{"id":663010,"date":"2025-12-30T18:29:19","date_gmt":"2025-12-30T18:29:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/663010\/"},"modified":"2025-12-30T18:29:19","modified_gmt":"2025-12-30T18:29:19","slug":"ex-pgmol-chief-supports-red-card-after-patrick-bamford-incident-in-sheffield-united-win-vs-stoke-city","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/663010\/","title":{"rendered":"Ex-PGMOL chief supports red card after Patrick Bamford incident in Sheffield United win vs Stoke City"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Patrick<\/p>\n

Credit: Imago, Sky Sports<\/p>\n

\"Oliver <\/p>\n

Tue 30 December 2025 14:45, UK <\/p>\n

Keith Hackett has insisted that referee John Busby was right to send Stoke City\u2019s Ben Pearson off after he took down Sheffield United striker Patrick Bamford in Monday\u2019s clash.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The ex-PGMOL chief has exclusively told Football Insider<\/strong> that Pearson denied a clear goal-scoring opportunity with his challenge on Bamford<\/a> and so deserved to be shown a red card.<\/p>\n

Stoke and Sheffield United faced off at the bet365 Stadium<\/a> on Monday night as they both aimed to pick up vital points in their respective promotion hunts.<\/p>\n

It was the Blades who came out on top by a 2-1 scoreline, as goals from Jairo Reidewald and Tom Cannon were enough to seal the three points, despite Ben Wilmot\u2019s late strike for the hosts.<\/p>\n

A tense affair saw the Potters pushing for an equaliser in the closing stages, and it was their desire to score which saw Pearson caught out as he lost possession and took Bamford down as he went through on goal.<\/p>\n

\"MarkCredit: ImagoPearson was sent off for denying a goal-scoring opportunity for Bamford<\/p>\n

Bamford has shone since joining Sheffield United<\/a> last month, but he started on the bench against Stoke<\/a> and had barely had a touch of the ball before effectively being through on goal in the 88th minute.<\/p>\n

It was Pearson\u2019s loose pass to an opponent that had seen him threaded through, and the Potters midfielder felt he had no other choice but to haul him down just past the halfway line.<\/p>\n

MORE FOOTBALL INSIDER STORIES<\/p>\n

Tomas Rigo was the only other Stoke player near the ball, but referee Busby felt he was not close enough to the action and that Pearson had fulfilled the quota for denial of a goal-scoring opportunity (DOGSO), and so brandished the red card.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

It was Stoke\u2019s second red of the season after Divin Mubama was sent off for a second yellow card after diving against Southampton<\/a>, with Mark Robins<\/a>\u2018 side losing more ground on the top six after the defeat.<\/p>\n

Hackett hails Busby for \u2018correct\u2019 call to send Pearson off<\/p>\n

Pearson is well-known for his mean streak, and he will now be banned for Stoke\u2019s trip to Hull City<\/a> on New Year\u2019s Day following the dismissal.<\/p>\n

Speaking exclusively to Football Insider,<\/strong> former PGMOL boss and ex-FIFA referee Hackett<\/a> insisted that he felt the right decision had been reached by referee Busby to hand the Potters man his marching orders.<\/p>\n

\"Ex-FIFACredit: Getty Images<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cThe referee, in determining that a player has met the criteria for the Denial of an Obvious Goal Scoring Opportunity (DOGSO), must consider the following\u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cDistance between the offence and the goal, general direction of the play, likelihood of keeping or gaining control of the ball, location and number of defenders.<\/p>\n

\u201cLooking at the incident, I am satisfied that the referee was correct to send off the player for DOGSO.\u201d<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Credit: Imago, Sky Sports Tue 30 December 2025 14:45, UK Keith Hackett has insisted that referee John Busby…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":663011,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8817],"tags":[202231,748,393,4884,202533,2696,2924,1620,4239,35559,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-663010","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sheffield","8":"tag-ben-pearson","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-great-britain","12":"tag-john-busby","13":"tag-keith-hackett","14":"tag-patrick-bamford","15":"tag-sheffield","16":"tag-sheffield-united","17":"tag-stoke-city","18":"tag-uk","19":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115809941519776619","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/663010","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=663010"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/663010\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/663011"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=663010"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=663010"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=663010"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}