Smiths sending off

[NottinghamWhite]

To me it wasn't a red card offence a yellow at best. Surely he had just come on and the ref normally would be a little more lenient. I presume the tackle was deemed as reckless but Smith never raised his arms.

Your thoughts on this please.

[Deleted User 130]

Stupid challenge, no where near to winning the ball but gave the defender a decent 'shove' in the head with his upper arm and it looked deliberate, I thought. Red card possibly harsh but if the officials see it as a violent conduct or reckless or dangerous, then a sending off is likeliest. I've nothing against Smith and I felt sorry for him, he clearly isn't a thug of the Shearer type (he left many defenders with bruises and bloodied noses) but it wasn't a good challenge, Phil, imho.

[Sheepy]

It was a clumsy challenge, he was late in getting across to the defender/area where the ball was going to land and tried to put the defender under pressure.

It was a free-kick, but I never saw it as a red, in fact when it happened I actually said 'I don't believe it, he's going to book him for that'.

I've not seen the challenge since, maybe he did more than what I initially saw.

[Barlow Boy]

As has been said, a very clumsy challenge and I can see why the ref gave him a red, particularly after all the Wednesday players surrounding him and giving their 'opinions'.

I think BMcD said he will be making an appeal, time will tell but I cannot see it getting overturned.

[Deleted User 130]

Saw it a few times and i believed Smith was deliberately going for the player. It was not serious but that isn't the point, it looked deliberate and it certainly looked dangerous because it certainly COULD have been serious. Ref has no choice if that's how he or his assistants regard it, imho.

[dlw10]

The only thing about this is that in the early stages of the game an almost identical challenge was made by Reda Johnson on Kebe. No action was taken at all for that one mainly cos Kebe got straight back up and didn't make much of it. The Smith one was a tad worse in that as others have said it did look like he was announcing his presence but the way Johnson went down was ridiculous and within seconds he was racing around as one of their best players! It was not an elbow so I reckon yellow would have usually been given.....I was nervous before the game when I saw it was Probert in charge!

[Deleted User 130]

The difference with the Kebe one was that both went for the ball and collided for it, plus Johnson looked more at threat of injury than Kebe. But the point is, both definitely went for the ball, Smith looked like he went for anything but the ball. Again, I'm not slagging him, he should have been bloomin' playing from the start.

[Sheepy]

He should have been, and as daft as it sounds, if he had started the game, and got sent of in the first minute of the first half I reckon it wouldn't have been 6-0.

Maybe 7

No, we would have regrouped and probably tried to get a point, Smiths sending off just blew the half time team talk and plan completely out of the window.

[Gilford_NI_Whites]

Stupid challenge. I think he was announcing his arrival.

For me it was a yellow, based on the earlier challenge on Kebe. It was the same in my opinion.

[NottinghamWhite]

We've appealed against the red card decision later today.