Tyrone Mings controversy shut down despite injury update away from Aston Villa
Aston Villa secured a much-needed away win against Bournemouth on Saturday, but didn’t go without controversy at the Vitality.
The Villans travelled to the south coast on 10 May and took home a superb three points in their race to secure a top-five finish this campaign.
An Ollie Watkins strike deep into first-half added time was enough to see out a 1-0 win and help the B6 club move to sixth in the Premier League table.
On another day, it could have been so different for Unai Emery’s side as controversy has surrounded the win, with Dermot Gallagher now sharing his thoughts.
Gallagher speaks out on Bournemouth v Aston Villa incident
There were a number of challenges that caught the eye for the wrong reason on the south coast as Stuart Attwell handed out nine yellow cards on the day.
This ultimately saw Jacob Ramsey pick up a soft red card for two bookings, which made the final 10 minutes nervy for the travelling fans.
| Minute | Bournemouth bookings | Minute | Aston Villa bookings |
| 27′ | Alex Scott | 28′ | Marco Asensio |
| 45′ | Adam Smith | 45′ | Jacob Ramsey |
| 78′ | Illia Zabarnyi | 45′ | Emi Martinez |
| 83′ | Dean Huijsen | 80′ | Jacob Ramsey (Red) |
| 90′ | Ezri Konsa |
Funnily enough, this didn’t turn out to be the main moment of controversy as Tyrone Mings collided with Alex Scott in the first half.
The Cherries midfielder was caught by the centre-back’s elbow, in a moment described as “violent” by Andoni Iraola at full time.
This was despite a foul being given in favour of the Villa man, with former Premier League official Dermot Gallagher suggesting the elbow wasn’t deserving of a red card.
Speaking on Sky Sports News (12 May), he said: “I think it’s not a red. He’s tried to fend him off, a yellow card, not a red card, would be right.
“You have to be careful. Because he’s sustained an injury, you can’t categorise something as a red card because of that.
“I refereed a game where the worst injury in football happened, David Busst, and it wasn’t a foul. You have to be mindful of the incident.”
Mings decision right in Aston Villa win v Bournemouth
It is certainly unfortunate that Scott suffered a dislocated jaw, but as Gallagher says, that shouldn’t impact the on-field decision.
The England under-21 international challenged Mings from behind, and he is always going to shield and protect the ball from onrushing opposition players.
This wasn’t the view of Shay Given on Match of the Day, but ultimately, a former official has backed up the opinion of on-field referee Attwell.
Villa didn’t let the controversy of this impact them and went on to secure the win thanks to Watkins, which is all that mattered for Emery and Co.