Let’s not pretend. We love a good melee on the football field. Commentators will talk all day about how ‘you don’t want to see this sort of thing’ and critics will ostracize players for the bad example they are setting, which, we suppose, is fair enough. It’s certainly a particularly stupid thing to do. Then again, so is a fight in the street. And if you so happen to witness a scrap in public and you’re on the other side of the road, safe enough so that it cannot spill over and harm you, then you will stop and have a right good look.
At first it seemed like the only players forced to pay for their indiscretions were Alan Mannus and Ryan Stevenson, both of whom indulged in some angry face holding. But it now seems that another culprit may pay the price for a an ill-advised attempt at a headbutt as the player, Tam Scobbie, has now been charged with a notice of complaint by the SFA.
Thankfully for us, and unfortunately for Tam, he does it in full view of the TV cameras.
Never trust anyone called Tam, eh?
As opposed to his head going back it seems that the whole of Brad McKay shifts away quite quickly which would indicate that there wasn’t much contact with his cranium and he was just taken by surprise more than actually hurt. McKay is also unaware of Scobbie at the time so if the defender wanted to do some serious damage then the opportunity was definitely there. Like most of this squabble, this probably falls under the category of aggressive posturing. However, there is no doubt he will be banned for this. Regardless of the levels of contract, footballers just can’t stick their head on someone else and expect to get away with it.
The worst thing for Scobbie is that if he is given a two-game ban for violent conduct then he will miss the semi-final. If the referee had saw this and dealt with it at the time then his suspension would have been played out before the League Cup tie thanks to last night’s meeting with Partick Thistle. St Johnstone should be ok, they’ve got Brian Easton on the bench, which is all the worse for excitable wee Tam who may find his route back to the first team blocked.
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