Chisholm Blames Shimmin For Arbuckle Injury

Morton defender Dominic Shimmin has come in for a lot of criticism in the press today after his tackle on Queen Of The South's Gary Arbuckle (pictured, left) resulted in the striker suffering either a double leg break (according to the Queens website) or a triple leg break (according to a Gordon Chisholm quote in the Scottish Sun).

In the Daily Record Kenny Macdonald's match report opens with the line: "GORDON CHISHOLM launched a furious attack on Dominic Shimmin after the Ton stopper's horror tackle left Queens striker Gary Arbuckle with a triple leg break." While Chisholm is quoted as saying: "I said after the match that I knew their defender was going to take everything out with the challenge and even now I cannot see how it wasn't a booking. The injury says it all - Gary's leg is broken in three places. I am not saying it was intentional but it was certainly not a normal tackle. I had seen him doing it twice in the second half by taking everything out, the ball goes first and his momentum follows through on Gary. He wasn't going to miss him."

The Scottish Sun's report is similar. The headline for their article is 'Domstruck: Chis blasts Ton ace over Gary's triple leg break agony' and includes the same quote as the Record. Both match reports use the incident as the main talking point.

Morton manager Davie Irons defended Shimmin in today's Greenock Telegraph. He said: "Dominic Shimmin has won the ball clearly. He is a very aggressive type of player, but he certainly doesn't go into hurt people."

However, I'd like to give the final word to a Queen Of The South fan, Distant Doonhamer, who posted on Pie and Bovril to give his take on the tackle: "I had a perfect view of the tackle. It was extremely hard but fair. Not 2 footed, not through the back and he clearly got the ball first. Irons is a tube but he is correct on this one. I would indeed show Shimmin the door- the door into Palmerston. From what I`ve seen the best central defender in the league and certainly not a dirty player"

You can see the tackle at 8.24 in the video below.



qosfc.com - Gary Out With Broken Leg

Scottish Sun - match report

Daily Record - match report

Greenock Telegraph - Ton Leave It Late At Cappielow (05.01.2009)

Distant Doonhamer's post on Pie and Bovril