O’Neill and Cattermole cry ref justice, claiming Wirral Whistler visit from Toon
March 5th, 2012 | 35 Comments |
O’Verrated O’Neill, cast light on the unusual sending off of Sunderland’s bad boy hatchet man, Lee Cattermole, who was given a straight red card by Wirral whistler, Mike Dean, a full two minutes after the final whistle had sounded. It brought his total number of bookings up to 64 yellow cards and 7 red cards in a total of 193 senior appearences so far.
It was a match marked by controversy, which of course is not an unusual thing in Geordie / Vagrant derbies. No less than seven yellow cards and two red cards were brandished by the Wirral whister. The indiscipline also spread to the dugouts, where Alan Pardew and O’Neill were shouting and waving their handbags at each other on two occaisons, with goalkeeping coach, Andy Woodman, also being banned from the dugout for the second half after what was reported as a “scuffle in the tunnel” at half time.
Coming back to the original story though, it transpired that “Clattermole” had taken issue with Dean’s second half decisionmaking in a not altogether polite fashion as the players and officials were walking off after the game. According to O’Neill, the Sunderland camp had also heard that a Magpie mafia had paid a visit to Dean’s dressing room at half time, possibly to make him an offer he couldn’t refuse?
Speaking on the incident, the Ulsterian explained that although Cattermole was a very naughty boy, there were mitigating circumstances, saying: (more…)