CRYSTAL Palace assistant manager Keith Millen has slammed Huddersfield Town striker Alan Lee for swinging an arm at Eagles skipper Mile Jedinak last night.
The Australian midfielder was floored by the former Palace forward in stoppage time of last night's 1-0 defeat at the John Smith's Stadium.
"I saw the challenge at the time and thought it was an elbow," Millen told Advertiser Sport this evening.
"The video footage shows he (Lee) swung his arm. Sometimes you have to move your arms in football and you catch people, but to do that much damage to someone's face is more than just an arm being put out there.
"That was swung and it was a straight arm swing – he's caught him and it's not the first time he's done it.
"It's just not acceptable, and what annoyed us after the game was the reaction, that there was no remorse from Huddersfield and that's what upset us all.
"For Mile to swell up like that and not to get any remorse from their team angered us – it's not the sort of thing you want to see on a football field.
"It was poorly handled and you can't stand by people when they do that sort of thing. We're looking at doing something about it, but it's not the first time it's happened to us, and how have the officials not seen that?
"It was serious when he went down and the referee was around 10-15 yards away looking at it, so how has he not seen the arm? It's how he has swung his arm back, so it was not nice to see."
The Terriers were clearly delighted with their first win in 13 matches at the final whistle, but there proved to be further incident down in the dressing room area with emotions running high.
"It's only a little tunnel there, but it was more the reaction from them," Millen said.
"If he (Lee) had held his hands up and apologised, you can accept it a bit more.
"They celebrated like they had won the league by beating us. Yes, they were under pressure to win, but it wasn't the defeat that upset us, it was because of what happened and it wasn't acceptable.
"Ian (Holloway) was upset because he doesn't want to see any of players coming off the pitch with that sort of injury.
"You want someone to be punished for it."
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The Australian midfielder was floored by the former Palace forward in stoppage time of last night's 1-0 defeat at the John Smith's Stadium.
"I saw the challenge at the time and thought it was an elbow," Millen told Advertiser Sport this evening.
"The video footage shows he (Lee) swung his arm. Sometimes you have to move your arms in football and you catch people, but to do that much damage to someone's face is more than just an arm being put out there.
"That was swung and it was a straight arm swing – he's caught him and it's not the first time he's done it.
"It's just not acceptable, and what annoyed us after the game was the reaction, that there was no remorse from Huddersfield and that's what upset us all.
"For Mile to swell up like that and not to get any remorse from their team angered us – it's not the sort of thing you want to see on a football field.
"It was poorly handled and you can't stand by people when they do that sort of thing. We're looking at doing something about it, but it's not the first time it's happened to us, and how have the officials not seen that?
"It was serious when he went down and the referee was around 10-15 yards away looking at it, so how has he not seen the arm? It's how he has swung his arm back, so it was not nice to see."
The Terriers were clearly delighted with their first win in 13 matches at the final whistle, but there proved to be further incident down in the dressing room area with emotions running high.
"It's only a little tunnel there, but it was more the reaction from them," Millen said.
"If he (Lee) had held his hands up and apologised, you can accept it a bit more.
"They celebrated like they had won the league by beating us. Yes, they were under pressure to win, but it wasn't the defeat that upset us, it was because of what happened and it wasn't acceptable.
"Ian (Holloway) was upset because he doesn't want to see any of players coming off the pitch with that sort of injury.
"You want someone to be punished for it."
The contents of this article must NOT be reproduced without the permission of the Croydon Advertiser.
Follow me on Twitter for the latest Palace news, exclusives and live match updates @AdvertiserSport
If you're on Facebook, please 'Like' our page at www.facebook.com/AdvertiserSport
Watch our exclusive away videos following Palace around the country on our YouTube channel atwww.youtube.com/AdvertiserSport