It's notoriously difficult to spot - when two players jump for the ball - whether an elbow to the face is deliberate or just a clumsy manoeuvre by one of the players. Barnsley's Iain Hume was on the receiving end of a violent elbow from Sheffield United captain and centre half Chris Morgan at the weekend and ended up with a fractured skull.
Andy D'Urso, a very experienced referee, decided the elbow was reckless rather than deliberately aimed at injuring Hume and gave Morgan a yellow card. His decision has been panned by the Barsnley manager, but is, in fact, completely understandable.
These days, to the difficulty of telling whether the blow is deliberate or accidental, a referee has to judge whether the injured party is cheating by pretending to have been physically attacked when he has in fact received a slight knock on his shoulder. To this extent, players are digging their own graves.
In slow motion, as with many fouls, this incident looks bad but at real speed it probably just looked like two players jumping for the ball. The referee has to try and spot whether the aggressor looks at the other player to find out where to aim a blow or if there is major backswing to the elbow used in the strike. Either way, culprits will still argue it was accidental and it's very hard for the ref to tell.
Anyone who says they know for sure is one-sided. One clue is that this happened in the 36th minute. D'Urso had sent two players off for violent conduct six minutes earlier and the match between South Yorkshire rivals is traditionally a tempestuous affair. All circumstantial, m'lud, but it helps a ref make a decision.
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