RED STORM

The Northampton-based official, who sent off two Cherries players in a fixture at Colchester almost four years ago to the day, was up to his old tricks again as Neil Young was dismissed just past the hour mark for hacking down Brentford's Stephen Hunt.

In fairness to Beeby, Young's agricultural tackle was perhaps worthy of a red card but it was the lead-up to his dismissal which rankled most, as Hunt hoodwinked Cherries into believing he was about to return possession at a drop-ball before darting off towards goal.

But in an exclusive interview with the Daily Echo, Beeby said: "It was a drop-ball and both players were in position to challenge for the ball.

"They spoke, the Bournemouth player backed off and the Brentford player went through and we then had the tackle which resulted in the red card."

Beeby confirmed that Hunt had agreed to pass the ball back to Neil Moss after play was stopped for Derek Holmes, who scored Cherries' consolation, to receive treatment for a head injury.

He said: "Yes, I heard the conversation between the players and the Brentford player said he would give the ball back. But, in the laws of the game, the referee can only drop the ball. He cannot manufacture the outcome of the drop-ball - I just drop it. The rest is down to the players."

Beeby, whose dismissal of Claus Jorgensen and Danny Smith in the 3-1 defeat at Layer Road led to an FA fine for Cherries in September 2000, said: "From my angle, Neil Young's was a clear act of violent conduct which is a straight red card offence. Unfortunately, I cannot act on whether a player decides to give the ball back or not."

His decision not to punish Hunt for his part in that incident or an earlier dive in an attempt to win a penalty fuelled the ill-feeling between the players but Beeby defended his decision not to issue Hunt with at least a booking.

He said: "From my angle, the penalty incident wasn't worthy of a yellow card. That may have been different from another person's view."

While the referee's explanation of his decisions should be applauded, Young's decision to decline to talk about the incident to the media after the game was entirely understandable.

But Cherries defender Warren Cummings, who remonstrated with the official in the immediate aftermath, was incensed at Hunt's part in the incident.

Cummings said: "What he did was totally out of order. It is just not right.

"Hunt had told the ref he would give the ball back. The ref said he would deal with him - his actual words were a lot stronger than that - but my argument was that we had lost a player while their man had indicated that he would do one thing and done another.

"We were so irate because the referee seemed to give them the ball to give it back to us. Their player has then run off with the ball.

"Youngy doesn't need telling that what he did was not right either. We protested, the referee pulled me over and while I can't repeat what he said, he wasn't very complimentary about their player."

He added: "I'm not sure if we should have got the ball back in the first place because the ball was up in the air when the ref stopped play. But once he has indicated he will give the ball back, he should have the decency to do it."

Hunt's dive also brought a negative reaction from one of his own team-mates, as Cummings explained.

He said: "Even John Salako turned to me and said 'he should be booked for that dive'. That is one of their own players saying that and that really annoyed us when he wasn't booked. It didn't mask the fact that we played badly but we had got ourselves back in the game and the red card changed everything."