I seem to remember it was a harsh decision as well. Looking at the replay we were within our rights to appeal. It wasnt a definite red card was it? I wasnt expecting the decision to be overturned but to get an ban extension? I was shocked at the time.
I remember the Turner incident with Gareth Barry, a player with a long history of fooling referees, really fooled that one, he was called Andrew Marriner, I'll say no more.
Amazing what we remember isn’t it!! Barry and Turner jumped for a ball. Turner was about 2 foot above Barry. barry bumped into turners arm and threw himself to the ground writhing. The ref gestured “elbow” which he sent him off for. Then, after the match, and after having chance to be vilified fir the red by the press (soccer Saturday etc) and then watching it back, I reckon he knew it’d be overturned if it was fir the elbow, so he changed it to “using excessive force”. A term which it is almost impossible to disprove. I said this at the time too. It should’ve been reported at the time of the incident and recorded as a reason, but a refs report isn’t (wasn’t at least) written until well after the match and after he had chance to review it!
