St Mirren’s Alan Power received a red card for his aggressive tackle on David Turnbull last weekend. The Buddies Irish midfielder flew into the challenge and, with studs on show, went over the top of the ball before connecting with Turnbull’s ankle. Fortunately, the Celtic player avoided injury but it was certainly a shocking challenge that has no place in the game.
Despite the nature of the tackle, not all pundits in Scotland seemed convinced that a red card was necessary. Indeed, Michael Stewart was among those suggesting that Power could have escaped with a booking. However, former English Premier League whistler Keith Hackett told Football Insider that he absolutely agrees with the decision made by Willie Collum.
Red card all day long. St Mirren down to 10 men pic.twitter.com/W6Wh9OnE3M
— Michael McCahill 🍀 (@MickMcCahill) August 21, 2021
Watching the footage back, Hackett said: “Oh dear, that is a clear red card challenge. It’s serious foul play. The referee is in a brilliant position to make the correct decision. Well done the referee.
“If a player comes in with both feet or one foot off the ground he’s out of control. If he’s showing the studs the ball cannot be used as an excuse. Even if he took the ball and man it’s a red card.
“The referee’s given the red card and I am 100% supporting the referee. The player’s ignored the ball and fulfilled the requirements of serious foul play.”
Scotland is surely one of the few places left where such a punishment for that type of tackle is even debated!
As blatant a red card as you’ll ever see
That’s usually a retrospective red card in Celtic games. Never during the game though.
Power did the same to Frimpong. The media defended Power then too. They said it was hard but fair- he won the ball. He did not win the ball. If you advance frame by frame (ye ha for TiVo) you can see a foot with yellow socks play the ball, Frimpongs foot. Power fully expected to get away with that. He made a conscious decision to injure Turnbull fully expecting to get away with it….again.