When you gotta go, you gotta go. On Saturday, Salford City’s Max Crocombe was sent off for peeing during the match against Bradford Park Avenue. It happened toward the end of the match, and the only confirmation were these two tweets from Bradford Park Avenue:
86' - RED CARD! This is bizarre. Salford goalkeeper Max Crocombe has been dismissed and no one knows why... #greenarmy (1-2)
— Bradford Park Avenue (@BPAFCOfficial) October 28, 2017
87' - We can confirm that Crocombe has been sent off for urinating during the game. We are not joking. #greenarmy (1-2)
— Bradford Park Avenue (@BPAFCOfficial) October 28, 2017
Notably, Salford City also tweeted about the penalty, but made no mention of the pee incident after this tweet:
88: Red Card! Crocombe see red for something off the ball. No one has a clue what has happened. 1-2
— Salford City FC (@SalfordCityFC) October 28, 2017
Even though Crocombe left the match, Salford City still won, 2-1, but he had a lot of explaining to do.
Salford City’s keeper Max Crocombe who was sent off emerged out the tunnel saying “All I did was have a piss”
— Thomas Feaheny (@ThomasFeaheny) October 28, 2017
According to Bradford Park Avenue secretary Colin Barker, here’s what happened from his perspective (via RTE):
“He was told by the steward twice not to do it and he went ahead and had a pee.
“He went to the side of the stand as I understand it. I didn't actually see it but the referee definitely sent him off for it because he was alerted to it by his linesman.
“One of our spectators has made a formal complaint so we're waiting to see what will happen from there. But there's no secret about it. It's been reported to the police.”
Crocombe later made a formal apology through Twitter, saying it was an “error in judgment” and that “it won’t happen again.”
— Max Crocombe (@Meeiix) October 28, 2017
It’s probably embarrassing for Crocombe that this is now on his record for the rest of his soccer career (and perhaps his life), but at least it gave soccer fans an opportunity to take the piss (sorry) out of this incident. I don’t know whether we should be thankful there’s no video footage of this.