FA Should Have Made Example of Newcastle's Danny Guthrie

According to most, the dirtiest player in the Barclay's Premier League is Joey Barton, but I've never witnessed him tackle in as shocking a manner as Newcastle United teammate  Danny Guthrie's hack at Craig Fagan last Saturday, that left the Hull City man with a broken leg.

Joey Barton has been sent off more times than I can remember and has been in trouble with authorities within as well as away from the game for most of his adult life.

Arguably, he's better known for his temper than his footballing ability, which is a shame as he's a very talented player.

Danny Guthrie, on the other hand, is still trying to make a name for himself at the Magpies (he did impress on a loan spell at Bolton Wanderers last season) after failing to make the grade at Liverpool.

Well Danny you've done it now, but sadly you're name is more likely to be linked with Joey Barton than with a group of promising young midfielders.

An interesting little known fact is that Guthrie played for the youth teams of both Manchester United and Liverpool.

The 21-year-old was as frustrated as any of the Newcastle players at being 2-1 behind to Hull at home with just minutes remaining. Only Guthrie, though, decided to take the law into his own hands as he chased down Fagan and attempted to bring him down.

Sadly the frustration of failing to bring him down boiled over as Guthrie chased again before taking a sickening swipe at the Hull player.

It has been described as "common assault" by some, and I back that claim. Had it not been on a football field but in a pub or on the street, then a case of assault could easily have been opened.

Guthrie kicked him so hard with an unlawful challenge that he broke a fellow player's leg!

It was well and truly out of order.

What do the Football Association do?

They do nothing but uphold the three match ban for an automatic red card.

Does anyone remember Jeremie Aliadiere being given an extra match ban just for making an appeal?

Anyone else see an issue here? The FA has to get its house in order.

"It cannot be tolerated, it needs to be kicked out the game," Hull boss Phil Brown told the Hull Daily Mail.

Oh, and he wasn't talking about Craig Fagan.

Normally someone has to get hurt before action is taken but not even that is enough it seems.

Guthrie has apologised for the incident, sighting his track record as evidence of him not being a dirty player.

I say—what track record?