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One of the brightest prospects ever- Gerrard explains appeal for Covidiot Patterson

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Steven Gerrard wants the SFA to go easy on Nathan Patterson because he is going to be a really good player!

On February 13 the Murray Park starlet ignored the law of the land, decided that the seven match suspension that Jordan Jones and George Edmondson had picked up in November wouldn’t apply to him and joined up with nine others at a house party including four team-mates.

In the early hours of February 14 everyone in the party was handed Fixed Penalties by Police Scotland with his club announcing an investigation late on the Sunday evening.

A rapid decision was expected by the SFA, in August Celtic had two matches postponed after Boli Bolingoli failed to self-isolate after taking a trip to Spain. Eighteen days after the news surfaced he was given a three match SFA ban.

Jones and Edmundson waited just 17 days to be given seven match suspensions but fortunately for Patterson four days after his Fixed Penalty James Tavernier got a sore leg.

It took the SFA FORTY-FOUR days to suspend Patterson and his pals for four matches which would have covered two Scottish Cup ties and two SPFL fixtures.

Despite being able to choose when the suspension applied the Ibrox club appealed against the suspension, yesterday Gerrard told The Sun the grounds for that decision.

Nathan is growing and growing, game by game and it’s a shame that he is going to miss games moving forward. I’m not too happy over that and I’m not sure Steve Clarke will be very happy as well because unfortunately he’s going to have a big ban now.

The reason for the appeal is we think it’s harsh in terms of what went on that night. I think everyone assumes because of what happened with Jordan Jones and George Edmundson that everything is the same, which isn’t the case.

We think it’s a little bit out of sync in terms of what went on. We don’t think everything has been taken into consideration when you are talking about the boys in terms of age and how damaging it could be for them in their careers moving forward now.

You are talking about one of the brightest prospects ever in terms of right-back. This kid is going to go and play for Scotland and all of a sudden the SFA want to ban him for that long. I don’t see it, I don’t get it but we’ll see what happens moving forward

The SFA are highly unlikely to stage the appeal before April 18 allowing Patterson to continue playing two months beyond getting his Fixed Penalty.

Before Tav got a sore leg the incredible prospect that is Patterson hadn’t started a single SPFL match this season. Tav still has a sore leg. Ian Maxwell is CEO of the SFA.

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