Aberdeen’s Dom Ball opens up on semi red and insists Ryan Christie holds no hard feelings

Dom Ball will never forget his first red card.

But it isn’t the media storm that followed his devastating aerial challenge on Ryan Christie at Hampden that has seared the incident into the Aberdeen star’s mind.

It isn’t even the accusations of premeditation that have been levelled at him by a section of the Celtic support.

Instead, it’s the enduring nature of his friendship with Christie – not to mention the selfie the stricken Celtic star sent him to illustrate the extent of his injuries – that means Ball will always remember every detail of their fateful clash.

“I had slowed down, thinking I was on a yellow card and I shouldn’t do anything stupid,” said Ball, casting his mind back to the Dons’ Scottish Cup semi-final defeat.

“I’ve never been sent off before.

“I’ve been in 50-50s before, where players have ended up on the floor, but there’s been nothing wrong with that and there’s been no booking.

“At first, I thought Ryan was going to win it.

“But the ball bounced up and it was floating in the air, so obviously I’ve gone for it and our heads clashed

“I lived with Ryan in Aberdeen last year, so I was never going to try to hurt him. He’d stay with me when he couldn’t be bothered going home!

“It was disappointing that the impact meant he had done his cheekbone and his eye socket, then he banged his jaw when he landed.

“I’ve been in touch with him the whole time since it happened.

“It was disappointing that I had hurt him, and he’s out for the rest of the season.

“You forget all about the football when something like that happens, and on that day it was more about how he was than anything else.

“But he’s actually been having a laugh about it.

“He sent me a selfie and said, ‘How the hell have you got off without even a headache and I look like this!’

“I was shocked when I saw the picture, though, because the previous week I had a collision with Uche Ikpeazu of Hearts, and I hurt my head a little bit. But this time there was nothing.

“I think it’s because Ryan flicked the ball, then his momentum carried him into the side of my head.

“I watched it back because I thought the red card was very harsh. But that clash was a yellow card.

“The booking before that was for my first foul, and I still stand by my view that it was harsh to get two yellows.

“But it was my first sending-off ever – and hopefully the last.”

Ball accepts he was naïve to challenge Christie in the way he did while already on a booking at Hampden.

But the 23-year-old has previously coped admirably with high-pressure games in Glasgow this season.

With second place still on the line, today’s clash with Rangers is as high-stakes as they come. And for Ball – a former Ger – the objective will be to turn the tables on Steven Gerrard’s side.

“We’ve scored early goals in both games at Ibrox this season, and that really puts the pressure on them,” he said. “Having played for Rangers, I know that if things aren’t going well for them, then Ibrox can be a very tough place to play.

“That’s the level of expectation, and it’s the same for Celtic and ourselves, although we haven’t lived up to that as much as we wanted at home.

“We won three, drew two and only conceded a couple of goals in the five games after the split last year, and that is the aim for this season.

“If we do that, then we will be in the position to meet our goal of European football again, which was the ambition from the start.

“Second is still possible if we win at Ibrox, but all we can do is take each game as it comes and we are going for maximum points in every match.”