Did This deserve a sending off?
Mansfield fan & an amateur footballer living in Australia. Eccleston turned out for Old Hill Wanderers Reserves in Melbourne and during an uneventful fixture against Swinburne University’s second eleven in 2011, he received a full-blooded volley to the ‘Jacobs’ which would for ever place his name in football folklore. Many men have suffered the pain of a kick to the nether regions – either on the football field or during a heated argument with an offended girlfriend. And like any gent in that unfortunate position, Eccleston rolled around in pain and lowered his shorts to check on the wellbeing of his manhood. Why the referee also felt the need to look was anyone’s guess, but during an uninvited Peeping Tom routine, he spotted a shiny piercing attached to Eccleston’s wedding tackle. Following the letter of the law, the ref ordered Eccleston, embarrassed and presumably still in agony, away from the field of play to remove the attachment. Matters worsened when, on his return, Eccleston was shown a yellow for rejoining the game without permission, and then sent off when he refused to prove that the offending item had been ‘unhooked’. In his defence, I couldn’t blame him. The process would have required a second inspection from the referee, a man who had already been caught peeping once too often. On an amateur video which did the rounds on the Internet shortly afterwards, Eccleston was heard to moan, ‘I’m making a complaint, ref. It’s not right looking at my c***.’
