Town boss Kieran McKenna says referee Simon Hooper told him striker Liam Delap was booked in the melee following last week’s 2-1 win at Wolves as “there’s a rule that if there’s a fracas on the pitch, then somebody from both teams has to be booked”.

The yellow card came in a post-match incident in which home defender Rayan Ait-Nouri was given his second caution and then a red card and Matheus Cunha was charged by the FA later in the week for clashing with a member of the Town security team.

Delap’s booking, which wasn’t immediately obvious from the TV footage, took him to five for the season and sees him banned from Saturday’s home game against Newcastle United.

McKenna says he sought clarification regarding the yellow card from referee Hooper following his post-match press conference at Molineux.

“In terms on what went on, I spoke to the referee after the press conference and he said that there’s a rule - and I’ve got other things to worry about other than the referees - he said that there’s a rule that if there’s a fracas on the pitch, then somebody from both teams has to be booked, which somebody else will have to check to see if that’s true or not, but I take him at face value on that,” he said.

“I’ve watched back the incident, I was in and around it at the time and I don’t see any particular fracas from our players or anything particularly untoward from our players, but Liam got booked within that.

“We’re disappointed to lose him for tomorrow, no doubt about that, I think he’s been in really good form, I have to say, I know he hadn’t scored in the last few games, but I think he’s playing really well for the team and, of course, with George [Hirst] out, we don’t want to lose both of them.

“So it makes it a different challenge for this weekend, but a different challenge is always a different opportunity as well, an opportunity for other people to step up and bring their strengths to the team and a good challenge for us in terms of adapting to the strength of whoever comes into the team and trying to make the team as competitive as possible.”

McKenna has plenty of players in his squad who have played as strikers with Ali Al-Hamadi the most obvious but with Sammie Szmodics, who is available having been ill last week, Omari Hutchinson, Nathan Broadhead and Conor Chaplin alternatives of a different variety.

“It’s pretty clear, we’ve probably got four or five people in the building, who have played as a striker,” he continued. “There’s the more obvious ones, but Wes Burns has played as a striker as well, so we’ve got quite a few options there.

“Obviously Ali is the most natural forward that we have in the building in terms of the profile of striker that we usually play with but we also know he’s short of match minutes for quite a long period.

“You’ve got other people, who can fill the role in slightly different positions. You look at last week, there was a lot of the game where Omari was in central positions and almost centre forward positions at times in the game.

“I think what’s important is we have different qualities within the squad. We know that we’re going to need different people to step up across the 96 minutes. I think it’s a game and it’s a sport now, to be honest, certainly at Premier League level, where it’s genuinely not necessarily about the team that starts being any more important than the team that finishes.

“We’ve got a team in mind to start the game, we’ve got a team in mind to finish the game. You try and pick balance across different qualities to start the game and balance across different qualities to finish the game, depending on the game state.

“We’ve looked at that over the last few days and we’ll try and give ourselves the best chance on Saturday.”

Photo: TWTD

trncbluearmy added 14:32 - Dec 20 That's just fecking crazy
14

TresBonne added 14:33 - Dec 20 That is an absolute joke! How on earth can they justify booking Delap just because they have to book somebody? Why not book Slicker or something like that, then it’s out the way? Completely unfair on us and Liam, if he did nothing!
27

Steve_ITFC_Sweden added 14:42 - Dec 20 Agree: At face value, that rule is completely nonsensical. However, without remembering any specific incident, I have thought, while watching MOD for example, that there have been incidents where one player has been aggressive towards another, and this second player hasn't really reacted much, at least not physically, but both have been booked.
3

muhrensleftfoot added 14:44 - Dec 20 What a ridiculous rule. That can't be correct. We were the victims in this, Wolves players were indisciplined at times during the game, and behaved disgracefully at the end. Surely all the punishment should go to Wolves players.
16

BotesdaleBlue added 14:44 - Dec 20 I wonder if refs make it up as they go along sometimes!
9

Edmundo added 14:49 - Dec 20 So why Delap? Makes you wonder how many phone calls from shady syndicates these guys get.After the Coote scandal, I trust these fellas even less.
8

wischip added 14:49 - Dec 20 The game's gone. If the ref had to card anyone he should have carded the security officer. Not that he did anything wrong but just to void the ridiculous rule.
6

Suffolkboy added 14:50 - Dec 20 Absolutely nuts ! Worse than school detentions where the teacher sought retribution but had no idea of who was the culprit ! BUT this is 100% professional sport ,and the Willy nilly issuing of cards without any specific reason defies every bit of logic ! Was this a ‘brush off ‘ from Hooper ,was it the genuine reason or are we being spun a yarn ? Can’t conceive of KM leading us astray ,though his response does seem testy ! Where oh where is the integrity of the PGMOL ? Never mind — COYB

3

Esseeja added 14:54 - Dec 20 Out of all the rules that need changing, change this one first, and IMMEDIATELY (if it's a real rule in the game). How can you justify that being a rule?
5

Durovigutum added 15:07 - Dec 20 There is nothing in the IFAB LOTG that say that. The PGMOL application for the Premier League might, but if it does it is crazy. And you can't appeal a yellow.
3

Bert added 15:39 - Dec 20 Stupid rule if true. That said, it may be more advantageous for Delap to be rested and on fire against two of the best teams in the PL over Christmas.
1

SuperTabby added 16:01 - Dec 20 Sounds like the referee is just making things up to be honest. Delap really shouldn’t have been booked, I also don’t think Cunha was either? He’s just facing charges afterwards. Pretty shambolic from Wolves and the referee just chucked some cards around without really thinking. Judging by what McKenna has said in a couple of pressers, I wouldn’t be surprised if he goes with Omari up top. We’ll have to play in a different way, but I imagine he might go Sammie, Chappers, Wes behind Omari.

-2

Westy added 16:12 - Dec 20 I find this hard to believe but if true, it is, I suspect, an unwritten rule between referees and not a directive. It would discourage players from trying to defuse a situation or from restraining a player - better just to walk away and let them get on with it.
1

Lord_Mac added 16:23 - Dec 20 A refereeing decision devoid of common sense and integrity. Can anyone imagine a rugby referee yellow-carding one from both sides because that's what the rules state (even if true)? He should have acted according to his instinct at the time, and if queried by the FA afterwards, argued his case - and for such an inappropriate rule to be amended. I seriously doubt it would have been questioned though. As @wischip said, he should have carded the security officer for being elbowed in the neck and his glasses damaged, if for thing else, than to highlight the absurdity of the situation.

1

Lukeybluey added 16:34 - Dec 20 I wonder whether playing Burns up top might be an idea? then have Hutch on right, chaplin mid, and szmods on left?
2

poet added 17:15 - Dec 20 The simple rule applied here should be to establish who broke any rules, and who didn’t. Those who did should be punished, those who didn’t, remain innocent, and should receive no punishment what-so-ever. To suggest that an individual should be punished for no other reason, than to just even up the score is unfair, ridiculous, and beyond common sense. I have my doubts that such a contemptibly inadequate excuse offered up by the referee is actually correct, if it is, then absurdity hardly covers it.

2

Bramidan added 17:46 - Dec 20 Is there an appeal? This can’t be justice, let’s just book one out of 11? Makes sense?
0

Saxonblue74 added 17:50 - Dec 20 What a complete nonsense!
0

scooby added 19:27 - Dec 20 Si because more than one of the wolves players was being a dick we have to suffer aswell juat because we happened to be playing them. What an absolute joke. Penalised for showing a minor amount of in discipline in spite of massive provocation from the opposition
0

BrandedWilliams added 19:37 - Dec 20 It wasn’t even on the pitch, so if that’s a rule, it shouldn’t even apply here.
1

jonwillpott added 20:51 - Dec 20 I hope that MA has reported this to Howard Webb and illustrated it as yet another example of the poor decisions made against us this season!!!
2

Lightningboy added 20:55 - Dec 20 The corruption in this league is off the scale.
1

Normandyblue added 22:21 - Dec 20 Sounds like what I had to do with the kids when it kicked off, not sure it’s appropriate for the Premier league though.
0

ArnieM added 23:07 - Dec 20 From what I saw of the highlights ( which showed the whole thing kicking off at the end of the game), it showed LD going up to the Wolves contingent smiling and he was saying something. The next second the Wolves player absolutely loses it. So I don’t think LD is entirely “ innocent” in these events. It looked to me, like he was winding their players up. Not sure how many of his 5 bookings so far this season are for too much yapping, bug he needs to button it at times.

0

Karlosfandangal added 02:21 - Dec 21 Got a feeling that Ipswich have got more cards in the 16 games they have played than Town did between 1980 to 1990. Just mad all this card waving.
0

Blogs 298 bloggers

Ipswich Town Polls