Roberto welcomes tackle decision
Roberto Martinez has welcomed the FA's decision to take no further action against Birmingham defender Liam Ridgewell despite his horror tackle on James McCarthy at the weekend.
McCarthy suffered further damage to his left ankle midway through the second half at St Andrews after a challenge that Martinez branded 'a
leg-breaker'.
The impact was so ferocious that it led to assistant referee Trevor Massey being stretchered from the field with blood pouring from his
forehead after being caught by the tip of the corner flag, which also found itself in the way of Ridgewell's lunge.
Despite maintaining the challenge was worthy of a red card, Martinez believes a retrospective sending-off and three-match ban would only have made matters worse for his side.
He told the Evening Post: "What you need is the punishment for the action to be handed out in the game.
"At that moment, we were well on top and it would have been a big, big decision in the game that would have helped us get the rewards we deserved.
"It would have been ridiculous to look back at it now and punish the team by taking out one of their best players for a game against
another team who could be fighting for the same aim that we are.
"That would make Birmingham weaker for a game against a team who might be one of our rivals, and the whole thing would make no sense to me at all.
"If officials don't see something during a game, that should be it. There should be no action afterwards."
Thankfully, there was no lasting damage to McCarthy, who was able to make his full Republic of Ireland debut against Brazil on Tuesday night.
The Glasgow-born midfielder, who qualifies for the Emerald Isle through an Irish grandparent, came on for the final 21 minutes of the Emirates clash, which finally ended any hope Scotland had of persuading him to switch his allegiance.
The FA made their decision not to further punish Ridgewell as 'the referee saw the incident and dealt with the situation at the time'.
But Martinez believes Saturday's official Anthony Taylor is not the only man in black to have got it wrong recently, and called on officials to raise their game to prevent themselves being major
talking points after matches.
He added: "What they have to do – and I have said it time after time after time – is they have to be better at getting the big decisions right.
"If you look back at the last three matches, you could put a good DVD together of huge mistakes made in big games.
"Look at the Aston Villa game against Manchester United, our game against Tottenham, and again at Birmingham last Saturday.
"There are just too many big decisions being made that are wrong that are clear for everyone else to see."
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Weather for Wigan
Thursday 09 February 2012
Today
Light sleet
Temperature: 1 C to 2 C
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Wind direction: South
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Light sleet
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