By Chris Wright
Promotion-chasing Wycombe Wanderers toiled to a 2-1 away victory over Tranmere Rovers in League Two on Tuesday night, but they were forced to do so with ten men for the last 20 minutes of the game at Prenton Park.
The win saw Wycombe cement themselves in third place in the table, not that striker Matt McClure (you may remember him from such films as “Gone in 70 Seconds” and “The Thin Red Card”) was much help — with the forward getting himself sent-off just one minute after coming on as a second-half substitute.
As previously mentioned on Pies, having entered the fray in the 68th minute, McClure’s first order of business was to lead with an elbow in an aerial duel with Tranmere’s Adam Dugdale before we was duly jettisoned from the fray by the referee in the 69th minute…
As cameo appearances go, it wasn’t one of Mr McClure’s finest performances.
That said, McClure’s dismissal isn’t anywhere close to beating the record for the fastest sending-off for a substitute, in fact he’s a full 70 seconds to slow!
The record is jointly held by Walter Boyd (then of Swansea) and Keith Gillespie (then of Sheffield United) who both managed to get themselves red-carded a grand total of zero seconds after coming on in 2000 and 2007 respectively.
Both players elbowed an opponent before play had resumed, in case you were wondering quite how that was possible.