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Garrido Blames United; Full Breakdown of Time Added | 
In the aftermath of the ill-tempered Manchester derby this past Sunday afternoon at Old Trafford, the blame game has reached its peak in the Northwest. In the latest of a series of developments, Manchester City’s Spanish fullback Javier Garrido has accused Manchester United of creating an ”insulting” atmosphere while hosting the much awaited derby game.
To elaborate on his claims, Garrido said: ”I was hit by a coin on the head when I was just walking calmly down the tunnel but I believe the target was Carlos Tevez, but I was standing next to him at the time.”
“This was seen by Manchester United staff but nobody offered any kind of reason. Manchester City have not provoked any of this controversy and United have created a climate of hostility against us.”
It is interesting to notice that Garrido brings up a very sensitive issue here. Every Premier League fan is aware that the build up to this thrilling clash was largely centered on Sir Alex Ferguson’s dismissal of the Sky Blues as a “small team” with a “cocky mentality”. In particular, Fergie had singled out Carlitos by accusing him of unprofessionalism. Obviously, with this half-time incident involving the coin going public, Tevez and his teammates are expected to gain quite a bit of sympathy for being deliberately targetted at Old Trafford.
On another note, in an incident related to the game itself, Mark Hughes mentioned his dismay at the failure on the part of matchday officials to restrict the stoppage time to its initial allocation of four minutes. Michael Owen famously scored the decisive goal to make it 4-3 well past the fifth minute mark, which means City obviously have a point in case, at least in hindsight. Upon closer review of the situation, however, it seems that it was only justified to extend the stoppage time based on the time wasting on part of Hughes’ men.
Hence, I believe that unlike many other controversial incidents where United have received more than their fair share of the benefit of doubt at Old Trafford, this particular decision to let the game proceed all the way till the 96th minute was a correct call. After all, the Red Devils were chasing a win, and they were rewarded justly at the expense of their visitors, who were understandably desperate to hold on to a hard-earned draw via means of all their time wasting. For a full analysis of the time added on (on top of the announced minimum of four minutes), see the video below.
The grandest of all incidents from this clash between the Red and Blue halves of Manchester, however, arrived just moments after the final whistle. Temperamental Manchester City striker Craig Bellamy vented out his frustrations by delivering a solid knockout punch to a fan whose intrusion on the field was certainly uncalled for. However, considering that this fan was nowhere close to Bellamy when arrested by the stadium security, there was no reason for the Welshman to overshadow his heroic two-goal performance by assaulting this fan in the heat of the moment.
Considering Bellamy’s controversial past in terms of anger management issues, it is only understandable for concerns to mount over the striker’s overreaction. As a result, quite a few critics believe that he should be suspended from anywhere between one to five games. Meanwhile, I strongly believe that due to this being a post-game confrontation with an individual who is foreign to professional football, Bellamy should be fined by the Greater Manchester Police while also reprimanded for his actions with a formal warning.
While not absolutely inexplicable, Bellamy’s actions were easily preventable nevertheless and in order to set an example for the rest of the league, I believe the minimal punishment of a fine (with warning) should be mandatory. Similarly, a tough punishment should also be handed out to the United fan who has been accused by Garrido in the aforementioned incident involving the coin. Gary Neville, on the other hand, should not be punished at all for a goal celebration that was only natural given the circumstances surrounding United’s dramatic win.
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@Layi: Like I said, from a practical perspective, the ref. got it absolutely right. But from a technical standpoint, the goal was scored a second too late. Now that does not necessarily mean that those who are defending City in this argument wanted the whistle blown when Owen had just released his shot. It’s just that they want to point out how excess time was added on. With that being said, let me clarify that I have no problem with the referee’s call. It’s just that listening to what everyone here has to say, it makes sense for City to protest as the clock kept ticking with no heads up given as to when it will stop ticking.
The whistle should have been blown between the second after it left michael owen’s foot to enter the goal and then entered the goal… RIGHT
I love it! lol beat a high caliber team like man city and its “Added time” that helped us. there’s always something when it comes to the great ones winning, always something…
After hearing out what most of the City supporters have to say, we have to concede that there is certainly an argument to be made if we’re judging strictly on a technical basis. Michael Owen’s goal came a second too late and even though that’s not too significant in the bigger scheme of things, it is technically not a correct call so the whistle should have effectively blown a second before the goal was scored. Patrice Evra claims that Owen saved United from Fergie’s backlash but it’s extremely hard to deny that the whole added time controversy also played quite a huge role in keeping the United dressing room calm and composed.
@ Happy To Be Blue: It’s pretty clear actually that the punching incident, regardless of how severe the punch itself was, actually occured right after the final whistle. A repeated watch of the replays also shows this clearly along with all other media sources so I am not sure why you’re in disagreement over the timing of the incident.
I won’t be responding to every single comment as this incident is way too controversial but @ the guy who thinks Bellamy’s punch did NOT come AFTER the final whistle, go check out the game again mate – and if you’re too lazy, read the first sentence of this article from Times http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/premier_league/manchester_united/article6842260.ece
Cheers!
Brian, you know your football and that’s a fact.
@brian:
There shouldn’t have been 4 minutes to begin with and you don’t add on the full time from crossing the line to kick off. The rules as laid down on paper by the FA (and confirmed by former ref Dermot Gallagher as being standard since Euro ‘96) state 30 seconds a sub and 30 seconds for excessive goal celebrations. I
n a half with no injuries, no timewasting and no excessive goal celebrations how do you get 4 minutes? Before the Owen goal there was 4 subs and 4 goals…. even if you assume all were excessively celebrated (which they weren’t) that’s 4 minutes maximum (and that includes Bellamy’s goal and the injury time sub).
Honestly how people can try and justify 7 minutes injury time in a game with no unnatural stoppages is beyond me.
The board did not show a minimum of 4 minutes. What it showed was that there would be 4 minutes of extra time. Every single fan before this game, whoever you supported, would believe that this meant 4 minutes of extra time, NOT A MINIMUM OF 4 MINUTES.
If your adding up is correct, why did the whistle go 16 seconds after Owen finished celebrating. Did he not take more than 16 seconds to run around OT twice.
At Spurs v Chelsea, 2 potentially serious injuries occurred in the second half. Result 7 mins of extra time. Understandable. At OT, no serious injury, at any time during the match. Result 7 mins of extra time. Absolutely beggars belief. So now, every game where say, five goals are scored, plus 3 subs each, plus 45 seconds for each celebration. Total length of game Just over 99 minutes. God the fans get good value. NOW.
How often do you see a manager, before this match, put on a substitute in order to waste a few extra seconds. Only now do we learn that this has all been a con all along and it actually adds seconds to the game. I bet all the stupid managers who believed otherwise are now looking at the rule book.
Finally, yes United played well in the 2nd half, but considering City were the away team, scored 3 goals, almost unheard of at OT, came from behind 3 times and were the better team in the 1st half, a draw would have been a FAIRER result that City earning absolutely nothing.
If 56 seconds were added on for the celebration after Bellamy’s goal why then were only 16 seconds played following the kick off after Owen’s goal? The Manchester Utd players celebrated for just over one minute and yet this additional time was NOT added on by the match official. Seems to be a case of double standards.
Now do not get me wrong I strongly suspect that Utd would not have been as profligate as City in giving the ball away and the likelyhood would have been that the result would not have altered. But if the arguments for adding time for one goal celebration are accepted, the failure to add them for a celebration by the other team is the issue that bears explanation.
Where did the additional four minutes come from in the first place, bear in mind there were no injuries and only two subs AND the fourth official knew there was an impending ‘United time wasting’ substitution coming on at 90mins, but City then scored again(officials didn’t expect that did they)…..and I’ve never heard of added time for goal celebrations, if so there should have been an additional 2 mins played after Owens goal, ref blew straight away…..its a total farce.
Just for your information, Bellamy’s “knockout-punch” was no more than an open-handed push to the clown’s face and it certainly wasn’t AFTER the final whistle.
If you’re going to write it, research it!!
@footyfanforfairness – The board showed by the fourth official indicates that there will be a MINIMUM of four minutes of stoppage time. There was a goal celebration that City took long for in stoppage time and there was a substitution – of course more time will be added on (this couldn’t have been accounted for before they announced four minutes). Should that time just be erased? Of course not – it was correctly added on. Watch the video above and you’ll see that the referee was spot on. No questions about it, no controversy about it.
What is the point of holding up a board showing the crowd that there is 4 minutes of added time, then allowing the game to go on for a few seconds short of 7 minutes? By the way, SEVEN minutes of added time is unheard of unless there is a serious injury to one of the players and the game is held up for a long time. This didn’t happen in the Derby. Just out of curiosity i would love to know what would have happened if City had won the game in the 96th minute. You can guarantee the fourth official wouldnt have been laughing & joking with Ferguson on the touchline in the 96th minute then. It’s obvious that Atkinson has been affected by Ferguson’s criticism of him following his performance in the Portsmouth FA Cup defeat in the past. Graham Poll (ex -ref) recently made a comment that OT is a difficult place for a referee because Ferguson is so intimidatory. It’s time for the FA to stop showing favouritism & abide by the rules. One final comment – the media chose to focus on Bellamy dealing with a hooligan who ran onto the pitch rather than question why it was allowed to happen, why a coin was thrown at City players as they were leaving the pitch at half time & why Gary Neville’s goal celebration was not viewed by the media as inflamatory when he was seen running towards the City fans? No need for answers…it’s all part of the media’s cosy “Big Four” establishment