Coventry City boss Frank Lampard at Portman Road
There’s no use crying over spilled milk, we’re told, and it makes even less sense to grieve over dodgy decisions in a football match which has already been consigned to the record books.
But the more you rewatch the highlights of Coventry City’s 3-0 defeat at Ipswich on Saturday, the harder it is to explain, let alone excuse, referee Paul Tierney’s game-changing inconsistency.
The sequence of interlocked developments, you’ll recall was …
There didn’t seem any difference in the degree of “dissent by action” or “delaying the restart” displayed by the two players (those being the alternate grounds on which they can be penalised) and, if anything, Hirst seemed to have a fraction longer to ponder the potential consequences and put the lid on his frustration.
But instead of Hirst seeing red – thus giving City an hour to break the 0-0 deadlock against ten men – he stayed on the field to hit the second goal in the home side’s ultimately emphatic 3-0 decision. Cue Sky Blue outrage!
Referees aren’t require to justify their decisions, of course, so we can only guess at Tierney’s rationale, but the one thing which every player, manager and fan demands is consistency. And this was clearly anything but…
Even more depressing though, take another look at the replays and note that Tierney seemed all set to ignore Eccles’s indiscretion (he had that option – it’s not an automatic card) until three or four Ipswich players scuttled towards him, arms spread wide, demanding retribution.
Technically speaking, they could themselves have been booked for ‘unsporting behaviour’ as could the City players who subsequently surrounded the official to protest over Hirst being let off the hook. But they, at least, were merely demanding parity whereas the Tractor Boys were unashamedly trying to sneak an unearned early advantage by squealing to the cops.
Now another old phrase assures us that there’s no honour among thieves – but how thoroughly depressing that your modern player has abandoned any pretence of professional courtesy and decided that all’s fair in love, war and football!
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