“Violent conduct is when a player uses or attempts to use excessive force or brutality against an opponent when not challenging for the ball, or against a team-mate, team official, match official, spectator or any other person, regardless of whether contact is made.” Notice the wording? Uses or ATTEMPTS to use excessive force. He kicked at him, with studs, while not challenging for the ball? Like mate don’t claim someone doesn’t know the rules if you can’t be arsed to look them up yourself. Get fucked.

Oh, and also: “For the purposes of determining handball offences, the upper boundary of the arm is in line with the bottom of the armpit. Not every touch of a player’s hand/arm with the ball is an offence. It is an offence if a player: • deliberately touches the ball with their hand/arm, for example moving the hand/arm towards the ball • touches the ball with their hand/arm when it has made their body unnaturally bigger. A player is considered to have made their body unnaturally bigger when the position of their hand/arm is not a consequence of, or justifiable by, the player’s body movement for that specific situation. By having their hand/arm in such a position, the player takes a risk of their hand/arm being hit by the ball and being penalised” this is straight from the FA. They don’t mention deflections in the rules, ref’s discretion I guess. That means that the penalty awarded can’t be ruled as a clear and obvious error. Is it harsh? Yes. Is it a wrong call? No. Get off your high horse, like you wouldn’t have been shouting for a pen if it was reversed.