Liverpool striker Dirk Kuyt insists there was no malice involved in what looked to be a horror challenge on Phil Neville in the Merseyside derby on Saturday.
Merseyside derbies are always fiery affairs, and Saturday’s was no different, Everton ending the game with nine men and Liverpool being lucky to finish with eleven.
Dirk Kuyt was just a few inches away from receiving his marching orders after a two-footed lunge towards Phil Neville.
Luckily for the Dutchman, no contact was made, however referee Mark Clattenburg issued a yellow card for the dangerously play.
Kuyt himself claimed: "People saw the TV and said my booking looks bad. But I was just trying to make a tackle and I did not want to touch the player, and I didn't.
"Maybe I was a bit lucky, but I never had any intention of trying to hit the player, it was a yellow card and I accept that."
Everton's veteran defender Alan Stubbs, who led the condemnation of the challenge afterwards, was not convinced.
Stubbs said: "That was a two-footed lunge. If a player leaves the ground with both feet, that's a red card, and he gets a yellow.
"In the laws of the game if a player goes in with two feet and makes a lunge, and that is what it was, it's a red.
"If Phil (Neville) hadn't been so honest he could have been rolling around and trying to get him sent off. It's a two-footed tackle and that's a red card offence."
Merseyside derbies are always fiery affairs, and Saturday’s was no different, Everton ending the game with nine men and Liverpool being lucky to finish with eleven.
Dirk Kuyt was just a few inches away from receiving his marching orders after a two-footed lunge towards Phil Neville.
Luckily for the Dutchman, no contact was made, however referee Mark Clattenburg issued a yellow card for the dangerously play.
Kuyt himself claimed: "People saw the TV and said my booking looks bad. But I was just trying to make a tackle and I did not want to touch the player, and I didn't.
"Maybe I was a bit lucky, but I never had any intention of trying to hit the player, it was a yellow card and I accept that."
Everton's veteran defender Alan Stubbs, who led the condemnation of the challenge afterwards, was not convinced.
Stubbs said: "That was a two-footed lunge. If a player leaves the ground with both feet, that's a red card, and he gets a yellow.
"In the laws of the game if a player goes in with two feet and makes a lunge, and that is what it was, it's a red.
"If Phil (Neville) hadn't been so honest he could have been rolling around and trying to get him sent off. It's a two-footed tackle and that's a red card offence."
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