I’m not sure how many of you have seen the incident that led to Marius Zaliukas’ red card at Pittodrie the other day, but having watched the TV pictures I’d be exceptionally disappointed if the club didn’t stand up for their player and appeal against it.
I’m really not sure what referee Iain Brines saw or thought he saw (the straight red was for an alleged headbutt), but the TV pictures clearly show that the only player moving his head towards another in the six-yard box melee was Aberdeen’s Lee Miller towards Zaliukas, not the other way around. The Hearts player merely squared up to him and stood there without moving. If this constitutes a red card whilst others get no punishment whatsoever then….well…..this is Scotland and a match involving Hearts after all!
Some of the press this morning has been predictably excitable about the ‘disgraceful’ discipline of our team, but if you look at each isolated incident in the Aberdeen game you can start to see exactly why our players felt the sense of injustice that they did. It’s yet another Brines horror show to add to his growing collection.
If the club appeal this and Zaliukas doesn’t get off the hook here, then I think the conspiracy theorists among us will have a concrete case after all….
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Sadly, although a straight red might get overturned, its likely that it would be replaced by a yellow – meaning he would still be suspended (just not for as long). Lets hope the scouts have already seen enough of him to make a bid – I don’t think the’re going to be seeing much of him for the next few weeks !! Vladimir must be concerned about this !!
It shouldn’t even be a yellow though mate – seriously, he did nothing other than stand and stare at Miller. Since when did that warrant punishment? If anything it should have been Miller being booked, but even then I’d have left them both alone on the card front and just had a quiet word. Sadly Mr Brines takes a different approach…
You could be right Mr H – the BBC highlights didn’t seem to cover the whole incident, so I was assuming that Zaliukas was “imposing himself” in the 6 yard box !!
According to the BBC website the appeal has been rejected:-
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/h/heart_of_midlothian/7803959.stm
Confirmation and some strong words on the official site:-
http://www.heartsfc.premiumtv.co.uk/page/HeartsNewsDetail/0,,10289~1504265,00.html
shocking isn’t it?