Michael Skubala admitted he was ‘shocked’ at the FA’s decision not to rescind the red card shown to Joe Gardner against Cambridge United over the weekend.
The Nottingham Forest loanee was dismissed just four minutes into his debut for a tackle that, at first glance, looked shocking. However, replays have since shown him not to be high, and the player he caught to have also leapt into the challenge.
The reaction from the Cambridge bench certainly helped influence referee Steven Copeland, taking charge of his first League One encounter. With eight reds in 18 matches, the fledgling offical does have something of a reputation for sending players off.
The club appealed the decision, the first appeal I can remember under Michael Skubala, but the decision was upheld, something that has surprised the head coach.
“Shocked, really,” Michael told Rob Makepeace in his pre-match press conference. “For me, it is what it is. I feel for young Joe because three minutes into his game, it feels a little unjust. But we’ve got to take it on the chin and move on. Luckily, there’s a game every few days, with three in a week, so he’ll be back at it the following Saturday or Tuesday, back in training. It’s disappointing, but we are where we are.”
It isn’t unusual for an appeal to be turned down – however, we have also been successful with Brooke Norton-Cuffy one of our last appeals to be upheld.
Michael was reticent to discuss the process the FA undertakes, just confirming that they have a process to follow, which they have followed.
“I don’t want to get into too much detail, but it’s mostly about the process and the reasons for the sending off. “Late and high” was the reason given, but when you watch the replay, it looks a little late but not high at all. It’s more about following the process.
“It’s a difficult situation, and more than anything, I feel for him. He wanted to get going here, came on, had a couple of good runs, and was just trying to get minutes to settle in. This has stuttered his start, really. But we move on. The lads have rallied around him brilliantly, and the dressing room was so upset coming off the pitch. We just have to get back to what we do and not dwell on it moving forward.”
Copeland has shown eight red cards now, and three of those have gone to appeal. Yeovil felt aggrieved enough to appeal Morgan Williams’s red card earlier in the season and appeal the FA rejected. In November, Copeland showed a second yellow card to Alan Massey of Maidenhead, when it should have gone to another player, Will de Havilland.
Typical FA, unbelievable that this wasn’t overturned.