The sending off…………some thoughts

Regarding the sending off for Jordan Richards, and Colin Cooper’s remarks.

Firstly, I was not at the match and have only seen the highlights on BBC1 Football League Show, Saturday night (our game is at the 1hr and 10mins into the programme).

From what you see on the highlights, I don’t think the referee had much choice but to send him off. It looked a clumsy tackle at best.
I think the tackle showed the naivety of a young player, the tackle was made on the touchline with absolutely no possible danger of the Fleetwood player/team of being in any position to score a goal. So why make such a reckless tackle in what was a ‘no danger’ area on the pitch. Let’s hope the three match ban allows Richards time to look at his actions and hopefully, learn from it.

For Colin Cooper to come out and say he thought the sending off was a harsh decision so early in the game. Well he would, wouldn’t he. Had it been one of his players catapulted through the air in the same manner, I suspect Mr Cooper would have expected a sending off. That’s the ‘professional’ game today.

He also said he felt the referee reacted to the crowds reaction. Well, have a look at the footage on the BBC. The crowd sat in the stands immediately where the incident took place, hardly reacted to a man. They look half asleep. The Fleetwood players, well at least six of them do go over to remonstrate, but not very vociferously, in my opinion. It was more noticeable that none of them were bothered about Jeff Hughes laid prone on the floor, well not at least until the referee had drawn the red card.

In fairness to Colin Cooper, he did review footage after the game and agreed the referee was correct in his decision, and fair play to him for that.
I won’t comment on the substitutions, as I have not attended any games this season, as I lapsed my season ticket after last seasons dire efforts.
Let’s hope its lessons learned all round, and we pick ourselves up and move on in a positive winning manner, starting with York C on Saturday.