When I first saw Burnley’s Ashley Barnes horrendous tackle on Chelsea midfielder Nemanja Matic my first reaction was to wince!

It was a nasty challenge, one that makes you shudder at the thought of what might have been.

In my eyes, it was a coward’s tackle as he wasn’t brave enough to go in hard, but fair.

Coward and cheat are two words that no footballer, or sportsperson for that matter, wants to be labelled.

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Unfortunately, though, both tags are earned and, at the very least, there is never smoke without fire.

Barnes seemed to have had a clear intention of what he was doing and it didn’t seem to be winning the ball.

Those over-the-ball challenges can also be career-ending and that isn’t me exaggerating the incident for effect.

If you have seen the incident then I think you would agree with what I have said.

For those that haven’t seen it, Barnes’s foot was high as he attempted to win the ball from the Serbian midfielder.

Barnes’s boot came down so hard on Matic’s shin that he was lucky not to suffer a broken leg.

It was a horrible tackle to say the least.

Matic reacted with a shove to Barnes and if teammates weren’t there he would have gone further and for his reaction he was instantly red-carded by referee Martin Atkinson.

Every player knows when the opposition is trying to ‘do him’ and I feel that’s why Matic reacted like that.

I am not one to condone violence or retaliation, but I can totally understand Matic’s reaction.

In the midst of all the shoving, pushing and separating of bodies, Barnes escaped without even a booking, let alone a red card.

We hardly ever see a good challenge nowadays, especially as every slight contact is met with falling over followed by three roly-polys.

On a positive, I did see Aston Villa’s Ciaran Clarke make a ‘proper’ tackle against Leicester a couple of weeks ago.

He won the ball and took the man too and all this going at full speed!

It was a joy to watch as I feel that tackling is a dying art, and not enough players try to perfect the craft or skill.

Tackling is a skill and like most skills it has to be practiced before it can be perfected.

I feel that nowadays players are replacing tackles with the cynical trip or the accidental block, all are just different forms of lazy ways to stop an opponent from progressing.

Another way to stop them, which is far worse, is to make a tackle like Ashley Barnes did, which was reckless to say the least.

It would be nice to see games where ferocious, but fair tackles were being dished out on both sides as well as a large amount of skill and flair.

It’s part and parcel of the game and that for me used to be part of the attraction.

Players like Leeds United’s David Batty, Arsenal’s Patrick Viera and Manchester United’s Roy Keane used to relish those sorts of games because of the very same reason.

I realise that maybe the laws of the game, the refereeing and players’ reactions would restrict those sorts of players having the same impact - no pun intended.

Only Barnes knows what was in his mind when he went into the challenge, but from what I have seen, he appeared to go in with the intention of hurting Matic.

I’m just glad Matic wasn’t injured by the challenge.

It’s just a shame he will miss Sunday’s Capital One Cup final against Spurs because of his reaction to the incident.

I will be attending the final at Wembley Stadium as part of a special birthday treat for my son, Jayden.

But despite Matic’ absence, I am hoping to see Chelsea win the cup.

For Michael Duberry’s latest views see the Oxford Mail every Wednesday.