Torquay United v York City 23/3/13

[PhilGull]

In my opinion, poke was rushing out so this decision for a red card was a very tight one. Cruise did intentionally push him over but it all depends if cruise was "the 2nd last defender" as its officially known. (poke being classed as the last defender). If he was deemed to be then there is no choice- which I think he was; just, if you look at who's covering. imagine without cruise being there, who would be the next defender and where is he placed (McDonald?) - the attacker is ahead of him.

I don't think the number of defenders matters any more, it's just whether the attacking player had a 'clear goal scoring opportunity' or not. In this case it seems pretty clear cut that he did, had he not been fouled he would have got a shot away and in had a very good chance of getting the ball in the back of the net.

[Yellow4life]

The term is 'denying a goal scoring opportunity' or is he the '2nd from last defender'(although its more seen now as to just how many defenders are around) ...that's what I learnt on my referee course anyway. However it does depend more on goal scoring opportunity where you need to consider the distance from goal, has the attacker got control of the ball and the direction of play.