Liam Gordon red card in Celtic clash 'so harsh', says Motherwell boss Stuart Kettlewell as defender gets two-game ban

dailyrecord.co.uk:

Motherwell boss Stuart Kettlewell insists the decision to show Liam Gordon a red card in stoppage time of their 3-0 defeat to Celtic was "so harsh" and the club will mull over appealing it.The defender saw his yellow card for a late tackle on Adam Idah upgraded from yellow to red after a VAR check showed he caught the Hoops striker on the ankle with his studs.It will rule Gordon out of the Steelmen's next two league games against Dundee United on Wednesday night and his former club St Johnstone on November 9 - but not next Sunday's League Cup semi-final against Rangers at Hampden.But Kettlewell feels referee David Dickinson got the call right in the first instance.He said: "I am a bit frustrated by it.

We'll all have a view on it when we analyse it and look back on it. I just feel it is so harsh to give the red card. The referee has a look at it and he can see that big Liam has made contact, but the first thing you start to see on the screen is still images and it looks bad, of course."I spoke to the referee after it, really calmly, to ask what he saw in the challenge."He spoke about 'hinging' the players' ankle, but my counter argument would be that we are talking about Liam being at full stretch at that point and without any real force whatsoever, just trying to get a toe end on the ball."I acknowledge that he doesn't get that toe-end on the ball - which I thought he did at the time - but I don't think he has come in with any kind of reckless intent or to try and injure the Celtic player."I think the referee got it right at the time, when he awards a foul and gives a yellow card.

I don't know how many times we have to look at it to try and find a way that it is a red card."A number of people will think it is a red card