Norwich City: Thorup on Hyam and Gunn Blackburn clash..
Johannes Hoff Thorup is not expecting retrospective FA punishment for Dom Hyam’s flailing arm that felled Angus Gunn in Norwich City’s 1-1 Championship draw at Blackburn.
Television replays clearly showed Hyam’s outstretched left arm catch Gunn in the face, as he looked to prevent him restarting play after claiming a corner.
Gunn fell to the turf while concerned team mates checked on him, but the Rovers’ centre back escaped with a lecture from referee Doughty following what appeared a consultation through his ear piece to the fourth official.
City fell foul of retrospective punishment meted out to Kenny McLean for a similar incident in a Championship defeat at QPR in December 24, that was not spotted on the day by the match officials.
Former referees’ chief, Keith Hackett, told Football Insider on Saturday night the authorities should punish Hyam.
“If ever there was a requirement to re-referee this incident is it. A clear arm in the face of the goalkeeper. A red card offence and it should have been seen by the referee,” he said.
New Blackburn boss, Valerien Ismael, said he did not see the incident when questioned in his post-match media, and Thorup was not calling for the FA to act despite City’s own brushes with the authorities this season.
“You never know. There’s no line in this, and we just have to accept it and get on with it,” he said. “You know there’s a new referee when we play on Friday, there’s another referee after that and one after that. We just have to get on with this and accept that things like that happen and they cannot get punished for that. It’s just how it is. We keep on playing.”
Thorup had plenty to say at the time McLean was hit with a three game retrospective ban from video footage, with an additional one game penalty added to the tariff for a previous red card this season, just hours before City’s 0-0 league draw at Portsmouth in December.
“I’ve never seen anything like this,” he said. “But they opened the door for a new strategy, a new way of working, and a new competition for us, because I expect that the same will happen to all the other teams. Otherwise, we don’t compete on equal terms.
“They have opened the door where they can possibly go back in time and then take decisions like that, and even on game days, they can present the news to the team. A whole new world for us. So I’m looking forward to go back and watching all the Championship games tonight and tomorrow, and then find out how many suspensions there will be between now and the weekend.
“It’s not the way that I’m used to working in the federations I’ve been a part of, and it goes from the Danish one to Uefa. It’s a new world for me, and I cannot do anything else than except that’s probably how it is. But I think it’s a surprise to everyone working within professional football.”
