Stuart Kettlewell’s Shocking Defence of Liam Gordon’s Horror Tackle

Motherwell manager Stuart Kettlewell has bizarrely tried to defend Liam Gordon’s horror tackle on Adam Idah, which left the Irish striker barely able to finish this afternoon’s game at Fir Park.

With Idah now looking like he might struggle to start Wednesday’s match against Dundee at Celtic Park.

Kettlewell said: (Sky Sports), “I spoke to the referee just on the pitch. There was no animosity whatsoever; simply what he saw in the tackle. He watches that many times; there are still images that we keep talking about that make things look a lot worse than they actually are.

“I think we can all see that Liam Gordon is at the very end of his stretch, and I think Adam Idah is coming in at pace as well. The referee spoke about the hinge in his ankle when the contact was made. I personally think it’s really, really harsh. I do think it’s really harsh.

“I understand how it can look in a still image; there wasn’t an awful lot of force in the tackle. He’s trying to get the toe ender just to steal the ball, and he slightly mistimes it.

“But it’s one of those situations now in modern Football where we all want to jump on it and we all want to say it’s a red card, but I think it’s unbelievably harsh.”

Kettlewell’s comments are beyond comical. To see such a clear red card challenge on Idah is endangering the Irishman, and Gordon is lucky he did not break Idah’s ankle.

It was a poor showing from Gordon to make that tackle, and for Kettlewell to come out and question VAR and Alan Muir’s intervention to send David Dickinson to the monitor to review his initial yellow card decision is baffling.

😬 “That’s a shocker!”

Liam Gordon’s yellow card is upgraded to a red and Motherwell will end the Game with 10 🟥 pic.twitter.com/DsXrnX5VzT

— Sky Sports Scotland (@ScotlandSky) October 27, 2024

It’s simply a tackle that no one wants to see in Football.