I have been disgusted with the standard of officiating this season and it is now getting beyond the ridiculous. You expect some decisions to go for you and some to go against you - but in terms of key goal scoring/producing decisions I can't think of one that has gone our way in 12 games!!! Now -forgetting about performances -good or bad, lets look at our games so far. Birmingham (nothing you could complain about), Leicester (we won the game but ref tried to give them a point by playing a silly amount of injury time and letting a clear foul go that led to a very late chance) - Mind you at this stage we hadn't lost any points because of one of those idiots......yet!
Hull (The first occasion when we lost points- two of them because the officials called a clear onside goal offside). Forest (Another point here - when an admittedly undeserved point should still have come our way when a blatant late handball by a Forest player in their area was ignored, despite being as clear as day). Ok so early days and things will even out but we have lost 4 points, thanks to the men in the middle and are still waiting for some favourable decisons.
Palace (Groan - in a game where the first goal was going to be all important, we got it.....only for officials to again wrongly call offside -only this one was so clear the lino thought it right to personally apologise to Sir Chris afterwards. I reckon that cost us 3). 7 points now but no worries, when things even out, we are going to have a great time. Derby next then (Terribly harsh penalty decision going against us which proved crucial in a 3-2 defeat. Although you could argue that it may have galvanised us so I'll let that point go and stay on 7). Ipswich (A good win but nothing gifted to us), Blackburn (should have had a penalty in that game, but not clear enough to claim the 2 extra points, still nothing given to us though as the penalty we did get was clear cut). Watford (again a decsion going against us when a very harsh foul was given on Cort for their free kick. You could say the sending off was in our favour, but did the ref have any choice- it was the most blatent of dives and seeing as the player was already booked. Had we not gone behind, we might have won that but, I won't claim that point either).
Blackpool (another deserved win where we didn't need to rely on the ref, like so many of our opponents do against us). Barnsley (Frustrating game and performance - but if anybody can tell me that the tackle from behind of Stephens wouldn't be a penalty anywhere elese on the pitch, I won't believe them. Another point possibly, but one I again wont be claiming). So that brings us to Leeds (a blatant foul for their goal - cost us 2 points which have to be claimed).
So with me being generous and not claiming a number of points that I could clearly have done so - we are still 9 points down thanks to the officials. Anything we have got we have had to get off our own backs, but our opponents have been given too many calls. We are either the unluckiest team in the division or refs have to look at themselves. I'm not calling them cheats, but something is influencing them to be generous to our opponents and harsh on us. Would love to know what it is so we can do something about it. Maybe Chrissy could enquire with them? If we had totally fair refs, we would be sitting in 5th place at worse right now. Not biased refs in our favour- just ones that call the big decsisions right!!!
0
Comments
Referees who can't keep up with play - and often guess their decisions from distance.
The thing is its not difficult to get the basic decisions correct.
Incidentally, Watford had 2 players sent off last night, how many sendings off is that this season?
Anything you can pick a hole in I didn't claim, but can somebody give examples where we have benefited from a wrong call? Good luck with that one!
I hope th erub of th egreen does turn - but I can't imagine there has been an unluckier team than us in the division this season. It is reasonable to speculate whether there may be some other influences on refs - I'm not calling them cheats.
What goes through a refs mind when the Forest player handles the ball in the area in front of you at the City Ground - what causes him to ignore it when he has seen it. Likewise, what causes him to ignore an illegal tackle in the area at our last home match - again -he knows the rules but choses not to see it. I want to know ahy that is. Why does the ref play an additional 3 minutes to the injury time he has signalled against Leicester - when there were no stoppages during this period- then at the end of those ignore the most blatant of fouls that could have led to a goal?
The decisions that are not seen like Palace and Hull, you can have a bit more understanding of- and can be simply explained by the fact that the standard of officiating is crap at this level (disapointingly as I was expecting an improvement). But until I see things evening out a bit, I want to know whay refs are making some of the calls against us that they are?
Certainly games and situations are replayed to death during the game, in the aftermath of the games and even the next day (think Sunday Supplement and Goals On Sunday) and the money in the game dictates every single decision has to be correct becuase a hell of a lot of money depends on a team staying up, going down or going up and that could mean the difference between financial security or administration.
The game is fast no doubt about that. I feel the standard hasn't dropped, we've just had a bit of bad luck. Mistakes will be made as the human element of the game (players and managers make numerous mistakes) and we are still trying to find our feet in this division. The refs do the best they can and have committed a huge part of their lives (putting their jobs and family second) to get to be a football league referee. The commitment they have to give to the FA, to their fitness, to their knowledge and to their game is awe-inspiring. They just need help from video replays/technology. Heaven knows why the 4th official cannot help the referee then the decision everyone wants - the correct one is used. It's been used and been successful in cricket, rugby and tennis so why not football? Why not just trial it?
As I've said before it's 2012 and the game seems about as technologically advanced as it was in 1972.
not having been to every game I can't really comment on every point won or lost, but by what I have seen & heard I would say that we probably should have another 2 or 3 points.
With the officials wired up to each other, all it needs is for the 4th official to whisper in the ref's ear, "Penalty" or "Goal offside" or whatever.
It's only advice - the ref would still have the final say.
Maybe we shouldn't be blaming the officials, but the people in charge. The match officials need more structure, more coaching and more help in general. A lot of them have never played the game. They know the laws very well, but they need to know what players and fans expect too.
To put it into perspective Saudi Arabia have more match officials on the FIFA list than England. That tells a story in itself.