Everton's Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall is suspended after picking up five yellow cards and after he said the decisions were "mind boggling" former referee Mark Clattenburg understands the midfielder's disappointment
Suspended star Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall has found a seemingly unlikely ally in former Everton nemesis Mark Clattenburg.
Dewsbury-Hall, who joined the Blues from Chelsea for £25million in August will now serve a one-match ban against Crystal Palace on Sunday after becoming the first Premier League player this season to pick up five yellow cards. The bookings were all picked up in consecutive top flight matches and after being controversially cautioned at Anfield for taking a free-kick ‘too quickly’ for referee Darren England’s liking while there were major question marks over the decision by Sam Barrott to punish him for what many saw as a legal challenge on West Ham United’s Kyle Walker-Peters at Hill Dickinson Stadium on Monday as the pair of them went in for a 50-50.
The exasperated 27-year-old, who with the upcoming international break, won’t be able to kick a ball for a ball for almost three weeks until his side go to Manchester City on October 18, subsequently took to social media to vent his frustrations. Writing on X (formerly Twitter), Dewsbury-Hall said: “Forgive me if I’m wrong, and I might be, but some of these decisions are so hard to take. Mind boggling.”
Retired referee Clattenburg, has sympathy with the Everton midfielder though and told The Boot Room: “I can understand the referee’s judgment as Dewsbury-Hall goes into the tackle with some speed, catching his opponent on the foot after playing the ball. Personally, I think the referee could have played on as he plays the ball and his foot accidentally hits his opponent’s foot in the follow-through.
“Dewsbury-Hall can be disappointed that he will get a one-match suspension for his fifth yellow card. This disappointment was even made worse when, in the last week, he was given a yellow card late in the match against Liverpool for taking a quick free-kick, which I believe the referee could have managed in a better way.
“You cannot appeal yellow cards, so you will miss this weekend’s match.”
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Clattenburg became a persona non grata among many Evertonians following his officiating at a Merseyside Derby at Goodison Park on October 20, 2007. At the time of year when many were gearing up for Halloween, the County Durham man-in-the-middle endured a horror show that was so bad that he wasn’t handed another assignment at the ground during David Moyes’ first spell in charge.
His debacle 18 years ago saw him send off two Everton players Tony Hibbert and Phil Neville but it was his two non-decisions for the hosts that courted the controversy. He failed to send off Dirk Kuyt for a flying two-footed lunge on Neville and then refused to point to the spot when Jamie Carragher wrestled Joleon Lescott to the ground in stoppage time.
Although Clattenburg owned up to his errors almost 14 years later on Carragher’s podcast The Greatest Game, he seemed to show little remorse for the implications of his shambolic showing. He said: “I was out of my depth. I don't know why I was refereeing it. I’d just done the Manchester derby and the London derby, so it was my third derby in three or four weeks. “I had underestimated it – the working-class derby. The other two were different derbies, this one was brutal. Some derbies are different in certain stadiums.
“Sunderland-Newcastle is more intense at Sunderland and Everton-Liverpool is more intense at Goodison. There was always more intensity.
“I remember the first half I did okay, but in the second half I had an absolute nightmare. I listened to my assistant referee for the Dirk Kuyt challenge, which when you look back was a stonewall red.”