Super Phil Parkinson

I think it's the greatest win ever as like others have said, they were 2-0 down, Chelsea are the best team in England, some of their best players were playing. But best of all, they scored four goals away from home.

Amazing. I imagine the away end must have been an incredible place to be sitting in.

Red_Pete in Dubai said:

Prague, it's not the fourth official who decides the amount of added-on time; it is solely down to the referee. The fourth official merely holds up the board after the referee tells him how much time extra is to be played.

Are you 100% certain? If so, when and how does the ref provide the 4th official with the info? Parky said in his after match interview that the 4th official showed him the details of how the 7 minutes was arrived at. I took him to mean that he showed him that soon after the board went up. If the ref rather than the 4th official was the one who compiled it, when did the ref pass all that detail to the 4th official?

I thought it was the ref too, but after hearing what Parky said it seems impossible to me that it works that way.

It also bothers me that there are apparently different rules regarding added on time in England. On the Continent it is most unusual to see 4 mins unless there was a significant injury. Here it unusual to see less. That should not be possible unless we have our own rules which differ from UEFA or FIFA guidelines. Do we? Has anyone here ever been able to read them?

It's not transparent. Therefore it's open to manipulation.

PragueAddick said:

Red_Pete in Dubai said:

Prague, it's not the fourth official who decides the amount of added-on time; it is solely down to the referee. The fourth official merely holds up the board after the referee tells him how much time extra is to be played.

Are you 100% certain? If so, when and how does the ref provide the 4th official with the info? Parky said in his after match interview that the 4th official showed him the details of how the 7 minutes was arrived at. I took him to mean that he showed him that soon after the board went up. If the ref rather than the 4th official was the one who compiled it, when did the ref pass all that detail to the 4th official?

I thought it was the ref too, but after hearing what Parky said it seems impossible to me that it works that way.

It also bothers me that there are apparently different rules regarding added on time in England. On the Continent it is most unusual to see 4 mins unless there was a significant injury. Here it unusual to see less. That should not be possible unless we have our own rules which differ from UEFA or FIFA guidelines. Do we? Has anyone here ever been able to read them?

It's not transparent. Therefore it's open to manipulation.

The 4th official keeps a list of all the stoppages in the game that MAY lead to the referee adding on additional time. I presume it was this list that Parky was referring to. If you watch closely you will see the referee communicate with the 4th official a couple of minutes before the 90 minutes are up, by holding up a number of fingers. The laws of the game are quite specific: "The duration of stoppage time is at the sole discretion of the referee."

A-R-T-H-U-R said:

Not sure if this helps?
BBC rules of extra time
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/20159223

Thanks. Have actually seen that before but forgot about it. Note how much is "rule of thumb" and "discretion".

I am absolutely certain that "the 30 seconds for subs" thing is an English invention. I've seen Europa League games with 4 subs and 1 minute, or even nothing at all, was added on

Absurdistan said:

Callumcafc said:

What is the greatest Abs?

It's all subjective but Sutton and Wrexham were bottom of the tree wins over top opponents. My mind always goes back to Hereford vs Newcastle. There probably are some more going right back in the history of the fa cup.

Hereford v Newcastle is the greatest shock in my opinion. Both Sutton and Wrexham were at home and the little team always has a chance in those situations. But 2-0 down away at Chelsea with there home record and coming from behind to win puts them second behind Hereford I'm my opinion.

cafcnick1992 said:

It's got to be the greatest FA cup upset ever, hasn't it?

I think you are forgetting the biggest upset of recent times. our 4-0 "demolition" of Halifax.

Phil was on MOTD2 last night and during the analysis of the West Ham goal, Phil Neville and Lawrenson went on to state how the Bristol City wing-back was in the right position yet had the player switched to the Full-Back position he would have stopped the goal - that player being Scott Wagstaff.

Parkinson who was really quiet all night jumped in and defended him saying that he had managed Scott whilst at Charlton and that Wagstaff was naturally an attacking player and couldnt be expected to stop that goal

cafcnick1992 said:

I think it's the greatest win ever as like others have said, they were 2-0 down, Chelsea are the best team in England, some of their best players were playing. But best of all, they scored four goals away from home.

Amazing. I imagine the away end must have been an incredible place to be sitting in.

Remember those fa cup days like that at chalton
Oh the excitement I nearly spilt me flask of coffee and choked on my sandwich

Exiled_Addick said:

Addick Addict said:

Sorry but I have to say that Colchester's defeat of Leeds in 1971 was a greater shock than Bradford winning at Chelsea.

Colchester were the equivalent of a League 2 side at the time and Leeds were chasing a third consecutive top tier title.

The Leeds side was Gary Sprake, Paul Reaney, Terry Cooper, Mick Bates, Jack Charlton, Norman Hunter, Peter Lorimer, Allan Clarke, Mick Jones, Johnny Giles, Paul Madeley. So, apart from Billy Bremner and Eddie Gray this was the best starting X1 Leeds could have put out.

Compare that to Saturday - only Cahill, Azpilicueta, Oscar and possibly Cech could be thought as a regular starter. In fact, no Terry, Fabregas, Matic, Ivanovic, Hazard, Diego Costa, Willian, Filipe Luis or Coutois from the team that played the game before.

Not trying to crab Bradford's achievement because it was brilliant but it is all relevant and relative.

I wonder though, accounting for differences in training/fitness etc, how many of those Leeds players would get into the Chelsea team? Leeds were the team of their era, but they were using the bets of British. Chelsea are picking their players up from all over the globe and even with a few first teamers rested, they have a team full of players with World Cup and Champions League experience and fair few winners medals too.

When you also factor in the difference in off-field resources offered to Chelsea players vs the Bradford lads (training facilities, sports scientists etc) I think there is a good argument that the gap between the two sides is larger than that of Leeds and Colchester, even though they are actually closer in terms of league position, because the top clubs have pulled so far away from even the rest of the top flight these days.

Anyway, the biggest shock of the weekend was Villa scoring 2 goals.

Bigger than us keeping a clean sheet? :-0

Just in case anyone wasn't aware the Bradford Reading cup match is free to watch today on bt sport and is on now.

Savage already displaying his ineptitude "you can't blame the pitch there" after it's taken a huge bobble.

Draw suits us.

Keeps Reading distracted before we a play them.

Best of luck Parky!

Oh dear.

Parky needs to stop trying to look like a proper manager for the telly and take that training top off and display the faithful V neck.

It will make all the difference!