For those getting fed up of the negativity from me towards FGR, this article signals the beginning of an amnesty. You may recall me offering a similar truce for you-know-who from Mansfield Town a few weeks ago. I don’t want to be a bitter and twisted site concentrating solely on our opponents.
However, the Bradley Collins incident has been bothering me somewhat. Our players might be a lot of things, aggressive, robust and tall (which apparently is a crime these days), but they are not liars. They do not fabricate stories about being spat on. It pains me that I wrote an article earlier without having seen the incident, because I could not conclusively say I knew what had happened. Now I can.
I can’t put the video I’ve seen on here I’m afraid, because it has come from iFollow footage and it is illegal for me to post snippets of that video footage. I have permission from the club to use the photos Bubs provides for me, and I’m not about to go breaking my relationship to show a video clip sent to me from abroad. Someone from overseas has identified the incident, and having seen it I’m inclined to feel they’ve found the exact moment Collins spits at Raggs.
Towards the end of the game, Forest Green got a corner, and Collins came up for it. He was entitled to do that, after all the other ten home players hadn’t really sniffed goal so he had nothing to lose. Raggs had the job of marking him, and if I’m being brutally honest he did it rather robustly. The pink shirt of Collins almost became property of Sean Raggett as the ball came over, and the two had a little tussle as the ball passed them by. It was one of those incidents we see every week, usually a defender pulling at Rhead’s shirt, but in this instance it was our lad pulling their shirts. We’re not perfect, we match fire with fire when we need to.
As it is headed clear, Collins pirouettes under close supervision from Raggs, and as he completes his 360 degree turn it looks very much to me as though he spits in our defenders direction. There is definitely a forward movement towards Sean, a sharp jolt of the head consistent with spitting. There’s no time for Raggs to remonstrate at the time though, the ball has come out to the left flank and is about to be lumped back into the area, as was the FGR approach for much of the game. Collins slopes off, doubtless thinking he’s got away with his vile act, leaving us to defend yet another long ball.
Moments later the final whistle went, and the rest is history. I’ve seen this footage with my own eyes, and although I have no confirmation that is the footage the FA have been given, I dare bet it is. It would explain why it kicked off at the end, because Sean Raggett had only just been spat on. If it had been at any other point in the game, why wait until the 90th minute to take offence? It can’t have happened after the final whistle either, because Raggs was already furious.
The footage I’ve seen isn’t crystal clear, and the one thing that you can’t make out clearly is the movement of phlegm from Collins to Raggett, but at the distance it is filmed at you can’t make out the players features. There is definitely head movement that is wholly consistent with spitting, there is enough of a reaction to suggest something has happened, but I can see how potentially the FA would need to dig deeper.
Clearly that hasn’t happened, nobody has been interviewed in the last 24 hours I’m sure, they’ve looked at the footage and made a judgement call just like I have. The different is that I am a guy with a computer and an axe to grind, and they are the governing body of the oldest football league in the world, a beacon that should make every effort to uphold integrity and fair play throughout the game.
As far as I’m concerned, Bradley Collins spat at Sean Raggett. It’s there in the video, not in high-definition or slow-mo replay, but it’s there. It’s just a pity the FA aren’t a little more thorough with their investigation. Mind you, it took them six months to decide a fat guy had eaten a pie watched by millions, so they’re never going to take on a iFollow clip watched by a few ex-pats and exiled Imps fans, are they?