Any discussion as to what happened yesterday has to start with the two red cards and, as I have only seen the two incidents the once, I cannot go into too much detail about them. All I will say is that I was not surprised to see the penalty awarded but certainly was shocked to see the red card produced to Gyepes because it seemed to me that there was a tangle of legs and Henderson did not appear to have the ball fully under control at the time - what I can say about it though was that it was rank bad defending by our two centrebacks (Roger Johnson in particular) to allow a straightforward long ball to cause the problems that it did when the opposition are playing with a lone striker. As for the second red card, it happened a long way away from where I was stood on the Grange End and I didn't see any elbowing incident.
Because I was largely in the dark about the sendings off, I was interested to listen to what Radio Wales had to say about it all at half time. Their view (expressed by Ian Walsh) was that it was a penalty, but Gyepes' red card was harsh and that he had not seen McCormack elbow Naughton, but, after checking with other ex players watching the game, he was told that McCormack had done. Therefore, I watched the rest of the game, grudgingly accepting that maybe City had not been as hard done to as I originally thought they had, but then when I get home I hear that the opposition manager is saying that both red cards were harsh!
Whatever, even if Ian Walsh's interpretation is correct, it doesn't change my opinion that Mr Taylor handled both situations poorly.
Some umpires in cricket are called "trigger happy" because of their habit of raising their finger to give a batsman out almost before any LBW appeal has even finished - the way Paul Taylor brandished those immediate red cards yesterday had me thinking of cricket straight away! It seems to me that the best referees count to ten just to give them time to confirm with themselves that they are right before showing a red card - on yesterday's evidence Mr Taylor definitely does not fall into that category!
Now, I know that figures like this are never able to tell the full story behind every match, but the fact of the matter is that FootyMad's stats show that City committed eight fouls yesterday and Sheffield United twenty one with Mr Taylor showing two reds and two yellows to our players and three yellows to theirs. Just think about that for a sec, it means that a Cardiff player was shown a card for every other offence they committed and a Sheffield United player was shown one for every seventh time they infringed - that can't be right can it? Therefore, based on his overall performance, and not just those two major incidents, I have no hesitation placing Paul Taylor alongside names like Lester Shapter, Keith Stevens, Barry Knight and Mark Clattenburg in my own personal Ninian Park hall of refereeing shame!
Another thing those stats tell you is that, totally predictably, Sheffield United were a physical and niggly outfit. To be fair to them, with Cotterill's cross that hit the post and Halford's chip that Taylor turned over, I thought they were just edging the game when it was eleven against eleven (I'll resist the temptation there to say eleven against twelve!) and it has to be admitted that they didn't really allow us a way back into the game once Mr Taylor had finished it as a contest. However, it seemed to me that, for a team so high in the league, they were very limited when it came to passing the ball.
Based on their performance yesterday and what I have seen of them on television this season, I must say that I agree with those who have said that, if we were to make it to the Play Offs and we ended up playing them, they would be confident of us coming out on top - always assuming we had someone who refereed the contest in an even handed way of course!
As for City's performance, well it's not too often that they will get such a good reception from their supporters after a 3-0 home defeat. I thought that McNaughton and Rae were the pick of our players on the day, but you couldn't fault the attitude of any of them. Under the circumstances, it's probably for the best that we have a fortnight's break now before we play again, the players need it and, with feelings running high after yesterday's events, things need to calm down a bit - it's going to bad enough when we face the jacks anyway!
One last thing about Ross McCormack's red card - if he was guilty of elbowing then it has to be said that he did not learn from being in the presence of the master when it comes to that particular subject. Chris "Elbows" Morgan the Sheffield United captain (!!!!) has it down to a fine art - no doubt if Kyle Naughton had been in hospital this morning being treated for a fractured skull it would have finished up eleven versus ten yesterday!