Mirren Mad wasn't at yesterday's game - I rarely go to any these days for various reasons. On hearing Hasselbaink had been sent off, but on reading the comments on message boards and a few reports, I calmed down a bit. It seemed the forward was clean through on goal, so why on earth would he elbow someone? Surely this was incompetent refereeing?
Three reports in today's papers threw up three differing opinions, muddying the waters further.
From the Sunday Mail: "Lennon rushed on to the pitch at half-time to pull his players away from ref Crawford Allan after his decision to send off Hasselbaink - but the whistler got his decision spot on."
From Scotland on Sunday: "In an attempt to fend Dixon off, Hasselbaink raised his arm and caught him in the face. Dixon continued to run, their legs became entwined and play was called to a halt. Crawford Allan, the match official, bolted to the scene and raised a red card to the St Mirren man for throwing an elbow. On the bare facts he will be able to argue that he was correct in his decision, but it did seem unintentional."
From the Sunday Herald: "As he approached the 18-yard line, he stuck out an arm to shrug off his shadow an instant before being seemingly fouled himself. The referee whistled and Hasselbaink checked his run, expecting an award, but instead looked up in horror to see a red card being waved in his face."
To me that looks like one person thinks it was a straight red, one person doesn't and the other isn't sure.
So, to the highlights, which can be found online at http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/scotland/14437380.stm And Mirren Mad's view? Inconclusive.
To me, it looks as if Hasselbaink has thrown his arm behind him with more force than if he was just running normally. The issue then is what was he trying to do - is he trying deliberately to hurt Paul Dixon, or is he just trying to shrug him off? It is impossible to tell and only the player will know. Referee Crawford Allan decided Hasselbaink did it deliberately and sent him off - another ref may think differently and flash a different colour of card - or not show one at all as he might think Dixon fouled him and Saints should have had a free-kick.
What we can glean from that is the proof is far from conclusive that Hasselbaink did not elbow Dixon deliberately - therefore there's no point appealing it and we'll just have to make do without Nigel for our games against Motherwell and Hibs.
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