Birmingham City boss Alex McLeish plays down Johnson elbow incident

Dec 7 2009 by Andy Walker, Birmingham Mail

Roger Johnson

ALEX McLeish felt that Wigan’s Hugo Rodallega didn’t intentionally elbow Blues defender Roger Johnson at the DW Stadium on Saturday.

During the first-half of the 3-2 victory, Johnson reacted furiously to a challenge from the Latics’ Colombian forward.

The centre-back jumped to his feet and was held back by teammate Stephen Carr while intimating that he’d been struck in the face by Rodallega’s elbow.

The Wigan player was eventually booked while Johnson had to change his shirt due to blood.

It also resulted in the Blues defender becoming the pantomime villain of the DW Stadium, with boos greeting his every touch from there on.

However, after the match, Blues boss McLeish felt that Rodallega hadn’t purposely struck Johnson.

“He (Johnson) is alright, he got a bang on the nose and I don’t think it was intentional, I don’t believe that Rodellega is that type of player,” said McLeish.

“When a player gets a bang in the face and it’s not a clash of heads then they tend to react like that.

“I don’t think it was deliberate, Rodellega jumped and tried to protect himself, a guy who doesn’t fancy getting hurt themselves perhaps jumps like that.

‘‘I don’t think he actually directed his elbow at him,” McLeish said.