123over Crystal Palace chairman Steve Parish has lashed out at Millwall goalkeeper Liam Roberts after his brutal tackle on Jean-Philippe Mateta in Saturday’s FA Cup win.
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Referee Michael Oliver showed Roberts a straight red card after just eight minutes for a serious challenge on Mateta’s head.( 123over )
The 30-year-old goalkeeper may have kicked the ball intentionally but his feet were high off the ground and Roberts’ left boot struck Mateta in the skull. Mateta
was taken to a nearby hospital after being substituted and Parish spoke
to BBC Sport at half-time to give an update.
“As far as we know, he’s got a deep cut behind his ear and a head injury,” Parish said. “He’s obviously in hospital so let’s hope everything goes well. “
Football is so emotional but we have to talk about that tackle. In all my time watching football I’ve never seen a tackle like this. I thought how old the goalkeeper was, he was 30. “
It was the most reckless tackle I’ve ever seen on a football pitch and he has to look at himself because he’s putting a fellow professional at risk, maybe even his life, by doing that tackle. “
So it’s very difficult for me to talk about the rest of the game because we’re worried about JP. And it was a really bad interception.”