Being harshly treated?
That appeared to be the view of former Premier League referee Dermot Gallagher as he gave his verdict on the controversial decision to send off Blades defender John Egan during Monday night’s clash with Aston Villa.
Egan was sent off for a tussle with Villa forward Ollie Watkins, and according to Gallagher, Egan can feel rather aggrieved to have been given his marching orders, and that on another day things could have gone in our favour, and that . He gave his opinion to Sky Sports during their ‘ref watch’ segment:
“I think Egan is unlucky. On another day it could have been a free-kick either way on the halfway line. In a subjective decision like this, there’s an element of doubt in terms of how people react because the parameters are so small; on that basis, Mike Dean went with the on field decision.”
Are you a fan of VAR?
Yes
No
So it looks like Egan was just a victim of bad timing from Dean on that occasion.
I said initially when I first reacted to the incident I felt it was a red card, but I was looking more at the latter part of the incident rather than the early stages of it. Good thing I’m not a referee then.
Given that we haven’t heard anything official yet, and that we are rather close to our next game against Leeds United, logic dictates that we aren’t going to be appealing the decision and so we’re going to have to find someone else to take Egan’s place. I’ve suggested Ethan Ampadu, but we’ll just have to wait and see who Chris Wilder goes with on Sunday.
What about you? What did you make of the incident? Do you think Egan was harshly treated?