Source: FOOTYMAD
Gunnarsson apologises for seeing red
midfielder thinks the ref was wrong Coventry City midfielder Aron Gunnarsson has apologised to his manager, team mates and the fans for being sent off on Saturday against Norwich. It was the first time in is career that Gunnarsson has seen red, but he thinks the referee Chris Sargison got the decision wrong. The Icelandic international slipped on a tricky surface as he went into the tackle and although he won the ball, both of his feet were off the ground and he did make contact with Henri Lansbury. Gunnarsson was playing in his 98th game for Coventry City, but he explained, “I was really disappointed with the sending off. It’s the first time that’s happened to me and I feel the referee was very harsh. It wasn’t that bad a tackle. “I slipped on the surface just before making the challenge and did catch Lansbury but there was nothing malicious about it. I went for the ball although he did make more of it by rolling around on the floor." “The referee played on for a few seconds afterwards and then suddenly stopped play and I was surprised when he gave me a red card. Maybe a yellow but not red." Further proof that the referee had made a mistake is that the rules state that no advantage shall be played if the referee thinks the offence worthy of a red card and as he initially appeared to be playing the advantage, only halting the game after Lansbury had been rolling on the ground for a few seconds. “Obviously it was a major incident in the game and I feel as though I let down my team-mates,” said Gunnarsson. “I apologised to them afterwards but I’m convinced it was not a sending off offence. At the time of the sending off I thought we were the better side and would have won the game had I not been red carded.” Michael Doyle was chosen by Bothroyd to be the acting captain during Carsley's suspension and he echoed Gunnarsson's sentiment, saying, “That’s one of the toughest defeats I’ve suffered in a while because we were really on top of them when it was eleven v eleven. “Gunnar was in a bit of shock. I was close to it and he won the ball but obviously their lad has gone down hoping that type of thing would happen. From the off they were getting round the referee in sixes and sevens. Usually refs are strong enough to call the captain aside and say ‘I don’t want any of that', but he let them get on top of them and I thought he could have been stronger." I’m not blaming the Norwich players, but that’s not what we’re about and I don’t think our manager would accept that sort of thing. If a decision goes your way you just accept it and get on with it, but nothing seemed to go our way. "After a few minutes Platty was going through when he was pulled down for what I thought was a blatant penalty. We still thought we would go on the win the game but we gave them two bad goals by making errors with things we work on in training every day." “Keiren Westwood will be really disappointed because he kept us in the game with a couple of great saves and there was nothing he could do about the goals.”
