Keith Gillespie will forever own a corner of footballing infamy for picking up the fastest red card in football: his 2007 sending off against Reading for Sheffield United clocking in at a pithy zero seconds. Gillespie was brought on a substitute for Sheffield United, elbowed Stephen Hunt before the game restarted, and received his marching orders.
The former Northern Ireland international now owns a bit of unwanted history in the realm of the Charity Legends Match. An XI of Manchester United legends including Denis Irwin, Paul Scholes, Louis Saha, Bryan Robson and Gillespie were in Australia yesterday to take on a side of Australian legends in honour of the late Dylan Tombides, and to raise money for DT38 Foundation.
The United side got beaten 3-0, but the game will be remembered for a flashpoint involving Gillespie.
With the United side 3-0 down, Gillespie thrust his elbow into the face of Dean Heffernan, who has played 15 times for Huddersfield Town.
Here's a video of the incident:
Keith Gillespie
The officials didn't spot the incident, but Heffernan was taken to hospital in the aftermath. It caused a lot of damage, per Fox Sports Australia:
Foxsports.com.au understands that Heffernan was unable to travel back on Saturday night and had to remain in Perth in hospital for scans, left worse for wear and struggling with his memory of the incident. Gillespie chipped some of Heffernan’s teeth and caused damage to his jaw.
It caused outrage among viewers:
Damn ! Keith Gillespie just knocked a bloke out in Utd legends game in Australia
— Ste Bev (@stebevan) March 25, 2017
just seen this and it's an absolute disgrace from Gillespie in a charity match for a great cause. #Disgusting. pic.twitter.com/OEEScnzlx0
— Daniel McBreen (@djmcbreen) March 26, 2017
It wasn't the only legends game staged during the international break, yesterday. Anfield staged a game between Liverpool Legends, Real Madrid Legends, and Salif Diao, with Steven Gerrard enjoying a much better afternoon that Keith Gillespie.
