Sun Apr 17, 2011 8:02 pm
At the time, from my angle of view, with Ledesma running in a line more-or-less directly straight towards my position, the ref's decision looked harsh, the tackle looked 50:50, I saw no sign of a two-footed lunge, and I was absolutely amazed by the red card. Sadly, the video I've seen this evening is clear and conclusive. The return ball to Ledesma, from his decent push and run, was played without enough weight and therefore gave the Brighton player the chance to lunge and try to intercept. Ledesma definitely launched himself two-footed. I'd say it was towards the ball and without malice, but you just can't do that today. If only he'd kept his head and continued his run at the ball he might even have won a free kick from the Brighton player's challenge - who knows? But all Ledesma did was get himself rightly sent-off, and now he's put our chances of a successful run-in in severe jeopardy. With him now out for three of the four remaning games, compounded by McDonald's injury that is going to keep him out for all four games, our small squad is even more stretched at a time when we need all hands to the pump.
OK, we were second-best for much of the game against a very mobile Brighton team that taught us lots of lessons about teamwork and movement off the ball, but we were only 2-1 down and, at the time, looking capable of an equaliser and maybe an unlikely but vital point. Ledesma let us down, and so did the Ref on a number of occasions, particularly his unbelievable failure to deal with the obvious "simulation" that was going on on the pitch more-or-less from the first moments of the game. Maybe it's the frustration of watching a Ref failing in his duty that leads players to do stupid things like Ledesma did, but he's a professional and should know better. If that's a regular feature of his game (and perhaps it's a typically South-American trait) then he could become as much a liability as an asset, perhaps like a certain young winger who was kicked out a couple of years back. Deano has a big decision to make about Ledesma at the end of the season, and I would not be at all surprised if he decides to let him go after witnessing this serious error of judgement.
All in all, I enjoyed yesterday's contest. I went along hoping we might scrape a point, but expecting us to lose and, if I'm honest, fearing a bit of a hammering, but was pleasantly surprised that we made a game of it for so long, despite our obvious shortcomings on quality, skill, ball control and movement. Their third goal, against ten men, had an air of inevitability about it, but I honestly think 3-1 flattered them in the end, but their win was deserved and wheher 2-1 or 3-1, it still leaves us with "Nil points".
Thank heaven for all those other scores elsewhere, they could hardly have been better for us on the day (other than to emphasise how valuable a single point would have been) so we move on in no-worse a position than we started the weekend, but next Saturday vs Sheff W is now MASSIVE, in fact MONUMENTAL.