Red Card Made All The Difference

Stoke boss Johan Boskamp said the referee’s decision to show Marlon Broomes a red card was the difference between Stoke and Southampton on Saturday.

Rednapp seems to agree that the sending off was a bad decision, but thinks Southampton deserved their 2-0 victory at St Mary’s. He said ‘I thought the sending-off was harsh, but I thought we deserved to win anyway.’

Broomes was given a straight red for supposedly elbowing Saints Theo Walcott before half time. He now faces a three match ban, although according to Boskamp ‘ we will definitely appeal, 100%.’ Theo went on to score one of Southampton’s goals.

Boskamp said: ‘I don’t think 2-0 was a fair reflection of the game. The linesman gave the decision that Marlon elbowed Walcott, but everybody could see that didn’t happen. He fell very easily and got up pretty quickly. If it was an elbow he should have been on the floor for three or four minutes. When I went to speak to the referee I only say why he sent Marlon off, but he told me to leave the dugout so that was it.’

Adding that things were going well before the decision: ‘Before the sending-off, I think we did really well, we created chances and looked like scoring. But the red-card changed everything.’