Ricster said:
The sending off is a talking point for me.
There was no way that Chamakh was getting to the ball, so was it actually a goalscoring opportunity? Thats the question i keep asking myself.
The rule states, if your last man and deliberately deny a goalscoring opportunity you will recieve a red card.
Halleluja! so there is somebody else able to see past the bullshit spouted by all the pundits who don't ever try to find any evidence to support our cause.
If this had been against the rags, the media would have trawled the archives in search of any excuse or reason to example without any doubt, the sending off was an incorrect decision (as it certainly was). But this is City, and as usual they just covered up the refs failing and swept it quickly under the carpet.
The rule states quite clearly that for a red card to be shown, it HAS to be a goalscoring opportunity, and as Chamakh's touch on the ball was too heavy for him to get to the ball, this decision was totally incorrect.
I know some will look at situations when penalties are given after similar heavy touches and where there was no chance of the striker getting to the ball, but that is a different situation, and the penalty is awarded not because there was any scoring opportunity, but simply because the challenge is deemed a foul.
Dedricks challenge was a foul, it was misstimed, but by only a fraction of a second, and could never be construed as Mallicious, Dangerous or synical. He clearly made an effort to take the ball, and if Chamakh hadn't seen the challenge coming and as a result drawn the foul by playing it more quickly and heavily than he would have liked, and as a result giving him no chance of getting to the ball before Hart, Dedrick would have got some of the ball, as was his intent.
So open your eyes, look at the letter of the law, and then tell me this fucking excuse of a ref deserves any appology, well not in my mind, he's a twat of the highest order and interpeted the major decision in this game wrongly.
CNUT.