In my limited expirence of playing competitive football I have to say that grabbing at an opponents shirt is not always necessarily a voluntary, pre-meditated action and can often be a sub-conscious reaction to put out a hand as much to steady yourself as to catch an opponent, on Saturday the covscum player still got to the position he was going to be in whether gaz had grabbed his shirt or not, therefore the punishment far outweighs the crime IMO.
The ref got things wrong for both sides and had a serious case of little man syndrome.
McAuley knew the cov player had got past him, so he grabbed hold of his shirt to slow him down.
Pulling someone's shirt has always been a foul, it was a clear penalty. I don't know how anyone can still be blaming the ref after seeing the pictures.