The defender was sent-off in the 25th minute of the 0-0 draw away to Queens Park Rangers and will now be banned for three games.
Defender Dan Scarr will be suspended for Plymouth Argyle’s next three Championship matches after his red card in the 0-0 draw with Queens Park Rangers at Loftus Road.
Scarr was sent-off by referee Tony Harrington in the 25th minute for serious foul play after bringing down QPR’s talented attacker Ilias Chair close to the centre circle in the Pilgrims’ half.
“Probably fair” was the assessment of manager Steven Schumacher about the dismissal of the 28-year-old, whose suspension will start with the game against bottom-of-the-table Rotherham United at Home Park on Saturday.
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Scarr will also have to miss the visit of his former club Birmingham City on December 23 as well as the away match against Cardiff City on Boxing Day.
That opens the door for defender Macaulay Gillesphey to make a return to the Argyle squad after not even making it onto the substitutes’ bench recently.
The Pilgrims had to play for 75 minutes, including added time, with 10 players against QPR after the red card to Scarr, which was their first of the season, but they defended very strongly to pick up a hard-earned point.
Schumacher said: “It was high, Dan did catch him, he didn’t mean to do that. He got him with his calf on Chair’s thigh, rather than his studs.
“If the referee has got a good view of it, he made his decision really quick. He didn’t really consider it did he? So a straight red card.
“Then the lads have bailed Dan out. Obviously he has made a mistake and the lads have worked so hard to get something from the game.”
On Scarr’s three-match ban, Schumacher said: “It’s not ideal, but like we always say it gives somebody else an opportunity. I have left Macaulay Gillesphey out of the squad for the last few games.
“We always say to the players who we have to do that to it’s not easy but when an opportunity comes be ready to step in, so he will be hoping to step back into the squad, and maybe into the team over the next three games.”
Gillesphey, a regular member of the Argyle team which won the League One title in 2022/23, missed the beginning of this season due to injury and has made only two starts and one substitute appearance in the Championship.
QPR had two players booked in the first half against Argyle – midfielder Sam Field and left-back Kenneth Paal – and both were substituted by Rangers boss Marti Cifuentes at the break to avoid the risk of them being sent-off in the second period.
Schumacher said: “We would have done the same, I called it at half-time to the players. We said we were expecting them to take one, maybe two players off who had been yellow-carded.
“We tried to do something different right after half-time but it didn’t quite work. We spoke to the players and said if this idea doesn’t work we will revert to a back five and we looked better once we got Adam (Randell) and Mickel (Miller) on as wing-backs.
“We looked a bit more solid and could get players in the right areas on the pitch. They have had to put their bodies on the line throughout the game. We had one or two balls flash across their box but not too much going forward with only 10 men as you would expect.”
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