Charlie Richmond: Brown tackle was a red - Halliday's wasn't

Former Scottish referee Charlie Richmond believes the decision to overturn Scott Brown's red card was the wrong call.

Scott Brown was shown a red card for this challenge on Ross County's Liam Boyce. Picture: SNS

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Richmond also claims Andy Halliday’s challenge on Patrick Roberts in the Old Firm semi-final was only worthy of a yellow card.

The ex-whistler appeared on Thursday’s Sportsound contest to discuss the overturning of Brown’s red card, which was downgraded to a yellow on appeal.

Celtic's Patrick Roberts is taken down by Rangers' Andy Halliday. Picture: SNS

He said: “Surprised but not disappointed because of the way the system works. As well all know, the judicial panel is made up of an ex-referee, ex-player and ex-manager.

“It’s on the incident alone. Unless you were out of the country during the week you would have been aware of the tackle in the Old Firm semi-final, but you cannot take that into consideration in any shape or form.

“For me, it’s a red card. You’d classify it as the old-fashioned ‘scissor’ tackle, where he goes in with the front foot and the second foot sweeps around and gets him on the Achilles tendon.

Celtic's Patrick Roberts is taken down by Rangers' Andy Halliday. Picture: SNS

Asked whether he thought Halliday’s challenge was a red, Richmond said: “No. I thought it was a ‘stop the game’. I would categorise with, if you’ll remember a few weeks ago, Hamilton were playing Ross County, and Giannis Skondras went in to stop the County player at the halfway line. He went in with one intention, to stop him playing.

“Skondras got sent off but it was reduced to a yellow card. I would compare they two tackles.”

Comparing Brown’s and Halliday’s, he added: “Halliday has went in with a bent leg, while Brown has gone in with two straight legs and scissored together.”