Crystal Palace chairman Steve Parish has blasted Liam Roberts’ challenge on Jean-Philippe Mateta as “the most reckless I’ve ever seen” – but Millwall head coach Alex Neil disagreed with his assessment.
The incident came inside six minutes when Mateta challenged for a high ball just outside the area and Roberts came out of his box, catching the Palace striker’s head with his high boot.
After a check of the pitchside monitor, referee Michael Oliver sent Roberts off, with Mateta receiving almost 10 minutes of medical attention on the field before being taken off.
He was taken straight to hospital and Crystal Palace boss Oliver Glasner told BBC Sport after the game that Mateta was conscious.
And in a somewhat unprecedented step, Parish gave an interview at half-time to discuss the incident which had left him furious.
He said “He’s got a bad gash behind his ear and a head injury. He’s at the hospital and we hope for the best.
Millwall goalkeeper Liam Roberts reacts before receiving a red card
“There’s a lot of emotion in football but we need to talk about that challenge. I’ve never seen a challenge like it… that’s the most reckless challenge on a football pitch I’ve ever seen.
“He needs to have a long, hard look at himself because he’s endangering a fellow professional with a challenge like that.
“And why the referee needs to go to the screen, I have no idea… If you’re kicking him in the head at full force, who knows what kind of damage could be done.”
After the game, Millwall boss Neil somewhat played down the incident, disagreeing that it was one of the worst challenges he had seen – but also admitted he was yet to see it back.
He said: “I don’t think there’s any intent. Why would there have been? It’s the start of the game, the ball gets put in behind and he tries to get there.
Crystal Palace’s Jean-Philippe Mateta lies injured following a high boot from Roberts
“I certainly wouldn’t label it as the worst challenge I’ve seen. We don’t want the lad to be injured so naturally, we wish Mateta well and hope he’s back on the pitch soon.
“For me, it’s mistimed, he’s been sent off, he’s disappointed. We wish Mateta well and it’s nothing more than that for me.
“At the time when it happened, I didn’t know if he’d caught the lad or caught the ball because the ball seemed to go off in a strange angle.
“Unfortunately, [the screens] at the side of the dugout weren’t working, so we couldn’t really watch the incident back.
“I haven’t seen it back since but he’s mistimed it and got sent off, which at that stage of the game, makes the game doubly difficult for us. It was disappointing. He’s made a call and hasn’t quite got it right.”
The injury took the shine off of Crystal Palace’s win for Glasner, with the Eagles now in Sunday’s quarter-final draw.
“We can’t be really happy. Of course it’s a great win and into the quarter-finals, but when you lose a player with a foul like this, you have two different feelings in your stomach,” he told BBC Sport.
“I’m sure that the goalkeeper didn’t want to injure JP in this situation because no player wants this. But if you go for the ball like this with the intensity in the head, you just can’t do it because it’s so dangerous. I don’t want to blame him, but it’s a terrible foul.
“Going to the FA Cup quarter-finals is a great achievement and now fingers crossed, we’re hoping the best for JP.”
