I would say probably one for VAR but that probably would have gone with the ref anyway ! Mind you had that been Kabasele or WTE fans would have blamed them anyway .
Maybe so, but this is the sort of forward-initiated contact à la Crystal Palace, that mightily pisses me off. Cathcart has eyes only for the ball, cannot see the forward, who then runs in front of Cathcart across his legs, with no intention of winning the ball, only the penalty.
Here's a question. Forward gets in front of defender near the ball. Then slows down ,defender cannot avoid contact. Forward goes down. Result ? Totally undeserved penalty. I suspect it happens a lot.
I would say that Cathcart was the player that was fooled. similar happened last week at worst it's just Two players colliding accidentally.
You're not wrong. It happens far more than it should do - and what bugs me just as much is pundits and commentators alike trying to justify it, especially when they are the ones who, when a similar incident occurs outside of the penalty area, write it off as "just a coming together". The powers-that-be who tinker with the rules are spoiling the game - they really need to butt out.
The supposed top referees stop playing at 14 (Attlee, Atkinson, Elleray, to name three that I've met all told me so) so they have not a clue how players actually think during the match. We poachers turned gamekeepers are doomed to failure by the Blazers. And it shows. They don't need to be playing anything more than a reasonable standard (I played mainly at the lower - mid levels of regional football as an adult) but play the game at some competitive level and learn what goes on. We could always tell the referees that had played from those that hadn't.
Maybe a bit biased but that looks like a foul on Cathcart He should have gone down like a Prem forward
Maybe it's just me, but I think of it as a prime example of why we are not doing very well this season - we're bullied off the ball far too easily. Reading seemed to hunt in packs, snapping at the heels of those with the ball, and we're not so good at that for some reason. It's not that we don't have the players capable of it, more a case of them preferring to hang back. We also have some who like to play the victim rather than 'mix it' with the opposition - one of the Reading commentators put it nicely on Saturday when Sarr went down and stayed down clutching his face for no apparent reason - he queried whether he had broken an eyelash. We have a few players who go down easily and prefer to stay down complaining rather than getting up and playing on. I watched a fair bit of the Spuds v Man City game yesterday and was surprised at the greater amount of brutal tackling from both sets of players. If we somehow manage to fluke promotion this season, I doubt we'd survive with the players we currently have - they'd spend more time on their backsides than on their feet.
Yes.. is a real fault of Sarr sadly.... maybe becaue he is always targeted he makes a point og going down as a sort of insurance policy.
Long changes direction and initiates the contact: clear as day. Woeful decision, Martin is miles behind play. It gets worse with each replay.
That's annoying, that pen was won by pure weaselness. A couple of questions. Did we play 4-2-2-2? The BBC seems to show that on the match report. How did Porteous, Araújo & Assombalonga play?
Porteous was imperious. Araujo is yet another "cheat sheet" at this level - not surprising Benfica have stuck a silly money buyout clause on him - but he got nothing off the officials. Britt got our third goal disallowed, but looked lively.
Although Porteous later came out and said we would have wanted a penalty too for that but maybe that is just the mind set of the modern day football. Even a tough hard nosed Scottish defender.
Watford hat on... I'd be screaming for it too, at the time. After the replay it's time to shut up. Referee's hat on... Nope, doesn't get any better for Mr Martin. Awful decision.
How close does this initiating contact come to ‘simulation’, Fez? Because to me, it’s cheating. No more, no less.
Technically it's deliberate obstruction by Long. There is a catch-all in the LotG as I've said elsewhere, I've booked players for simulation using that sanction in law long before "simulation" became a thing.
Perhaps that is why David Pruten has forecast a 1 - 0 win for Blackburn because he knows the officials will screw us up no matter how we play