Times Sport
O'Shea: Reckless Huth only has himself to blame
11:39am Monday 6th February 2012
JOHN O'SHEA believes Robert Huth has only got himself to blame as he was sent off amid controversial circumstances in Stoke's 1-0 defeat to Sunderland.
Former Middlesbrough defender Huth saw red on the stroke of half-time for a full-blooded challenge on Black Cats midfielder David Meyler.
And while Tony Pulis accused the youngster of cheating referee Martin Atkinson into making the decision, O'Shea thought his dismissal was justified.
The Professional Game Match Officials board (PGMOL) last week sent information regarding the debate around reckless challenges in the wake of a spate of dismissals in recent weeks, while clubs were individually briefed on the clarification of the rules surrounding tackling, something which Huth, O'Shea believes, should have taken on board.
"In the current climate it's possible you're risking a red card when you go in recklessly,” Sunderland's captain said. “I said that to him at the time, some of the Stoke players were nodding in agreement, while some were disagreeing.
"I think you can understand that's the debate at the minute. It's a big topic, a lot of the referees are in the same agreement - if you go in a little bit recklessly you run the risk of a red card. It hasn't been ex-plained to us explicitly but you know yourself as a player you run the risk of a red card - some refs might, some refs won't. It's your own personal choice - if you want to run that risk, sometimes it goes against you.
"Some of the tackles in some of the games you see it given. From where I was standing it looked reckless but I haven't seen any replays.”
Potters manager Pulis was furious at the decision, and after watching the replay of the incident twice, spoke to the media where he accused Meyler of making a meal of the challenge.
Pulis said: “Robert's committed himself and pulled out of the challenge. He didn't touch the kid at all.
"I've been in the game and it's become more engrained in the game, the reaction of the player. It's something I think Gordon Taylor and the PFA should really get to grips with. The game is difficult enough for the referees because of the pace and the tempo that it's played. You get situations where players are fooling a ref and rolling around when they've not even been touched. Sometimes they are touched, but they're not really hurt.
"There's got to be something done about it. It's a game of challenges. We don;t want to get like other countries and take challenges out of the game.
“We want to be as competitive and as fair as we possibly can.
“It's creeping into the game where players are going down with the intention of getting other players booked or even sent off when they've not really been hurt.
“It's something we seriously, seriously have to look at. Referees are talking about all of this and all of that but for me when players are doing that, that's cheating another professional and they're all part of the same union. I find that a disease that we need to stamp out as soon as we can.”
Pulis' comments are not likely to go down well with Sunderland, who have eased Meyler back into action after two career-threatening knee injuries. Saturday saw the Ireland under-21's first start of the season after making an unsuccessful recovery at the end of Sunderland's last campaign.
When Pulis was informed that Meyler's reaction was that of a player who had been seriously injured in the past, the Stoke boss replied: “"Brilliant. But he's not been touched. If he's not been touched, he's not going to be injured.”
Pulis took the unusual step of emailing a still image of the challenge – which, peculiarly, does show contact from Huth despite Pulis' protestations to the contrary – to BBC's Match of the Day programme, while Meyler himself tweeted Match of the Day presenter Gary Lineker to say: “Please review it and show everyone he made contact!"
Pulis went on to say: "When I saw Robert initially go into the challenge, I thought that was reckless but actually if you look at the challenge his feet are on the ground, he pulls away from the challenge.
“He's made a mistake but he hasn't gone through, his momentum (has carried him), the foot that he leads with is scraping across the ground, so it's not even in the air. The lad plays the ball and moves out of the way, so there's not even contact. That's the disappointing thing.
"Players make decisions. If Robert's caught him I'd be the first to say that it's a reckless challenge. But what disappoints me is that he hasn't even caught him.
"If you're saying Robert's done it and the lad jumps up because he's not been tackled, then Robert's sent off for being reckless, then that's fine. But if the lad's rolling around, what's he rolling around for if he hasn't been touched? That's the point I'm making.”
Pulis intends to appeal the decision – but the main crux of his appeal, that Meyler was overreacting, will surely be weakened by the fact that Atkinson dismissed the German international without paying any regard to the reactions of either Meyler or his Sunderland teammates.
Mike Riley, head of referees for the PGMOL, said this week in a question and answer session with the Football Association: “We have worked hard with clubs for a long time. Before every season, a Premier League referee goes into each club accompanied one of my management team and they go through examples of yellow cards and red cards. But you get some very difficult decisions - ones that could go either way.
“The advice is to be mindful of your responsibilities towards your opponent and beware that if you commit to a tackle, at speed, with intensity, by and large with two feet off the ground, then you run the risk of being sent off.”