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Martinez happy with Blues ace's ban escape

by Admin , 04 March 2010

Roberto Martinez is happy the FA have not taken retrospective action against Liam Ridgewell for his tackle on Wigan's James McCarthy.


The Latics chief had previously revealed his anger over the Birmingham stopper's challenge on McCarthy during last Saturday's 1-0 defeat at St Andrews which left the 19-year-old with left ankle damage.

Martinez felt Ridgewell's tackle was 'a leg breaker' and warranted a red card at the time.

However Martinez has backed the Football Association's decision not to hit Ridgewell with a violent conduct charge and three-match ban as 'the referee saw the incident and dealt with the situation at the time'.

The Spaniard feels the only way Wigan would have benefited is if Ridgewell was sent off at the time and any follow-up action could have helped their relegation rivals.

Martinez 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."

Martinez was also boosted after McCarthy played the final 21 minutes of the Republic of Ireland's 2-0 friendly defeat to Brazil on Tuesday with no ill-effects on the ankle that was injured by Ridgewell's tackle.

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