"Desperately unlucky" - Former top referee has his say on decision to send off Sheffield United's John Egan at Aston Villa

Egan was sent off after just 12 minutes of Monday night's game, after tussling with his former Brentford teammate Ollie Watkins as the pair chased a long ball over the top.

Referee Graham Scott showed Egan the red card for denying a goalscoring opportunity, a decision which baffled Blades boss Wilder after the game.

To compound Wilder's misery, John Lundstram missed a penalty and Ezri Konsa headed Villa's winner from a corner, condemning the Blades to a second defeat in as many games.

But Gallagher, a former top referee who now analyses officials' decisions as a pundit, described Egan as "desperately unlucky to be sent off".

"The reason I say that," Gallagher added, "is that the ball has come 60 to 65 yards, and is still in the air.

"Is he [Watkins] in possession of the ball? No. Is he likely to gain possession of the ball? I think it's possible, but it's not obvious.

"They are both grappling from around the halfway line, they're grappling for about 10 or 15 yards and when they eventually come apart... I think that's when the referee made his choice.

"For me if he'd blown up earlier and given a yellow card, no-one would have really been talking about it now."

Gallagher, though, did not agree with Wilder's view that Matt Targett should have seen red for bringing down Chris Basham for the spot-kick that Emi Martinez saved from Lundstram.

"I think it's a penalty, but I don't think it's a red card," Gallagher said.

"Matt Targett has no idea where Basham is. He's looking to flick the ball away or even guide it out of play, he knows which, but Basham's come in behind him and he's just clipped his ankle and he's gone down.

"But it's not one where you wouldn't say he made a genuine attempt to play the ball and under the double jeopardy it was decided that the punishment was too great to send a player off for that and therefore it's a yellow card offence."

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