Former Premier League referee Dermot Gallagher has backed the decision to not send Scott McTominay off during Manchester United ’s win over Leeds United at Elland Road.
McTominay escaped a late red card, having committed six fouls during the fiery affair, with a number coming after his 78th minute yellow card.
With the score at 2-3, a furious Elland Road crowd felt the midfielder should have been given his marching orders after committing a foul whilst on a caution.
However, referee Paul Tierney allowed him to stay on the field helping the visitors to not only see out the win, but to score another late goal in their 4-2 victory.
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The Scotland international was also involved in a collision with Leeds midfielder Robin Koch in the first half, which on another day, could have seen him cautioned.
Gallagher disagreed with that assessment however and explained his thinking, including the “myth” that a player on a yellow should be sent off if they commit another foul.
“I thought the referee Paul Tierney dealt with this situation and other similar situations in this game really well,” Gallagher told Sky Sports.
“The yellow card procedure is as follows: is a challenge just a foul with no further action needed? Is it a foul with further admonishment? Or is something a foul with a yellow card?
“Once someone is on a yellow card, that process starts again. There's a myth that because you are on a yellow card, the next foul means you are going to go off. That's not right.
“What happens is that you are back to square one. It could be that the next tackle, you get sent off but it could be that you have an accumulation of tackles.”
He continued: “In situations like this, Mark Clattenburg was an expert in knowing when two fouls could be paired up to equal a red.
“But McTominay never then committed what was then an out-and-out second yellow card.
“He was chipping away, but Mark was really good at telling a player to stop.
“It meant that whatever happened on the next foul, the player would be sent off. The referees do this well now.”
Gallagher was also asked to give his opinion on Leeds’ second goal, which came just 24 seconds after their first and following a tackle which saw Bruno Fernandes appeal for a foul.
VAR decided to stick with the on-field decision, another call which Gallagher agreed with: “I think he got plenty of the ball and for me this summed up the game.
“The second half was fantastic and both sets of players went at each other. For me, he's got plenty of the ball and it's a good hard tackle.
“Fernandes didn't expect him to be there and for me there's not a lot wrong with that.”
