McLeish ´baffled´ by Herd red card

Aston Villa boss Alex McLeish was ‘baffled’ by referee Phil Dowd’s decision to send of defender Chris Herd during their 2-1 loss to West Brom.

Villa went ahead through a Darren Bent penalty at Villa Park, but the match turned 10 minutes before half-time when Dowd ordered off Herd after a seemingly innocuous clash with West Brom defender Jonas Olsson.

The Australian’s departure swung the game, and West Brom capitalised through goals from Olsson and Paul Scharner to claim a 2-1 win in the Midlands derby.

McLeish admitted he was bemused by Dowd’s decision.

“Having seen the pictures I still believe it was a harsh sending off,” McLeish told Sky Sports. “We were baffled at the time.”

“I was very disappointed with the decision.”

“I didn’t see Olsson writhing around in agony indicating that he had been stamped on. I’m sure he would have let everyone know if he had been.”

“It really set us back because we had started well, Chris in fact had started extremely well as we tried to change the dynamic of the midfield.”

“We were disappointed at the goals we lost, everyone was picking up their men this time but they were beaten in 50/50s and that’s what we have to improve on or it will be a long, tough season.”

West Brom manager Roy Hodgson, meanwhile was left angered by a tackle from former Spurs defender Alan Hutton that forced striker Shane Long off after 20 minutes with suspected knee ligament damage.

Hodgson said he was angered by Hutton’s tackle, and said the Villa man was fortunate not to receive a red card.

“I’m very pleased with the result and the performance but very disappointed about Shane Long’s injury. It was a wicked challenge,” Hodgson said.

“I’m angered still by the challenge so, before any of you start talking to me about red cards be very careful. If ever I’ve seen a challenge that merited a red card, it was Hutton on Long.”

“We don’t think it is a cruciate knee ligament injury, which is good, but there are a lot of other ligaments in knees which can keep you out for a long time. It is a relatively serious injury.”

Hodgson also said his side could have won even had their hosts had 11 players on the park.

“You could say it had a major influence but I thought we were controlling the game at that point and went a goal down against the run of play,” he said.

“I think with the quality of our football we could have beaten an 11-man Aston Villa today.”