Dundee United in 'wrongful dismissal' appeal over Ryan Edwards red card, Hearts star's leg, what managers said

Dundee United have confirmed they have appealed the red card shown to captain Ryan Edwards in the 3-1 loss to Hearts on Saturday.

United were leading 1-0 when the centre-back challenged Andy Halliday. After allowing play to run on, referee Nick Walsh was consulted by VAR and went to the monitor to view the incident, concluding it was a sending off offence for serious foul play.

A club statement read: “Dundee United have today sent a notice of claim form to the Scottish Football Association for wrongful dismissal, relating to Ryan Edwards’ sending off at Tynecastle Park. The club will confirm the outcome of the appeal once we have received confirmation of the decision.”

Manager Liam Fox was left frustrated with the decision, impacting the game with United leading and having been the better team.

“I just thought it was a good tackle,” he said. Maybe I’m getting old — but that’s a normal tackle in my day. It’s disappointing because until that point we were really good. If you slow anything down, it can look worse than it is. It’s a contact game. In a contact game there will always be incidents that, if you slow them down, you’d probably be looking at three or four red cards every game.”

Opposition manager Robbie Neilson admitted “would be really disappointed” if one of his players was sent off for such a challenge. He said: “I thought it was a strong challenge at the time. He went in for the ball and it wasn’t high. I might be proved wrong but I didn’t think it was a red at the time.”

United striker Steven Fletcher revealed he had seen Halliday’s leg following the challenge and confirmed “it didn’t look great”.

The IFAB laws of the game state “a tackle or challenge that endangers the safety of an opponent or uses excessive force or brutality must be sanctioned as serious foul play. Any player who lunges at an opponent in challenging for the ball from the front, from the side or from behind using one or both legs, with excessive force or endangers the safety of an opponent is guilty of serious foul play.”

United have already won an appeal this season when Tony Watt was sent off in a loss to Motherwell.