There was confusion around Swansea City left-back Josh Tymon yesterday, as the Swans flew away with three points from Sincil Bank.
City led 1-0 at the break from Reeco Hackett’s penalty, but the moments leading up to it have caused some confusion. Josh Tymon felled Freddie Draper, and while there is some ambiguity around it actually being a foul, the moments after have become quite controversial.
In the arguments immediately after that moment, it seemed as though Tymon was given a yellow card. Every person I have spoken to thinks they saw a card. Even if it wasn’t him, it did appear someone was shown a yellow. However, the BBC website doesn’t show a caution for any player, nor do FotMob or Wyscout.
This could just be a case of me getting things wrong: I said immediately after the game I didn’t see Vitor Matos shake Chris or Tom’s hand, but I was wrong; I hold my hands up. However, I am not the only one who thought Tymon was on a yellow.
In the second half, he committed a bookable offence on Conor McGrandles. It’s a sure-fire yellow, as sure-fire as you’ll ever see, and referee Anthony Backhouse puts his hand in his pocket as he walks over. He appears to see it is Tymon, and he removes his hand, cardless, and awards the free kick.
In the stadium, everyone felt it was a second yellow, including Lincoln City head coach Tom Shaw, who I spoke to after the game.
“A few decisions were a bit tough to take on the whole,” he said in the post match press conference.
“Just the main one was the second yellow for their left-back. Didn’t quite understand how he went to give it and then didn’t. So we’re just asking why. But yeah, it is what it is.”
It would now seem that there wasn’t a second yellow to give, because the first wasn’t given. Everyone in the stadium feels they saw a card, and yet no official sites have recorded one. Josh Tymon committed two fouls worth a booking, and has seemingly come away cardless.
The big questions are these. Did he give Josh Tymon a card in the first half? If he didn’t, then why on earth did he not give one for the challenge on McGrandles, which was so late that the ball was ten feet away when he arrived? If he did book Tymon, and he then went to book him again but realised, where in the laws does it say a player on a booking is to be treated more leniently than a player not on a booking?
Overall, the referee had a very poor game for both sides. He booked Ben House after six minutes for a challenge which was barely a foul, but let a similar offence go ten minutes later for the opposition. He overturned a throw-in and a goal kick in our favour, the second of which seemed really harsh: why would Swansea be time-wasting at 0-0 in the first period? Why was he so keen to overturn their goal kick, when later in the game, he didn’t start counting until much later?
He also gave us a penalty, which some think is weak. I think it’s probably just about a penalty, and I have benefited from seeing it again, when in real time it looked stonewall, but he then denied us a much clearer penalty for handball in the second half. Perhaps fearful the first one wasn’t right?
It was a really poor performance from the official, and honestly, while people will say ‘that’s not why we lost the game,’ it was clear from minute six onwards that this was to be all about him, and so it proved.
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