The gloss has been taken off Cardiff City's magnificent win at Crystal Palace by the ugly incident in which Palace's on loan defener Claude Davis has effectively been accused of assaulting Roger Johnson.
The incident at a first half corner kick saw Johnson felled to the floor by a flying arm and elbow into his windpipe. Tne player suffered serious breating difficulites, was left coughing up blood and had to stay overnight in a London hospital.
ITV pictures on the Championship initially appeared incoclusive as the incident was almost out of shot but further footage and photo stills now suggest Davis wasn't following play, was targetting Johnson and intended to block him. It certainly shows up Palace boss Neil Warnock's claims that his man was standing his ground, it was anything but. You also wonder how the referee claimed he did not see the incident when the footage showed him to be in pole position for viewing.
An aftermatch of the incident saw Cardiff City boss Dave Jones and Warnock sent to the stands as Jones tried to confront Davis at half-time and the hangover has carried forward into with Peter Ridsdale issuing a statement on the Cardiff City official website confirming that the club are asking the F.A. to investigate the incident as a matter of urgency "as the challenge looks deliberate and malicious and could have more seriously endangered Roger Johnson's well being". Ridsdale added that "If that incident had happened off the field of play, the police would have been asked to view the video with a view to considering assault charges. Any further comment will only be made once we have had a response from the F.A.".
A number of websites and messageboards have discussed the story and the general concensus is that it was an act of thuggery. I'm sure the player never meant to cuase Johnson the problems that he had but it deserves condemnation. Fortunately Roger seems to be better today but it could have been so much worse.
This still photo shopws the Palace man looking onl;y for Roger and not bothering to watch the corner.
http://strandsjewellery.com/mystuff/johnson.jpg
And this YoutTube video is quite compelling too.
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