Poyet in plea to referee Elleray

Adrian Curtis13 April 2012
Everton 1 Tottenham 1

Gustavo Poyet today appealed to referee David Elleray to re-examine his red card decision so that he can play against Chelsea, the club he left this summer.

The Tottenham midfielder was sent off along with teammate Gary Doherty in a three-minute spell in the second half of the 1-1 draw with Everton at Goodison Park last night.

Both players face three-match bans and that would mean the Uruguayan international would miss the Chelsea game at White Hart Lane on 15 September.

Spurs manager Glenn Hoddle confirmed that the club will put in a formal appeal to the Harrow official to review his decisions based on video evidence.

Hoddle said: "We have to appeal. It was a magnificent show of character by nine men. But we should not have finished with nine men.

"The first red card was not even a foul let alone a penalty and Gus's tackle was a booking. There was nothing malicious in it. The decisions cost us two points."

Elleray made a series of baffling decisions none more so than when Doherty was dismissed after allegedly holding back Kevin Campbell.

Duncan Ferguson converted the resultant penalty and skipper Teddy Sheringham and goalkeeper Neil Sullivan were also booked for protesting.

Moments later Poyet was also sent off following a challenge on Steve Watson to leave Spurs with nine men for the last halfhour.

Poyet said: "It was the first time I have been sent off in England. Everyone can make mistakes and I made many of them in the game but it was not a bad tackle. I have nothing against the referee but I beg him to look at the tackle again on the video.

"I did not play the last halfhour and I think that is punishment enough. It was not a vicious tackle. I just turned my body and put my foot in front of him. I have to be positive about this but I can't even bear to think about missing the game against Chelsea.

"I am really passionate but I did not react when he showed the red card because I was so shocked at the decision.

"I did not even have a yellow card beforehand so I think the referee made a mistake. I saw him reaching for a card and thought he would show me a yellow one but I could not believe it when it was red.

"Normally I react to this kind of thing but I was just so surprised. I haven't spoken to the referee about it but I have asked Glenn to ask him to have a look at the video.

"I apologised to the players in the dressing room but they told me not to worry about it because the decision was wrong."

Sheringham said: "The red cards were ridiculous. A booking might have been a bit harsh in both cases but a red card? I can't believe it.

"I went over to the referee and took everybody away after he gave the penalty. As captain, I asked him why he gave it and he simply told me to go away. I didn't swear at him but he booked me."

Anderton, who finished off a fine move to put Spurs in front just before the interval and produced an outstanding performance in midfield, claimed that Elleray's decisions spoilt the game.

The England midfielder said: "We were 1-0 up and they didn't look like scoring until the two dismissals. It was disappointing because we had to settle for a draw."

Everton also had cause to criticise Elleray. He missed a two-footed lunge by Mauricio Taricco which left Everton midfielder Thomas Gravesen facing a four-week lay off with a gashed shin.

He didn't spot that Steffen Iversen was in an offside position when Anderton scored and then, within seconds, he ruled out Niclas Alexandersson's equaliser for reasons only he knows.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in