Safe to say Stewart didn’t think James Wilson’s red card was a sending off offence
Michael Stewart was left raging at Nick Walsh’s decision to send off James Wilson – telling the whistler to ‘get a grip’ in a fuming rant on commentary.
The Hearts striker was shown a red card in the first half of their clash with Dundee United after a late, high challenge on Luca Stephenson.
It was a robust challenge but opinion was split down the middle over whether it was a sending off offence. Nonetheless, Andrew Dallas on VAR decided not to intervene and Wilson was given his marching orders with the score at 0-0.
The home fans booed the decision and speaking on Premier Sports commentary, former Jambos midfielder Stewart exploded: “Get a grip. Get a grip!
“That’s just not a red card for me. The ball is there to be won, he’s sliding in. You need to have a bit of recognition that you can’t slide in and be physically completely on the ground.
“You can look at the incident and say ‘endangering a player.’ You can look at so many incidents and say that. I just don’t think it’s a red card. Watching it again, there’s no question it’s a foul and a yellow card. Do you need to send him off for that? Personally I don’t think so.
“Football is a contact sport. In so many incidences you could make the argument about endangering the player. Stepping onto the football park, you’re endangering yourself. Does it mean we just don’t play? No!
“There’s enough there for a referee to give it, yes there is. But football people wouldn’t want to see that as a red card.”
Not everyone saw it that way though as Allan Preston told the BBC: “My initial thought was that it was red, seeing it live. You can’t get away with that nowadays, I’m afraid.”
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