MICHAEL STEWART has unequivocally told Stephen Robinson he is wrong if he believes his player should NOT have been sent off against Celtic on Sunday.
The bhoys were 2-0 up at the time when Devante Cole lunged in on Jeremie Frimpong, catching him high up the leg and burying his studs into the player’s thigh.
It was as a certain red card, but to everyone’s astonishment, Andrew Dallas only branded a yellow card for the incident.
Stewart was far from amused by Motherwell manager trying to play down the incident. Even if it is one of your own players, you should be able to admit it was a bad challenge and something which could keep Jeremie Frimong out of action for some time.
The BBC pundit wasn’t having any of it when discussion around the challenge came up.
“No, there’s no chance, it was a red card all day long. The ball never moves off the line; it’s not as if Devante Cole is going for the ball and it moves.” Michael Stewart told BBC Sportscene on Sunday evening.
“He just goes straight into Frimpong, that is a red card all day long. I think Stephen Robinson’s being… I don’t see how you can look at that from Stephen Robinson’s perspective [and say it’s not a red].”
Sitting next to Stewart was Marvin Bartley, who was none to impressed by the challenge either and also agreed it warranted stronger action:
“Frimpong’s obviously going to have a scan on it and see the extent of the damage but, as Mikey’s saying, it’s a red card.
“I know Stephen Robinson is trying to protect his player, but there’s an action as well. I don’t get the studding action. It’s so high, and it’s far too dangerous to be doing that.”
Celtic won the game 4-1 but there was a shaky few moments when Motherwell got back into the game with 11 men on the pitch, making it 2-1. Devante should have walked at the time and it’s absurd to suggest a yellow sufficed.
