John Askey's verdict on Josh Umerah red card decision with Hartlepool United striker set to serve suspension

Umerah was shown a straight red card nine minutes into the second half of Hartlepool's 2-1 victory over Gateshead when lunging in wildly on defender Robbie Tinkler and will now be suspended for Pools’ upcoming fixtures.

Askey suggested post-match that he believes there was minimal contact from Umerah on Tinkler but can see why the referee had a decision to make given the nature of the challenge.

Fortunately for Pools, who were a goal to the good at that stage, Umerah’s early departure did not prove costly as the 26-year-old’s strike partner, Emmanuel Dieseruvwe, scored twice to secure a first win of the season.

“It impacted the game massively because you’re going down to 10 men,” Askey said of Umerah’s dismissal.

“You’re 1-0 up so then you’re thinking ‘can we hold on?’ When it goes 1-1 then you’re thinking ‘is it going to be one of those days,’ where everybody has given everything, are they going to go and score a late winner?

“But full credit to the players, you saw at the end how fit the lads are, and rather than taking it into the corner we go and try to win the game and Mani has done fantastically well to get across his man and put it in the net.

“I think Josh gave the referee every chance to send him off,” Askey added to BBC Radio Tees.

“But I’ve looked at it again and I think Josh has gone to block him, so it wasn’t really a tackle.

“The disappointing part is that their player has gone down and rolled around and Josh has given him every chance to do that I suppose, but there was no contact.

“If we’d have gone on and lost 2-1 then everyone would have been having a go and saying ‘what are you doing’ and I’d have questioned him, because you shouldn’t be doing that.

“But maybe if he hadn't we wouldn’t have won the game, and everybody has gone away happy, which is the main thing.”