Souness fuming over red card

Last updated : 18 February 2002 By Matt
Souness: Not looking happy!
Souness was escorted away by police after he had reacted angrily at referee Graham Barber’s decision to red card Lucas Neil.

Neil was sent off on 72 minutes for a foul on Robbie Stockdale, forcing Barber to controversially award a straight red card, much to the fury of Souness.

“We’ve come away with nothing because somebody made an absolutely ridiculous decision by sending one of my players off,” blasted the Scot.

“We have a Worthington Cup final next week and after that we ‘just’ have the league to worry about, and maybe this is a good result for us in the bigger picture, but that doesn’t make me feel any better.

“The frustration I feel right now I cannot describe. If I feel like this, how do my players feel who are out there? I cannot find the words to explain how I feel.”

Souness feels that such decisions could even have a detrimental effect on the modern game.

“If that’s the standard I fear for the game,” he continued. “You cannot keep getting it wrong.

“It’s sad for the game of football.

“I genuinely fear, and I’m not alone in this, that unless we do something about it we will start to worry why people don’t come to our games.

“We the professionals on the playing side will do our bit – we have some good players – but if that is the standard of refereeing, people won’t come to the game of football. They’ll feel as frustrated as I feel right now eventually.”