Lynch, a refereeing coach and match delegate, admits that he occasionally took similar preemptive measures during his career. Yet he can readily understand the dangerous signal that would be sent out if Rennie was officially and unreservedly congratulated by his superiors.
Lynch explained: 'That would set a precedent and you can well imagine that if a referee tried to do the same with some aggressive player in a Sunday game, he could easily find himself floored.
Equally, Lynch believes Rennie, a 16- stone martial arts expert, should not be condemned because his brand of ' manmanagement' was seen to work in that it headed off, albeit fleetingly, the red card Keane subsequently received for elbowing McAteer.
'Uriah knew from past experience that he could save a sendingoff by getting involved. Mind you, if Keane had given a good shove back there could have been a problem,' said Lynch.
It has been a delicate and complex issue for Don who, as the manager of the 24 select referees employed by the Professional Game Match Officials Board, was landed with a dilemma.
On the one hand it was a refreshing change to have one of his referees basking in the rarity of universal praise; on the other, it was not a case for which the refereeing authorities could claim credit, given their guidelines to officials.
But he found a happy medium yesterday, saying: 'Although the PGMOB do not encourage referees to become physically involved with players, a degree of commonsense should be exercised in each individual instance.
'Uriah Rennie's intervention on this occasion served to prevent an escalation of the situation and was part of a very commendable performance. He will not be reprimanded or disciplined in any way by the PGMOB.'
