Southgate questions Mido decision

Boro boss unhappy with striker's dismissal

By Chris Burton   Last updated: 15th March 2008   Subscribe to RSS Feed

Southgate questions Mido decision

Southgate: Proud of performance

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Middlesbrough manager Gareth Southgate felt that Mido was unlucky to be shown a red card during their 1-1 draw with Arsenal.

The Egyptian striker was dismissed by referee Mark Halsey for a high challenge on Gunners full-back Gael Clichy.

Replays appear to show that the former Tottenham man only had eyes for the ball and did not go into the challenge with the intention of hurting the Frenchman.

Nasty injury

"I don't think he meant it," Southgate said.

"He caught him but he was looking at the ball the whole time and Mido is distraught because he's not a dirty player.

"It's a nasty injury but hopefully the ref will have a look at it as I feel the lad was trying to play the ball.

"He's been to see Clichy and he's disappointed that the knock is so bad.

"Should he have his foot that high? Maybe not, but I don't think there was any

intent there and a three-game ban would be harsh."

Proud

Boro were four minutes away from recording a memorable league double over Arsene Wenger's high-flying side, and Southgate was delighted to have bounced back from last weekend's shock 2-0 FA Cup defeat to Cardiff in such positive fashion.

"We should be delighted but Arsenal probably deserved to get something from the game," he admitted.

"I'm incredibly proud of how they performed. We were a bit of a laughing stock last weekend and we lost a lot of pride that day.

"We dug in here, despite giving a lot of energy on Wednesday night (against Aston Villa), and showed a lot of character.

"There was one moment of great quality for the goal and the guys did not get what they deserved - but nobody gave us a prayer of getting anything here today."

Compact

Southgate added: "We knew we had to be very compact in the middle and defensively and the team did that brilliantly.

"But I said before that we weren't coming just to make up the numbers.

"It's nice to have taken four points from them but that's down to the team. We had to restore pride in our town with these last two games because that had been dented."