Motherwell boss told to read the laws by ex-refs after Celtic comments

Stuart Kettlewell has faced criticism regarding the comments he made following the game between Celtic and Motherwell. The home side lost 3-0 against the Hoops at Fir Park. One of the talking points of the game was the red card shown to Liam Gordon for a challenge that he made on Adam Idah. Not many could have argued with the decision.

Kettlewell did though. Despite the nature of the challenge, he claimed that he would not have been screaming for a red card if it was one of his players who had been on the receiving end.

That is hard to believe. Especially when you look at some of the pictures of the point of impact. It could have resulted in a serious injury for Adam Idah. While the Irishman seems to have escaped that, it remains to be seen what the situation is regarding his ankle.

As reported by PLZ Soccer, Kettlewell said after the game regarding the challenge from Gordon on Idah:

"If that was a tackle on one of my players, am I screaming and shouting for a red card? Absolutely not."

Motherwell boss told to read the laws by ex-refs after Celtic comments

Kettlewell's argument seems to be based on the idea that there was no intent on the part of Gordon. But that does not change the fact that it was a dangerous challenge. The account, Behind the Whistles, which is a podcast with former SFA Category 1 Referees Des Roache and Steve Conroy wrote:

"He can’t be serious it was a potential ankle breaker. Leading with studs endangering the safety of his opponent therefore Red Card. We’ve seen plenty of similar examples in recent years."

They further went on to add in a reply to one of the commenters:

Of course, one could argue that there was no intent on the part of the Motherwell player. But that does not mean that it is not a challenge that could not have caused a serious injury to Idah. Once again, the extent of that is still not known. So, a red card definitely feels like the right decision.