Aston Villa’s Alan Hutton sorry West Brom’s Shane Long was hurt by tackle
Thursday 24th November 2011, 11:30AM GMT.
Aston Villa right-back Alan Hutton today offered a heartfelt apology for his crunching tackle on West Brom striker Shane Long and insisted “I never meant to hurt him.”
The Scotland international was lambasted by West Brom boss Roy Hodgson in the wake of his tackle on Long during the Baggies’ 2-1 league victory at Villa Park on October 22.
Long has made a quicker-than-expected return from the knee injury sustained by the tackle but revealed earlier in the week that he is yet to receive an apology from Hutton.
And the Villa defender has now sought to lay the matter to rest by speaking about the tackle on the Republic of Ireland striker for the first time.
Hutton said: “I would never go out and mean to hurt somebody. It has happened to me before and I just got on with it.
“Everybody’s got their own opinion and they’re going to say things about it, but nobody means to go out and hurt anybody, injuries happen every week.
“I went to win the ball, the follow through wasn’t great. But I would never ever go out onto a pitch and mean to hurt anybody.
“It just happens at times. I’m sorry that he was hurt and he was out for the length of time that he was.
“He’s a great player and he was a great loss for them, so I understand why Roy Hodgson was angry. In that respect, I understand.
“I haven’t seen him or anything but, obviously, nobody likes to see a fellow professional get injured.”
Latest Blog — Same again for West Brom
What a strange two weeks it has been since our last game. I haven’t looked over my neighbour’s fence with as much interest since Pamela Anderson moved in next door and regularly used her trampoline, writes Albion blogger Jarrod Hill.
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Bit late now Hutton !!!
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Come off it mate, you dogged him from the first whisle to that crunching tackle that ended his game. All could see that you knew if you took him out, you would stand a better chance of winning.If you really meant what you are saying you would have issued a statement earlier. To me you are just a thug who gets a way with it, but only for so long. What goes around comes around.
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What goes around comes around? Do you remember a certain Ally Brown ending Alex Cropley’s career?
It was a bad challenge granted, but some of the comments i have heard are unbelievable!
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if you look at the replays, Long actually dived and hurt himself – it was a good tackle
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Hutton’s a nail did the same to Jarvis and should have been sent off against us last year.
Watching the game I was shocked he didnt see red and thats as a Wolves fan
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Cam
Thanks for that, I haven’t laughed that hard in ages!
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3 – what a pathetic and stupid comment….. I was at the match where Cropley got his leg broken and I don’t remember it as an assault but even it was a bad challenge what does that have to do with Shane Long ?? Are you really suggesting a player should get hurt if someone got hurt 25 years ago ??
Alan Hutton is building a reputation as a thug – he has hurt other players, including the wolves winger, which is the complete opposite of Ally Brown. Lets hope the antics of the lovely Kevin Muskat don’t mean that kevin Doyle will be spending a spell in hospital eh ??
If what goes around comes around I reckon you have some really moronic stuff coming your way very soon – lets see how you like it.
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Just like the rest of the villa defence, slow and dirty.
He was after Long from the whistle just as That Donkey from Wolves was but he couldn’t catch him.
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Cam, if you are a typical Villa fan your club has reached new depths !
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The way Hutton is going he’ll be earning a name like “Torpedo”, take that ship out.
BOING~~~~BOING~~~~JtH.
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I watched that tackle several times. It was an assassin’s tackle, pure and simple. If Hutton had been concerned, he would have shown remorse AT THE TIME, not 4 weeks later, when he has been rightly labelled a thug by even his own supporters. Such play disgusts me, especially when the euphemism ‘It’s a man’s game’ is thrown in for justification. REAL men don’t cheat, they have no need.
We may well accept your belated apology Mr.Hutton, but you would be wise not to try a repeat performance.
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3 DAVE BYTHEWAY
Ally Brown on Cropley was one of the most innocent challenges i have ever seen. Hutton went out to hurt Long and i suggest you have an eye test if you think that challenge was fair.
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Hutton knew what he was doing,fair challeng ? Got to be joking
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Nowhere in this article does Hutton apologise for the tackle – he is “sorry that Long got hurt”. This is NOT an apology to Long and is a complete waste of time.
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3 Dave Bytheway-
as ‘Happy Baggie’ said,I was also at that game,and Ally Brown went as pale as a sheet at what happened.
He rarely tackled anyone,and looked shocked and very worried that Cropley was so badly injured.It was a freak incident.
As for Hutton,he was so concerned about having thrown himself feet first into Shane,that with the Albion player limping,but trying to play on,Hutton then stood behind him at a throw-in minutes later,and kicked his legs from underneath him.
So much for genuine remorse.
4 cam-
it was such a good challenge from Hutton that his foot took a piece of bone out of Shane’s knee,and caused severe bruising in that area.
If you think that’s ‘good football’,it speaks volumes about you as a person.
It looks like you’ve instantly become the new winner of the ‘idiot of the week’ award.
Hope you’re proud of it.
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Dave Bytheway, Hutton’s tackle was disgraceful – simple. Those kind of tackles break legs and end careers. What would you have said if that was Jonas Olsson on Darren Bent? Something along the lines of send him off, I’m willing to bet.
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Blimey Dave…talk about holding a grudge about Alex Cropley, jeeeeezas…but for the record the tackle by Ally Brown was a shocker and I said sop on the night ..but man…let it go now ehh
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@12 – I need an eye test? Maybe you should learn to read, as I actually said that it was a bad challenge.
I just feel the way some of the Albion fans, who I actually have a lot of time for as a group, are getting a bit carried away by it all.
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Even after the bad tackle, Hutton went in the book for another foul on Long. It’s good getting a balanced view on here from Wolves fans too. I went to the game as a youngster when Cropley was injured, it was a mistimed tackle by a forward Ally Brown who immediately apologised and was upset by Cropley’s injury. I remember the bile that the Villa fans gave to my Dad and me on our way home after that match. About time they grew up and McLeish stopped sending his team out intent on injuring opponents !
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Way to late !!
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Off beam, Over on the dark side Mick has actually used our terminology for a defensive 4-5-1, Two banks of four plus a sweeper, “Parking the Bus”. Well said Mick.
BOING~~~~BOING~~~~JtH.
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To all the Villa fans who said he had nothing to apologise for, how stupid do you feel now?
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correction, apologies
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Why wasn’t there an apology straight after the game? Everyone knows it was a horror challenge! Mcleish blatantly sent out orders to kick our danger man up in the air. Not much of an apology in my eyes.
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i suppose that hack to the side of the leg a few minutes later wasn’t intended to hurt either.Just another box standard cliched appology from a very average player.I bet that tackle on Bale by Petrov Monday night wasn’t meant either
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NO apology NO remorse, complete animal, he has only spoke out due to media pressure. Peter Grant’s coments “he is not that type of player” ….what manager would admit to it
he IS that type of player I saw the game, I just hope he gets his leg broken by someone who is ” not that type of player “
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No26.ECB. You don’t mean that last bit surely?
That’s looking for an assassin to kill an assassin. Not even 007 goes that way mate.
We need to hope Shane Long recovers fully, refs give the red card for tackles like Hutton’s two in that match and the promised ‘goal-line-technology’ is extended to ‘corners’ that are fiddled and tackles that intentionally cripple. We have the electronics to change the game for the better.
Let’s USE THEM !
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I think its all pretty much been said. Just to say that Ally Brownfar from being a hatchet man couldn’t have tackled a fry up. I remember that day well and it was a bad tackle not in that it was meant but that it was all wrong. I don’t think any of us had seen Ally try a tackle before that, there were often moans that he should get stuck in more and I certainly never saw him try one again after.
As someone else has said, Ally looked totally sickened and took little part in the game after it. Most right minded Albion fans felt just as bad although the usual idiots delighted in a moronic song. The incident was similar to when Luke Moore (ex-Villa) a man of similar tackling ability to Brown tried to get the Albion fans on-side by launching a whole hearted tackle on Leicester’s Stearman (now Wolves) with a predictably similar result although thankfully no injury and got sent off.
PS Well done to the Wulfies for the fair minded responses.
Saw this in the James Morrison article.
Roy said,
“But I have no doubt if you ask him or Graham Dorrans where they prefer to play, they would say in the centre because that’s where they’ve grown up playing.”
I thought GD was a left winger when he joined is. But at least the article shows that Roy sees Mozza’s good points.
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(27)
Cyril,
Dead right mate, Referees are no longer to be trusted on major decisions that cost Head coaches their jobs just to suck up to he big boys and cripple other players that are (Cloggers) in their trade. Hopefully it will start next season with the EYE FOR A GOAL techno’. That’s how I see it.
BOING~~~~BOING~~~~JtH.
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