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Liverpool Echo
Liverpool Echo
Sport
Charlotte Coates

Ex-Liverpool man Joe Allen sent off for sparking 30-man brawl in 90th minute of six-goal thriller

Former Liverpool midfielder Joe Allen was sent off for sparking a 30-man brawl in Swansea City's win over Preston North End on Wednesday night.

Swansea's Allen, who was substituted earlier in the second half, managed to get into a scuffle with Preston's manager Ryan Lowe after the away side failed to put the ball out of play for an injury. As many as 30 individuals rushed to the dug out to get involved.

Play-off chasers Preston were beaten 3-2 in Wales with the ex-Liverpool man scoring the second goal for the Swans at the Swansea.com Stadium in the Championship.

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Lowe's side were chasing an equaliser when Swans midfielder Jay Fulton went down with a head injury, and the ball wasn't kicked out of play to the annoyance of the home bench. As Lowe and Allen argued, those from both teams, including substitutes, involved themselves.

Once the game restarted late on, Joel Piroe scored a late fourth for Swansea to seal all three points as they remain with an outside chance of securing a play-off spot.

"[The red card] won't overshadow his performance tonight," Swansea manager Russell Martin said when asked about Allen. "I thought he was outstanding. He's not ready to play 90 minutes yet, this was only his second game back. The plan was 60 (minutes) tonight and 60 against Norwich (on Saturday) so that's changed a little bit.

"But I was so pleased with him, and I think after a full pre-season next season he's going to be a different animal for us, a different player. You saw tonight what he's about - he had so much composure and that finish is such a high quality finish.

"I'm so pleased for him that he scored, I'm so disappointed how the night ends, because all he was doing was trying to get the attention of the fourth official. The game probably should have been stopped, Jay Fulton takes a head injury... a head injury should probably stop the game, but it doesn't, so it can be avoided, and then Ryan pushes Joe and chaos ensues."

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