The Respect Campaign etc
Another round of games punctuated by some sh1tty officials from top to bottom of the league pyramid. A couple of points. Would it really help the referees if their bosses could come out and offer some explanation to the decision making behind some of the decisions. So the West Ham one could be that Mike Dean thought that the player was off his feet. The Wycombe 'handball' could be that the assistant thought the player was too close to make avoiding movement. It might help us laymen to understand and sympathise a bit more.
Also I thought this season was a new leaf for players and the way that referees could be addressed with an expected glut of bookings for dissent. Did we give up on that. Randall for Newport was a constant gob shite yesterday and the ref' gave him more than one last warning.
Things need to change as the standards are either getting worse or the fans understanding of the rules is getting worse as sometimes i wonder if we are watching the same games. 'Funniest' terrible decision of the weekend was booking the Luton player with the broken leg for punching the turf. Jesus H Christ!
Comments
Players and managers don't make it easy for officials. The gamesmanship or blatant cheating is worse than ever and the sit down by the Newport player on 25 mins yesterday was as planned a drinks break as I've ever seen.
Having said all that the officials are getting more and more awful too. The handball mentioned elsewhere was incredible and the challenge on Gape in the first half was worthy of a red card. What really annoys me though is the lack of respect refs show to the players. The ref yesterday was very obviously not letting players talk to them and being pretty rude when they tried.
The respect campaign is all a bit pointless isn't it? Has it really achieved anything at all apart from a staged handshake before the game?
Even at youth level, lino-ing is a very difficult job. At the additional pace and better timed runs at pro-level even more so. I do think the time has come for say two appeals to video technology per team per match to be fully trialled.
Talking abut the Luton game, I hear that as at Plymouth, the home fans delighted in abusing an opposition player as he was being stretchered off. Hoe this doesn't become a trend.
I still advocate a citation system for cheating. If we can get the players to clean up their act maybe that is one less thing for the officials to worry about.
Has Phil Jones stopped rolling yet?
@DevC - re 'becoming a trend'. I wonder whether this was why Nathan Jones chose to speak out so strongly, in his post-match interview, about the 'lack of class' from the Pompey fans during the incident. I was shocked when I heard what had happened, I always thought sympathetic applause was a 'given' when anyone on either side was being stretchered off. Better though, if it had come from Paul Cook...
I've heard there was possibly more to it - that the player in question was abusive to the medical staff and then spat at the Pompey fans as he left the field (pre or post booing I don't know). Might not be true, just internet talk.
@Jonny_King , with others saying he was the one that had gone in aggressively In the challenge.
not sure if there's any footage as otherwise, like you say it's all internet talk.
He was the one sent off against us for Cambridge once wasn't he? Ingram made a bit of a meal of it, but he clocked him one, or something like that.