THERE is another aspect to the sending off of Manchester City’s Fabian Delph in their FA Cup clash with Wigan that some commented on.

Referee Andrew Taylor seemed first to take out a yellow card, which if shown, would only have meant a caution for Delph.

When the player finally got to his feet however, the referee went to another pocket and showed him a red card.

This caused a confrontation between Pep Guardiola and Paul Cook the Wigan manager. The suggestion was made that Guardiola was accusing the Wigan manager of influencing the referee to upgrade his sanction from yellow to red.

I have a different theory about this. If you saw the incident on television, you will have noticed the referee making notes, on what looked to me to be a yellow match record card.

The Laws require a referee to ‘act as timekeeper, to keep a record of the match and provide the appropriate authorities with a match report, including information on disciplinary action and other incidents that occurred before, during and after the match’.

In what might be called a ‘pop-up referees shop’ which I run at Reading referees’ meetings, it has the accoutrements that referees need for their matches, including record cards.

Although there are other versions, I stock three different types. One type is a plastic ‘write on’ card, that can be wiped clean for regular future use.

Referees must make notes at the time things happens, whether this maybe goals scored or disciplinary action taken.

Sometimes players want to take a quick free-kick after a yellow card, but the referee will delay the restart to write his notes.

Obviously he can’t write a full report, that will happen after the match, but he will record the guilty player’s name or number and a code that will remind him later of the incident in question.

I’m sure that what Taylor was doing, was writing on a yellow plastic record card and the code he wrote down was for serious foul play (red) and not reckless tackle (yellow).