Blackburn player bitten by opponent and… sent off

Owen Beck was shown a straight red card for physically confronting opponents and for protesting with the refereeing team, who failed to see Osmajic bite him seconds before

Preston and Blackburn drew 0-0 in the sixth round of the Championship, with both teams receiving straight red cards. However, the highlight was the second, in which Owen Beck, on loan from Liverpool , was sent off after protesting with the referee and for reacting to his opponent’s provocation, resulting in a physical confrontation between several players.

The issue at hand was a bite from the opponent, Milutin Osmajic , which went unnoticed by the refereeing team, in the 89th minute, with the former Vizela forward only seeing a yellow card.

After the end of the match, the away team’s coach complained about the situation, saying that it was visible in the television images: «Owen has a big bite mark on the back of his neck and it’s a shame the referee didn’t see that. It’s a very serious incident, nobody likes to be bitten. Everyone is angry about it. It’s not a nice situation. I’m sure the right people will see what happened and we’ll carry on. It’s a local derby, there’s blood on the line… these are the challenges you expect to see in a local derby», he explained, in a quick interview with the BBC.

The FA (Football Association) announced on Monday that they are aware of the incident and will assess the situation. In 2013, Luis Suárez was suspended for 10 games for biting Chelsea ‘s Branislav Ivanovic , a situation he repeated at the 2014 World Cup , biting Chiellini in the Italy – Uruguay match, so it remains to be seen what punishment the FA will present.