Former referee Keith Hackett took to Twitter to give his verdict on the controversial red card which Derby County defender Curtis Davies saw in a final day defeat at Sheffield Wednesday.
Derby County came into this game knowing they needed to better Peterborough’s result to make the playoffs.
In the 41st minute of the season’s final game, the referee pointed to the spot as Curtis Davies brought his man down to the ground.
And from there Michael Smith was on hand to put his side in front from the spot and break his former manager’s heart.
Hackett’s career.
Keith Hackett was a referee who was part of the Premier League’s inaugural season in 1992-93, beginning that season despite being above the retirement age for a referee. At the end of the 92/93 season, he was granted an extra year officiating once again, before he retired shortly before his 50th birthday in 1994.
In the 1990/91 season, Hackett was in charge of a league encounter between Manchester United and Arsenal. This game was infamous for the 21-man brawl that took place shortly after the hour mark. The incident was reviewed and following a three hour consultation with Hackett and his team of officials, Arsenal were deducted two points and Manchester United deducted one
Born in Sheffield, Hackett has been a Sheffield Wednesday fan since he was young, as he professes in his tweet. However, despite his allegiances in this game, he was quick to point out his belief that the referee made an error in sending Davies off.
Derby’s season.
Paul Warne and his Rams can feel hard done by for this one, however, they had plenty of chances to cement their place in the playoffs before this game and could have done so as the teams around them also struggled. With the scores at 0-0, forward David McGoldrick fail to take four chances before the penalty was awarded. And once this was over, the chances dried up for the side.
Their failure to take their chances on the day only summarises their season, many will be disappointed with another season in League One, but they only just fell short and it is not entirely damning for the club to spend a second season in the third division.
The incident.
Victory would have guaranteed a playoff place for the Rams, but they struggled to take their chances. Despite Peterborough being 2-0 up at Oakwell against Barnsley, an equaliser would have still been enough to see the Rams into the playoffs on goal difference.
Five minutes from the break though disaster struck for Paul Warne’s men. A poor backpass to his goalkeeper and a rushed clearance by Joe Wildsmith saw Curtis Davies desperate to make amends.
The skipper was dismissed as he tugged Marvin Johnson to the ground and Michael Smith put the penalty away to give the Owls a 1-0 lead going into the break.
What’s been said?
Despite being a Sheffield Wednesday fan for many years, Hackett took to Twitter to issue his verdict on the decision by referee Leigh Doughty, stating he felt the official was wrong to show the Derby County skipper red for the challenge.
“I have supported the Owls since a kid. Sorry Ref you made a major error with the red card for Derby County. Take a look and Derby had a covering defender. Football is a contact sport and the Wednesday player went to ground so easily.”
As can be seen from the tweet, the penalty is not the incident in question as the challenge was a poor one. However, many are questioning whether Davies was denying a goal-scoring opportunity for the opposition with defenders still around him.
Writers View.
A very questionable red card in this one as the attacker does go to ground very easily. Nevertheless, the referee is right to award the penalty, but the red card is extremely harsh in this situation and I for one have to agree that it is not the correct call.
It would be interesting to see if the former PGMOL head Hackett gets some kind of response for this one, or if it will even spark any discussion about the decisions we have seen from EFL referees this season.
