Lewis Dunk

[Chris Black come back]

I think what is fairly reasonable to assume is that if Sharp had not been mangled then we would have had a better chance than otherwise to either draw or win that game, given how potent he was. If that had happened then perhaps SOD would not have been under such scrutiny and The Experiment not have then resulted following his departure.

[NickDRFC]

I think what is fairly reasonable to assume is that if Sharp has not been mangled then we would have had a better chance than otherwise to either draw or win that game, given how potent he was. If that had happened then perhaps SOD would not have been under such scrutiny and The Experiment not have then resulted following his departure.

[Alickismyhero]

I think what is fairly reasonable to assume is that if Sharp has not been mangled then we would have had a better chance than otherwise to either draw or win that game, given how potent he was. If that had happened then perhaps SOD would not have been under such scrutiny and The Experiment not have then resulted following his departure.

I was at that game and the tackle was just infront of our stand. It was a dirty tackle and I find it very hard to excuse Dunk. Shortly after that tackle Hayter pulled up injured.

 Did it bring on the failed experiment who knows? but what I found interesting was that Sean in 2013, when he was at Bristol City, took Dunk on loan! no grudge held there then.

[BillyStubbsTears]

Hatter didn't "pull up". He wrapped his foot round a defender's head while attempting a swivel volley, and knacked his knee ligaments.

That was one of those things.

Dunk's foul was to this day one of the worst I have ever seen and it is beyond belief that the d**khead of a ref who was 6 feet away only gave him a yellow card.

[Metalmicky]

I've seen worse tbh - ref was probably too close to call it......... just after 5 mins on highlights

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tz9r-F3j3j0

[Alickismyhero]

Hatter didn't "pull up". He wrapped his foot round a defender's head while attempting a swivel volley, and knacked his knee ligaments.

That was one of those things.

Dunk's foul was to this day one of the worst I have ever seen and it is beyond belief that the d**khead of a ref who was 6 feet away only gave him a yellow card.

BST, That is exactly as I saw it. When it comes to Hayter, for simplicity, I said Hayter pulled up it was in fact self inflicted exactly as you said. It was these two incidents/ injuries that put an end to our best/only strikers for months.

[RoversAlias]

For months? Again Sharp only missed 6 games and Hayter missed 3! Everyone seems to have grossly exaggerated their memories of this entire thing. Both players scored on their returns too so it's not like their form suffered the effects of those dastardly evil tackles.

People really need to let this go. It had a bearing on us losing to Brighton that day, sure, but they were always heavy favourites considering the occasion. It had no impact on our dismal relegation.

[BillyStubbsTears]

I've seen worse tbh - ref was probably too close to call it......... just after 5 mins on highlights

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tz9r-F3j3j0

I'll post the stills that I screen grabbed from the other angle when I get home. It was a shocking challenge when you see it from head on. Utterly out of control and the sort of challenge that finishes careers.

[BillyStubbsTears]

Agreed with RA.

Those injuries didn't change our history. Having Woods, Dumbuya, Lockwood, Martis, Naylor and Hird as key members of the first team squad was far more detrimental. Those outfield players were all either retired or playing 1-2 divisions lower within a year. Woods was the luckiest Tier 3 title winner in history the following season, being protected by one of the best defences in our history, but he was never remotely Tier 2 standard.  In the whole back five, we started that season with only Tommy Spurr and George Friend (played out of position at centre back) of the requisite quality. O'Connor was injured and in any case was on a downward path from the player he'd been a year or two back. He only had a slack handful of decent Championship-level performances left in him by then.

[Metalmicky]

I've seen worse tbh - ref was probably too close to call it......... just after 5 mins on highlights

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tz9r-F3j3j0

I'll post the stills that I screen grabbed from the other angle when I get home. It was a shocking challenge when you see it from head on. Utterly out of control and the sort of challenge that finishes careers.

It wasn't a great challenge, but nowhere near the worse....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6nGkafx3-Ks

[Alickismyhero]

Hatter didn't "pull up". He wrapped his foot round a defender's head while attempting a swivel volley, and knacked his knee ligaments.

That was one of those things.

Dunk's foul was to this day one of the worst I have ever seen and it is beyond belief that the d**khead of a ref who was 6 feet away only gave him a yellow card.

BST, That is exactly as I saw it. When it comes to Hayter, for simplicity, I said Hayter pulled up it was in fact self inflicted exactly as you said. It was these two incidents/ injuries that put an end to our best/only strikers for months.
Hayter and Sharp I don't think fully recovered from those injuries for some time even after they returned to the team.

[idler]

I remember playing Notts Forest off the park and losing 1-0. We weren't getting hammered as such just not good enough. With a fit Billy we might have got a few points in the games that he missed rather than playing catch up.

[Campsall rover]

It’s distant history. Are we ever going to move on?
Having said that how that tackle of Dunk’s wasn’t a red card I will never know. I think the occasion of it being Brighton’s first game at the Amex might have had something to do with it.
Now for ..... sake can we move on.

[Donnywolf]

_________________________________________________________________________________________

I tried to draw a line under it earlier this mornng - and it didnt work. So try again

[drfchound]

Listening to the Brighton v Rovers match commentary, the commentator comes over as being very much biased towards Brighton.

[dickos1]

It doesn’t look that bad a tackle on those highlights, the one earlier by one of our players spurr maybe looks just as bad

[BillyStubbsTears]

The earlier one was Naylor.

It was nowhere near as bad.

Naylor misjudged the tackle, realised he had done so, bent his leg out of the way and missed their player by fully 18 inches. Because he was a controlled old pro who never once in his career was sent off for dangerous play.

It looked bad because their player, understandably, anticipated an impact and ended up jumping over the challenge.

Dunk's was a different thing altogether. He flew in from behind, taking off from 3 yards behind Sharp, in a direction where he could never get within a yard and a half of the ball,but was inevitably going to plough straight through the back of Sharp's leg. He hit Sharp with a fully extended, braced leg (the most dangerous impact) then for good measure, came through him with the scything other leg.  It was a f**king awful challenge.

EDIT: see attached. As I say, a f**king awful challenge. Any pro should be disgusted with themselves at a challenge like that.

[idler]

I could also never understand why Billy was booed by a lot of their fans as he went off on a stretcher.
I was also there at the Goldstone Ground when Darren Moore was sent off amid a shower of bananas thrown by their so called fans.
They lost a lot of respect from me over those two incidents.

[Bristol Red Rover]

Thanks for posting that file BST. I'd forgotten how close the ref was. He had the perfect view.  Eddie Ilderton, pah! Lewis Dunk, pah!

[BillyStubbsTears]

Does make you wonder if Ilderton's eyes were painted on. What in Christ's name was he thinking?

[turnbull for england]

I could also never understand why Billy was booed by a lot of their fans as he went off on a stretcher.
I was also there at the Goldstone Ground when Darren Moore was sent off amid a shower of bananas thrown by their so called fans.
They lost a lot of respect from me over those two incidents.

Something that was quickly forgotten in the Brighton media love in

[RedJ]

Does make you wonder if Ilderton's eyes were painted on. What in Christ's name was he thinking?

Eddie Ilderton does not think.

[Bristol Red Rover]

He's since reffed in a lot of our games, I don't recall his performances.

--> Just looked at the rate the ref polls. Seems he was rated as dire for several games following that Brighton mess but more recently has improved.