Smith bemoans ‘dubious’ dissent rule

Brentford boss Dean Smith admitted confusion over the new dissent rule after his side finished with 10 men in a draw with Sheffield Wednesday.

Bees striker Lasse Vibe was sent off for two bookings – the first for dissent – moments before Wednesday grabbed a stoppage-time equaliser to draw 1-1.

Wednesday already had 10 men when the Dane was dismissed, with David Jones shown a second yellow card for dissent when the Bees were ahead, and Smith felt his side would have won the game with 11 men.

“It’s very dubious what is dissent and what is not – it becomes one person’s opinion,” Smith said.

“If you throw your arms up, they’ve been told that they can book you. Two players did that and got bookings but there was probably five or six others that did it, but it didn’t happen. It’s one of those things.

“How they get a free-kick for his first booking I don’t know. The assistant gave a poor foul against Lasse for Lasse to react. But the new rule is that, if you put your arms up and show dissent, you get booked.

“Lasse has apologised. It was a soft foul but always a booking for the second one. Eleven players against 10 we win the game. I was trying to bring Lasse off and put Josh Clarke on at the time.

“To be fair, the referee was consistent. As long as his opinion doesn’t change within the game, you’ll take that.

“We were very poor in the first half, and they were very good. We made basic mistakes but thankfully they didn’t bring their finishing boots.

“If you’d have offered me a draw at half-time I’d have snapped your hand off.”