with a televised home game against league leaders Wolves on Good Friday.

That sparks a run of three games in the space of eight days, with the Teessiders also due to travel to Burton Albion on Easter Monday before hosting Aitor Karanka’s Nottingham Forest the following Saturday.

While a number of managers have opted to take their players away for an overseas training break, Pulis will not be leaving Teesside in the next two weeks.

He will be granting his squad some additional time off, but will be mixing the down time with a series of intensive strength and conditioning sessions.

“They’ll have a couple of days off, then they’ll be in for three days, then have another couple of days off after that,” he said.  “They’ll work quite hard.

“We’ve got a decent strength and conditioning programme worked out, and a few other entertaining things for them on the pitch. They won’t be off for too long, then they’ll be back in again and we’ll get ready for Wolves.”