Ireland international and Reading captain Paul McShane has been charged by the FA after an on-field, head-to-head confrontation with his teammate Danny Williams.
Williams has also been charged following the incident, where McShane seemed to move his head towards Williams on the back of an argument between the pair. Here is the incident in question:
Reading team-mates Paul McShane and Danny Williams squared up to each other on the pitch last night. pic.twitter.com/yxVWod8hCy
— Spreadex (@spreadexsports) April 14, 2016
An FA statement regarding the incident read:
Paul McShane and Danny Williams have both been charged by The FA following an on-field incident which was not seen by the match officials but caught on video.
It is alleged the two Reading players’ behaviour in or around the 83rd minute of the game against Middlesbrough on April 12, 2016 constituted violent conduct.
The matter was referred to a panel of three former elite referees who each reviewed the video footage independently of one another to determine whether they considered it a sending-off offence.
Both players have until Friday to respond to the charge, but McShane responded beautifully when quizzed on the issue by Reading FC correspondent Charles Watts, providing an extremely honest account of the flashpoint which saw him square up to his American teammate during Tuesday's 2-1 defeat at Middlesbrough.
When Watts asked if he had seen the incident replayed on Sky Sports, McShane was unashamed in revealing a little something about his daytime tv habits:
No, I was actually sat down and had just finished watching The Chase on ITV, then the local news came on and I saw it on there.
I was obviously looking at the things on social media and someone said it was on Sky Sports. I couldn’t believe it, I was like 'for God’s sake', because they slowed it down.
When it’s played in real time it looks like a coming together. It looks like we bounced, but when you slow it down it looks like a totally different incident.
When we were going in I think I was expecting a lock of horns, as you do if you’ve ever been in a fight before.
Danny stayed up straight, with the speed that we’ve gone in if I’d headbutted him there would have been serious damage because we’ve had a right step at each other.
However, the Royals captain was quick to dismiss any suggestions of malice on his part, and admitted he only partly feels the need to apologise for his behaviour:
There was no headbutt. It was a coming together. I put my head down, he kept his head up - it’s as simple as that.
It was done and dusted in two seconds. It was a two second thing that spilt over, then we got back in position and got on with the game. That was the end of it.
I suppose you have to say sorry for those couple of seconds where it might have got out of hand. But we’re both passionate players and we want to do our best for Reading.
At least we’re showing that we’re not letting the season peter out. We wanted to go on and win that game when we could have just gone through the motions.
Yes I can apologise for it spilling over for a couple of seconds but I can’t apologise for wanting to go on and win that game.
When quizzed as to whether the coming together looks good to fans at the Madejski, the Wicklow man told Watts:
No. But as I said it spilt over for two seconds. We’re competitive people in a competitive game. We want to finish the season off strong and it was a game where we could have beaten the team at the top of the table. We could have sent out a good message.
It’s not as if there is a split or we don’t get on. There is nothing like that. I love Danny, I love his passion and it was just one of those things that happened for two seconds.
It was put to bed at the end of the game, We were talking after the match, we said sorry to each other and that was it.
Then yesterday with social media and replays, it was totally blown out of proportion I feel.
The 30-year-old said he understands why the club took action against him, but also made light of the incident when asked if he felt he could 'take' his American clubmate:
Yes I can understand it. It spilt over for two seconds and we can understand it didn’t look good with the replays.
We take that on the chin and move on.
We might have to have a rematch. German style against the Irish style.
One suspects Williams won't seek to land his captain in any further trouble with the FA, but it will certainly be interesting to see if McShane can avoid what unfortunately seems like a nailed-on violent conduct charge.
H/T: GetReading.co.uk
