Technically a red. Like every corner taken is technically about 5 separate penalties for obstruction and shirt pulling. **** of a referee. The Palace player never batted an eyelid and didn't seem bothered. Stupid, stupid decision with the game almost over.
He shoved the Palace player off him after he clattered into him with his studs. Hardly any aggression and just the usual scuffle. I really hope we are appealing that? I can now understand why the Long penalty was waved away but I still think it should have been given.
Aimed a sly token kick at the Palace player like Beckham V Argentina 98. FIFA love this technical poncy infringement rule and ignore lots of other cheating, conning, diving etc all over the pitch.
Most refs now would have blown for 'dangerous play' for the lunged challenge on Elmo before O'Keefe got back up and went to foul McGregor. It was the poor officiating by not protecting our players which led to the sending off. Yeah McGregor was a fool for swinging a boot in his direction, though to say it was a red card is baffling. Look at O'Keefe's foul on McGregor - he tried to rake his boot down McGregor's shin with quite a lot of force, similar to what Dossena got sent off for Sunderland doing at the KC. O'Keefe's challenge was much worse than anything McGregor did.
It was in no way a red but an appeal wouldn't get it rescinded, I don't know how anyone can think that wasn't a penalty. Once the striker has got across and infront of you, it has to be.
He basically wriggled his body under O'Keeffe, if there was a perceived kick in there I'm not sure you can consider it much intent, it just looked like he was trying to throw the bloke off him to get back into goal.
O'Keeffe went over the ball - it was either a red each or a yellow each. If Long had been Suarez (or any player from a top 6 side) a penalty would have been awarded
Agree totally that the foul on Elmo before the ball got near macgreagor should have been given. Saw the extended highlights and was disappointed with the quality of reffong. The game is in our hands to win but a decent standard of official is a must in the epl. I do believe the FA should be auditing their officials more thoroughly and publishing the results in some way so action is taken to maintain a high standard. As it is it is a lottery and not good enough.
It was a red card, you can't kick out regardless of how frustrated your are or how weak the kick is. You can't blame the referee, McGregor is an experienced professional and should have known better, especially when the game was pretty much over.
You can blame the ref for not acting to stop the persistent fouling of McGregor that led up to him lashing out. He should have known better, but he was provoked and a decent ref would have acted earlier to prevent it coming to that. It was soft, but it was a red, it would never be rescinded.
Mcgregor has a a short fuse, he was sick of the palace players getting wide and the ref doing nothing to stop it, it didn't happen once twice or thrice.... he waa gutted though, he is a fiery passionate player and that's what boiled over, he cares Harper is a good replacement for the 3 games though, and he will play like superman against the mackrels
The ref was **** and should never be allowed to officiate another City match again, missed two penalty and poor red
Remy is appealing his sending off, as is Bradley Johnson. I don't think McGregor's was any more 'dangerous' than Remy and Johnson... so does make you wonder.
He lost his cool though and it cost us the almost non-existent chance we had to get anything from the game. It is the sort of situation we are in now - season going like a horse off a cliff - that calls for players who have a bit of passion and a winner's mentality, rather than a desire to pick up the biggest paycheck they can, so in a way it was good to see it, but really someone should have had a word. Thank god we have Harper and just pray we never need to use Jakopovic.
