Liam Scales has enjoyed a very good start to his fledgling Aberdeen career so far this season.
He has impressed the fans and pundits with his performances since his loan move from Celtic in the summer to the point where the Aberdeen manager Jim Goodwin is seriously contemplating trying to make his temporary move permanent [The Sun].
But at the weekend it looked as if Scales’ bubble may have burst as he was sent off in Aberdeen’s 3-1 away loss to Hibs as he was sent off for a second bookable offence.
You can see the incident here where former ref Dermot Gallagher says the referee got the decision right, but to me, it looks like the on-loan Celtic man has been dealt a rough hand:
👀 Dermot Gallagher says VAR would have awarded Hibernian a penalty for handball by Ross McCrorie and analyses Liam Scales' red card ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/TDY4lWDSUA
— Sky Sports Scotland (@ScotlandSky) September 20, 2022
The red card was roundly criticised by the Aberdeen manager but former referee’s Steve Conroy and Des Roach had a damning verdict on not only Ryan Porteous’ part to play but also Hibs manager Lee Johnson.
As reported by Edinburgh News, both refs were speaking through their Get Involved Referee podcast and it was Roach who stepped in first with this, “My interpretation was that Porteous was the one who instigated the whole scenario. He was clearly pulling and grabbing Scales’ jersey and then moved into a headlock as the movement progressed.
“As Porteous is falling you can see Scales has his hands up saying, ‘I’ve not got a touch of him’.
“I think that’s got to be looked at – a manager saying he’s condoning it, encouraging his players to get another player sent off.
“Take it back to the bones, that’s cheating. And [Johnson] is condoning cheating.”
Conroy concurred with this damning verdict, “It goes a step beyond condoning.
“By those comments, Johnson is encouraging cheating. Let’s not kid ourselves, it was cheating and Johnson is praising Porteous for it by coming out and talking about it.”
Very hard-hitting comments and ones that, although showing how harsh Scales was dealt with, will not be much consolation considering his dismissal contributed to the loss of three points for his loan club.