Ian Holloway admitted he got it wrong about Jay Fulton’s red card after the Swansea City man was sent off in Saturday’s Championship play-off final.
Everything went wrong for the Swans at Wembley Stadium as they were beaten 2-0 by Brentford, who booked promotion back to the top flight after 74 years away.
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The Bees were flying from the start as Thomas Frank’s side were two goals up after 20 minutes.
Swansea improved after the break but their afternoon went from bad to worse when Fulton saw red after what looked like a horrendous two-footed lunge on Mathias Jensen.
However, replays showed how the midfielder appeared to accidentally catch the Brentford man’s heel, stepping down on his Achilles, before losing his footing and sliding into Jensen.
Fulton immediately raised his hands to show there was no intent, but didn’t protest too much as he was given his marching orders.
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Holloway – a two-time play-off final winner as a manager – was alongside Sam Matterface and David Connolly in the commentary box for talkSPORT for the richest game in football.
And they quickly realised the challenge was not the malicious attack they initially thought it was, as they reacted to the scenes.
Holloway: “Oh deary, deary me, son – what have you done? That’s a rash, rash challenge.
Connolly: “What an absolutely unnecessary area to do it in. Clueless, needless. We’ve spoken about ill discipline and we’ve seen little moments of that in the game, and it’s killed Swansea, because they were in the ascendancy. There was absolutely no need to make a challenge like that. He was going nowhere.
Matterface: “It’s a definite red card. Two footed from behind, it’s an awful challenge.”
Holloway: “What has he done there?”
Matterface: “He’s put his studs on the Achilles of Jense-“
Holloway: “Oh no, I’ve just seen it again, it was accidental. I don’t think he did that deliberately, you know what I mean?”
Matterface: “Yes, but he’s then slipped through, and it’s a dangerous challenge. You’re endangering the safety of the player by doing that, but putting your studs on the back of the defender’s Achilles.
“I must admit, having looked at the reply it was more accidental than I first thought, however, it did seem a very strange thing to do to follow through after catching him.
“Look, he’s apologised straight away, but it’s a red card.”
Connolly: “Absolutely it’s a red card, it’s just a follow through. He has made contact with his foot and he has slipped, but he’s raised his other leg and just jumped into Jensen.
“And it was just when Swansea were just offering a little glimmer of hope that they could get back into the game.
“It was clumsy and absolutely reckless, and it’s not an isolated incident, we’ve had a couple of them, lots of spicy challenges over the course of the game.”
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Holloway: “Listen, I felt he accidentally stepped on his Achilles, I don’t think he meant that. It looked a lot worse than it was. I feel for the young lad.
“But that’s it, curtains now. Things have gone totally wrong for Swansea the whole match, and that’s another one – wow.”
It was curtains for Fulton and it was curtains for Swansea, as Brentford broke their play-off hoodoo to seal a 2-0 victory and a place in the Premier League for the first time.
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