Joey Barton: “Everyone knows I have anger issues and on the pitch people are going to test my temperament.
“I realise that. But people ask me, “Have you not changed?” and I say, “No, this is me, I have this aggression in me and I’m trying to handle it. I’m not a changed man because it’s who I am. It’s something inside me, a natural instinct that makes me stand and fight. I just continue to work at it.
“I’ll always be fighting to curb it and it’s a battle for me. I have these anger issues but I know that when it turns to rage, like it did against Blackburn, it is not acceptable.
“It was a moment of stupidity from me. I shouldn’t have reacted like that even if I was slightly provoked. I can’t condone it and I deserve a ban. I am human but I have I made a mistake I regret.
“When it happened I was thinking, ‘Oh for f**k’s sake. I can’t believe I’ve done that.
“When I realised the referee hadn’t seen it, I tried to convince him I’d just shoved Pedersen.
“Anyone would because you know you could be in trouble, and for the sake of your team you don’t want to get sent off.
“But at the training ground this morning I watched it with all the lads on television. I just turned to them and said, ‘That’s me out for three games’. I was obviously sorry.
“Footballers are role models and I have always recognised that.
“But I’m not even a role model to myself. Drink was a big problem for me.
“That was one of the reasons I ended up in prison, and I can see more clearly now that I have abstained from it.”