'No malice': Robinson defends Dunne over challenge that injured Biereth

Stephen Robinson has defended “super pro” Charles Dunne over a tackle in last week’s League Cup win over Motherwell than left Mika Biereth injured.

After the match Stuart Kettlewell called the challenge “absolutely horrendous” and said it deserved a red-card for being “two-footed and straight-legged”.

But Robinson insists there was no malice or intent in the incident and says the defender “slipped” after winning the ball.

He said: “I spoke to Stuart after the game and I have no issue, I know Charles and we’ve seen the footage back, Stuart is obviously annoyed that he has lost one of his best players.

“There is absolutely no malice in it, he’s got the ball and slipped with his back leg, we had a similar incident with Jonah Ayunga against Motherwell when Jonah ends up being out for nine months and these things happen in football unfortunately, without any malice or any kind of intent.

“Everyone has their own opinion on it so it won’t be a tit-for-tat from me, I have a lot of respect for the Motherwell boys and I know I can look people in the eye and say there was absolutely no intent in that.

“Ultimately we don’t want to see anyone injured and we wish the boy a quick recovery and hopefully he’ll be back on the pitch soon.

“Charles is a great boy, he is a super boy, there’s a lot of things that Charles does that nobody knows about for people less fortunate than himself and he is a super boy to have around the football club, so there is no malice in Charles and absolutely zero intent, he’s got the ball.

“There was another tackle straight after that, that nobody has mentioned that was a heck of a lot worse, but we are thankful there was no injury from it and we move on. It’s football and these things happen.”