Vicko Sevelj has blasted Danny Armstrong for a tackle he claims would have resulted in a jail sentence in his native Croatia.
The Dundee United star got whacked on his right knee by Kilmarnock’s Armstrong in last weekend’s 1-1 draw at Tannadice. And after being the recipient of the dangerous challenge, the Tannadice summer signing was surprised the book wasn’t thrown at Armstrong by the SFA in the aftermath of the collision as VAR Alan Muir didn’t refer ref Steven McLean to the monitor for a second look after he waved play-on.
“In Croatia, you would go to prison for that!” Sevelj said. “I could go with a broken leg easily there, I just told him [McLean], ‘Did you not see anything? You can’t say anything to the ref, he’s in charge, and I could just get myself booked. I have a bruise from hip to knee, it’s all purple so it wasn’t a great challenge. And I’m happy to go without any serious circumstances. It’s a little bit sore but yeah, it’s OK. It was not a great challenge on myself, there should be a punishment for this.
“I couldn’t believe that I didn’t get to fall or the ref didn’t stop the game, anything. Because they had a counter-attack after it and clearly the ref saw I was on my way to the ball then I got such a bad challenge on myself.
“I knew already Scottish football was one of the harshest leagues in the world, and the league is very physical. But this fall is out of the fair play game. This should be a yellow or red card.
“My legs are full of some wounds from the time I came here to Scotland. But yeah, like I said, I got used to Scottish football. It’s very physical with very strong duels, and players are very strong.
“In the first few games, it was sore but now I just keep going and adapted to it. I guess when you come to Scotland, you expect some physicality but maybe not so much. The physios and doctors solved it, I went back to training on Tuesday.”
Handling the rough and tough of Scottish football is something the Tannadice defender has got used to as he hasn’t been short of advice. He revealed pal and Aberdeen striker Ester Sokler warned him before arriving in Tayside several months back and his gaffer Jim Goodwin also did from his tough- tackling days at St Mirren.
The Croat added: “I spoke to Ester before I came. He said to me that his league is very physical, and there is so much high-intensity running. But I watched Scottish football before, I knew it already.
“He [Goodwin] gave me a lot of advice because I was playing on this midfielder. But yeah, I adapted well. As I keep playing, I will adapt more.”
United travel to Fir Park this afternoon to face Motherwell looking to rectify being on the losing side twice to the Steelmen this term and open up a five-point gap in fourth and Sevelj is targeting revenge. He added: “The last one was painful to us, because we were a better team. But that’s football. It’s time for revenge.”
The 24-year-old has revealed family and friends have flew over from Croatia to catch him in action. He continued: “Scotland has full stadiums, nice people and I’m enjoying being here. My parents were here, my friends were here and they’re all so excited to come back again.”
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