By Chris Wright
Speaking after last night’s 1-0 defeat at Selhurst Park, Hull City manager Steve Bruce admitted that he thought his goalkeeper, Allan McGregor, had “every right” to take a swipe at Stuart O’Keefe after the Crystal Palace midfielder ran his studs down the Tigers keeper’s shin after leaping to close him down in the corner in the final few minutes of the game.
McGregor reacted by angrily kicking out at O’Keefe but appeared to restrain himself before taking a full-on swing at the Palace man, though the Hull ‘keeper was shown a straight red card by referee Roger East regardless.
Speaking after the game, Bruce told reporters:
“I can’t say too much because I’ve just had to pay a fine of £10,000 a few weeks ago but to send the goalkeeper off, he’s said to me that he’s kicked him, but the challenge on McGregor is horrific.
“It’s over the top of the ball, he nearly lands on the top of his shin and McGregor tried to restrain himself.
“He’s thought about kicking him – this is what I’ve seen – he’s thought about kicking him and had every right to do so, and then restrained himself to make it innocuous.”
We must say that we totally agree with Bruce on this one. While we’re not condoning McGregor’s retaliation per se, it was O’Keefe’s crafty little dig that looked entirely the more red-worthy offense to our finely-tuned eye.
That said, Bruce may as well just go ahead and set up a monthly £10k direct debit with the FA’s disciplinary panel because God forbid you should publicly question and therefore totally undermine a perfectly debatable refereeing decision.
(Vine: CP GIFS)