Russell Jones
RefChat Addict
Caveat - I've not yet seen the challenge. However, with regard to your second sentence, the key additional question is whether there was ever any real likelihood of contact from the challenge. At one extreme there's the recent Kane challenge on Robertson where there would definitely have been significant contact had Robertson not jumped out of the way (therefore Red for me). At the other extreme is where the challenge is so poorly timed that it's always going to miss both man and ball .. therefore no real danger to anyone but still needs to be managed with a yellow because of its reckless nature.I actually think alot of fans think it should of been a red card and if Brighton was at home, I would say the likelyhood of the red card coming out increases due to the influence of the crowd.
For me it's a dangerous tackle, 2 feet off the ground, high intensity and with 2 feet off the ground how can you be in control and just the fact there was not much contact should not mean it's only a yellow.