Two wrongs didn't make a right for Dowd at Villa Park

By Graham Poll

Last updated at 12:01 AM on 24th October 2011

The match officiating at Villa Park was not good enough on Saturday; a red card tackle missed by a very experienced referee, a penalty awarded and a player dismissed wrongly after an assistant became involved in an incident which needed no official involvement.

I’m sure that Phil Dowd will wince when he sees Alan Hutton’s tackle on West Brom’s Shane Long; if ever there was an example of a tackle dispelling the myth that as long as you play the ball there is no offence, then this was it.

Reckless: Alan Hutton dives in on Shane Long

Hutton launched himself at pace into the challenge and in doing so was out of control of his forward body movement. It was impossible for him to play the ball and then not hit the opponent in the follow through. It is the pace with which he went into the tackle which makes it at the very least reckless and so a foul and yellow card. Incredibly, Dowd gave no free kick when many others would have considered that it was not only reckless but endangered the safety of the opponent and therefore dismissed the Aston Villa player.
In the tit for tat exchange which followed, a block from Long on Hutton was again missed by Dowd and led to the retaliatory kick by Hutton which finally led to a yellow card. Long was unable to continue from the injury sustained from the lunging tackle and one can only hope he suffered no long term injury, he will be stunned that no free kick was awarded.

Further injustice was to come when Chris Herd tangled with Jonas Olsson following a clearance from Villa and players moved upfield. Players from both sides looked around quizzically as Dowd blew his whistle and took advice from his assistant Darren Cann. The World Cup final assistant told Dowd that he was 100 per cent sure that Herd had kicked out at Olsson on the floor and so as well as a penalty for the visitors Herd should be sent off.

I like Cann and think he is the best assistant around and so watched the replays searching for the evidence to support him; however, I could not find any. It appeared to me that Herd merely tried to get his foot from under Olsson’s body and get upfield. Olsson did not react and that should have told Cann that what he thought might have happened did not.

Shocker: Phil Dowd sent off Chris Herd

Former top referee Paul Durkin lived by the tenet, 'no surprises' and Cann’s intervention caused surprise and consternation and will surely result in a successful appeal by Aston Villa against the wrongful dismissal of Herd. If you think things balance out in football then West Brom missing the penalty and Villa rightly being reduced to ten men would support you – but the way it came about was not acceptable.