Good to have you with us Hornsrus. We don't always agree about a game, but we do agree to be friendly.
If Boro are top 3 then I dont think this division is as good as it has been in recent years! Didnt think they were anything special tonight! that said I thought we were very average as well! which is continuing the recent improvement ,because before we were awful! We made a few half chances , great ! Maybe with a bit more thought or intelligence we could turn those half chances into proper chances ! that I think is our next challenge on the road of improvement. We have got our defence looking a bit more solid ,Scott did ok! still not there with creativity , pace and quality! Still plenty to work on in the break ! wasnt impressed with Big Chris and Marvin went missing more than a little! We may have enough to stay up ,but its going to be real close!
I think I agree with you Norway. You had the benefit of watching the game tonight, whereas I was listening to Jon Marks. The one thing I would say about commentary from him is that he is consistent. If you listen to him over a long period you get to understand that he has a knowledge of the game and says things very much as they are.
Reading his tweets I would tend to agree Frenchie , especially when he is commentating on games all over the place nearly every day! He sees enough footy to know what is good and what isnt!
Just got in from fireworks and pub. Saw the goal before I went and just seem so bitter to lose to a clear offside goal. That should've been a good point. Bollox.
Criticise a given referee for a given performance in a given match, and you join just about every other team that hasn't won. Water off a referee's back. I'm sure every club, ourselves included, analyses the decisions made in every match, as well as trends over a period of time, and feed our findings back to higher powers. Maybe a small group of clubs should get together, coroborrate each others' findings to make sure they would stand up to independent/media scrutiny, and threaten to use them to ritually humiliate the powers that be if referee performances do not improve. I reckon you'd only need 5-8 clubs working in close co-ordination to make this a sustained talking point that doesn't fizzle out after a couple of days. Under those circumstances, the Premier League, their lapdogs, the F*** All Association and the (allegedly) Fradulent International Football Association would have to do something: the next step up from an organised campaign is the possibility of strikes.
I think that you are right to have a go NNW. I have often stood up for refs as I think that they have a difficult job, but even I am begining to wonder just how bad the team of one ref and two linesmen can get. The lino usually makes the calls for offside and the ref goes along with it as the lino should be able to see across a pitch whereas a ref cannot. In the age where computer drawn lines can be shown on screens it is easy for the pundits in the studio to make correct calls. Maybe the time has come to get rid of offside all together.
As Dan says it seems the standards of officials in other sports is dropping too , possibly down to being proved wrong by ever increasing TV coverage! Or maybe we are so tied up in rules , political correctness , anti rascism etc that we have forgotten that fundamental tool of referees common sense!
I am surprised our team didn't make more of the decision...Man U and Chelsea players would still be chasing the officials round now!
Well Lee Hodson was putting the case to the Referee as they left the pitch at half time. He didnt even listen. The goal was unlucky not just for that, but also because loach made a good block and it just fell to McDonald kindly.
please log in to view this image Not good enough even for the championship. However I'm not too worried as long as we play well and get points in our next few games against the lesser teams (Portsmouth/Donny/Bcity). If we can beat 2/3 of those i think we will be fine.
The goal was the fault of the linesman but Hodson should have cleared the ball before it got that far. A bad mistake that cost us dearly, but overall, another performance that shows improvement.
Unlucky today lads. Watched the match, thought you were worthy of a point. Don't think much to the Boro. Good luck, and keep you heads over the Cov and Florest scum.
Cheers. I think we can definitely hold our heads high after that. Others have done worst there, and we only lost because of a poor decision.
another official watching said screen should be in contact with the ref and tell him if he has messed up! a bit like cricket when checking for no balls , case in point happened 2 days ago , NZ v Zimbabwe , Kiwi bowler had the batsmen out plum lbw, Batsmen was re instated after it was found the wicket taking delivery was a no ball! the umpire had missed it ,concentrating on the lbw, correct decision arrived at with the use of a tv screen and a radio! hardly Hi tech! Kill offside rule altogether would encourage goal hangers plus you would have to get blatter and his boys to change the rules, good luck with that!
If your going down that road H you could blame the player (think it was prince) for giving the ball away and starting that attack I thought Lee had another pretty solid game and more of our attacks came from our right , so he helps us going forward more than ld does.
Unless my memory is playing me tricks...quite possible of course...a few years ago (perhaps 15?) they tried abandoning offside for a season as an experiment in the Conference (which was probably called something else then). I remember going to see Wealdstone play someone and, especially from free kicks it was chaotic with 21 players crowding the goal line. It meant defences stayed very deep and I don't think it made games very attractive to watch. The idea certainly didn't catch on.
