Westley Believes Red Card Was Wrong

Preston boss Graham Westley has suggested that Jabo Ibehre was fortunate to remain on the pitch yesterday following an off-the-ball incident that saw his own player, Bailey Wright, dismissed for a second bookable offence.

The incident occurred with just under ten minutes to go whilst the U's were already one goal ahead thanks to Freddie Sears' close range strike, and Westley agreed that it wasn't ideal for North End whilst they were chasing the game.

'I stood watching it directly and so I had a very clear view of what went on,' Westley told the club's official website. 'He is as bemused as I am as to why he is sat in the changing room.

'I saw hands go into his face and around his throat, and Bailey's got great big marks around his neck to prove it.

'I don't want to see players sent off, but I've always thought that's a straight red card. You don't want to play any game with ten men and that's something that was wrong in the game.'

With the adverse weather over the past month or so taking its toll on pitches up and down the country, the conditions remain far from ideal for the passing game that Joe Dunne has installed at the club since taking over as boss in September.

Although Westley is known for a more 'up and at them' style of play, he insists that the current conditions leave him with no choice regardless.

He said: 'It was a difficult surface so we had to play a certain type of game, but they played a similar type in all honesty.

'We had lots of appetite and work rate and the finest of margins have won and lost the game again.

'Our finishing was high at one end which doesn't pay dividends, whilst they've made us pay for a defensive lapse at the other.'


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