A little bit of intrigue here!
Only a little bit mind you, don`t get too excited!
It was thought that the Vital Villa man of the match Mile Jedinak had pulled off a blinder at the weekend v Birmingham City by stopping them from taking a quick kick off following the Villa goal…. As you`ll know, Gary Gardner and the team had all run to the Villa fans to celebrate and Blues were looking to take advantage of that. It runs totally against the unwritten law in football and to be fair, almost any sport I can think of. You don`t wait in tennis for the opponent to look away to serve for instance!
Video of Jedinak stopping the Blues players taking a quick kick off #AVFC pic.twitter.com/LUKfHBeYtQ
TVZ (@TheVillaZone) November 1, 2016
However it appears from the video Sky Sports are showing that it was actually the match ref Mike Dean who prompted Jedinak`s blocking of the Blues idea.
You can see this clearly on the video here: www.skysports.com/football
The referees` association have actually praised Dean for his actions.
A PGMOL spokesman has told Sky Sports News: ‘Mike’s actions were appropriate for the situation as it unfolded. The match would not have been able to restart as there was a bottle on the pitch which needed to be removed before play could resume.’
As Sky explain, the rules of the game say that all the players must be in their own half before kick off or a restart AND the ref has to signal before the ball is kicked.
The Sky article also says Lukas Jutkiewicz ‘walked deep into the Villa half to tie his laces` after Birmingham equalised through David Davis.
My blog on the match: Fear The Blogger In The Sun. Part 6- The Ding Dong Derby
