Bristol City chief’s comments highlight hypocrisy amid optimistic Rob Dickie appeal for Sheffield United clash..
Bristol City chief’s comments highlight hypocrisy amid optimistic Rob Dickie appeal for Sheffield United clash
Bristol City have optimistically appealed the red card shown to Rob Dickie in Thursday night’s 3-0 play-off defeat to Sheffield United – despite one of their top figures admitting that they’d want exactly the same punishment in the opposite scenario. Dickie was dismissed after cynically pulling back United striker Kieffer Moore as he prepared to shoot on goal.
City boss Liam Manning was raging about the decision afterwards despite most of the footballing world seeing that it was a nailed-on red card, with Dickie making no attempt to play the ball as he dragged back Moore and only managing to get a touch on it after he had fouled the Welsh international striker.
City’s appeal looks optimistic at best as they look to overturn a three-goal deficit at Bramall Lane on Monday evening, where they will be without the defender if they fail to get referee Oliver Langford’s decision overturned. Former FIFA referee Keith Hackett backed Langford’s decision as the correct one over the weekend and the smart money is on the FA agreeing it with it, too.
“We will be appealing the Rob Dickie red card, and we’ll need a pretty quick answer to that if he’s going to play on Monday,” Robins chief operating officer Tom Rawcliffe said recently on the 3 Peaps in a Podcast after defeat at Ashton Gate. “We’ll do all we can to overturn that.
“We might not get there – there are two schools of that as there tends to be – but we’d like to have him available for Monday if possible. Whichever way we dress it up, it’s cruel, isn’t it? It’s now the focal point of what we’re going to talk about, the sending off, and we’ve worked so hard this season to get to that point.
“We’re going to appeal it but the referee’s decision on the pitch is final, so we knew we had to go in with 10 men. It’s particularly cruel to then have to compete against a team who are well backed, with a strong squad. I thought we played well until that point, we were well in the game.
“But if any time just before half-time we concede a goal, or any team concedes a goal, it absolutely changes your team talk. Not only have we had to lose a goal from the resulting penalty which they scored, but we’ve then got to reorganise in that 15-minute period. That’s a lot of work to do against a team who are very strong and very well organised themselves.”
Rawcliffe then rather undermined his side’s decision to appeal after admitting that his side would want the very same outcome of a red card had the incident happened at the other end of the pitch. “In real time, I could see the penalty coming,” Rawcliffe added.
“The red card, I wasn’t so sure with the double jeopardy rule. But Rob gets a touch on the ball, doesn’t he? So he has made an attempt to play the ball. We’re biased, of course. We’d want a red card, I think, if it was down the other end of the pitch, but it’s not what we wanted to be talking about today.”
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