Motherwell appeal Jack Vale red card but Stuart Kettlewell gets no sympathy from Dermot Gallagher

The Blackburn loanee was shown a straight red card in the Steelmen's 1-0 defeat to Aberdeen on Saturday.

Motherwell have appealed Jack Vale's red card but Dermot Gallagher has backed Craig Napier's decision to send the Steelmen star off in Motherwell's defeat to Aberdeen on Saturday.

With the scores level at 0-0, Motherwell were reduced to 10 men 12 minutes into the second half when Vale was shown a straight red card by whistler Napier for a high boot on Aberdeen full back Jack MacKenzie. Despite huge appeals from the Lanarkshire side's players, VAR decided not to intervene and whistler Napier's decision stood.

Four minutes later, the Dons capitalised on their numerical advantage, when Stefan Gartenmann headed home from a Junior Hoilett corner with what turned out to be the winning goal. In the wake of his side's defeat Motherwell boss Stuart Kettlewell failed to hide his anger with the red card, with goalkeeper Liam Kelly also labelling referee Napier - who was quick to give Vale his marching orders - as arrogant. The Fir Park club have confirmed they have lodged an appeal to the SFA against the decision, which they hope to have rescinded in time for the Premiership clash with Livingston on Saturday.

Sportscene pundits Neil McCann and Lee Miller were also disappointed with the decision and insisted VAR should have stepped in to overturn what they believe was a "clear and obvious error" from the officials at Pittodrie. But appearing on Sky Sports' weekly ref watch segment, former English Premier League whistler Gallagher says the nature of Vale's challenge was always going to result in a red card shown, irrespective of whether the player meant to harm his opponent or not.

But appearing on Sky Sports' weekly ref watch segment, former English Premier League whistler Gallagher says the nature of Vale's challenge was always going to result in a red card shown, irrespective of whether the player meant to harm his opponent or not. He said: "I think the only debate is that he probably didn't mean to do that, but he did do it and was always going to get a red card. It's a very awkward challenge when you see it. Bang. Yes, it's a red card."