Monday Nov 20 2006 07:49
Tottenham head coach Martin Jol sympathised with
Blackburn Rovers midfielder Tugay after the veteran Turkish star was sent off in the 1-1 draw between the two sides at Ewood Park.
In a tempestuous affair, Tugay saw red after conceding a penalty when he brought down Hossam Ghaly and the Egyptian was also sent off in stoppage time for allewgedly elbowing Martin Gray.
On Tugay's sending off, Jol said: "I always feel that if you get a penalty, that's punishment enough. But if you do everything according to the rules, he was in a one against one with the keeper."
On Ghaly's red card, he added. "It was never intentional, he just jumped with his arms high, that was the only thing.
"Blackburn haven't had the best spell and I hoped for the three points but it wasn't to be.
"Overall I'm a little disappointed but, on the other hand, Blackburn have a good team, good strikers, Pedersen was a handful - I can live with a point.
"I don't think we had many problems in the first half, we had a couple of half-chances with Mido and Jermain Defoe but then Tugay scored an unbelievable goal.
"I thought 'here we go again' but I still felt we had enough quality and in the second half I think we proved that, although it was always difficult.
"They got a sending off and perhaps we could have done a bit more 11 against 10 but, on the other hand, they were full of energy and tried to hit us on the break. We thought we'd have a couple of chances at goal but it wasn't to be."
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