I've been to 2 away games this season so far, the defeat at Stevenage and the disappointing draw at Walsall, at the time I would have expected 2 victories. Things don't look so bad now, Walsall beat Wednesday yesterday with a brilliant comeback and seem to be on the up, while Stevenage are amazingly up to 6th in the table and won 6-1 at Colchester yesterday! It's hard to say which are the easy games in this league, we got a great result yesterday, but some of these smaller clubs who play to their strengths are not to be taken lightly. I'll be glad when we're out of this league...
It does annoy me when teams like Stevenage and Walsall come to that are accused of time wasting when they put in a decent peformance and get a result. It's almost as if people can't accept where they are and where they've come from.
Stevenage and Walsall are becoming the scourge of the top teams - Walsall got draws against us and Huddersfield and beat Sheff Wed, and Stevenage have beaten us ad both Sheffields. Size matters nothing in this league - if you don't give a team respect expect to drop points.
I must admit I never blame the teams themselves for time wasting, especially as its something Charlton and Rob Elliot used to do inparticular, sometimes its the only way you can beat the big teams, and if it works... Congrats. What I dont like though is the fact it is so blatantly obvious and the referee does nothing about it
Exactly, I agree totally.That's why the ref used to add on anything past 5 minutes to games as Rob Elliot would take ages over goal kicks or hold onto the ball for so long after making a save, something I've noticed Hamer doesn't do so much if at all and tends to get on with it. The refs do add on the extra time so it does get sort of dealt with in the end.
Sorry! I apologise to those going to Fulham, as I'm going, so we're bound to lose. Something I always thought was unfair about time wasting is the following scenario. Team B nicks a goal in the first half then proceeds to time waste for all the game until Team A scores once to equalise, then again to lead with, say 5 minutes to go. The referee will add on the wasted time that Team B were guilty of, despite the fact that in the match situation now, they're the ones to benefit!
It's not the referee's job to make value judgments as to which team "deserve" or "have earned" this or that. I would even go so far as to say it is not his job to be "fair". His job is to apply the laws of the game, which state (among other things) that there shall be 90 minutes actual playing, neither more nor less.
The trouble is though Eddie if you count up all the minutes it takes an Oldham or Tranmere Goalkeeper to take a Goal kick the amount of time played (inc injury time) would amount to around 80mins, so again the letter of the law wont have been followed. Why cant football become like Twenty20 Cricket though where you get a certain amount of time else your penalised i.e. my theory on that would be the following. X amount of time to take a Goal kick / Corner else it becomes a Corner / Goal Kick. X amount of time to take a throw-in else it goes to the opposition. It would certainly speed up play and make it more entertaining for the fans which isnt something most people demand these days when going to matches?
I think the only fair solution to this for everyone concerned is that you give me your Fulham ticket - after all, you dont want everyone blaming you should Charlton lose - do you ? !
You have to be kidding ! - you're talking about a sport where Blatter refuses to get goal line technology saying we dont need it !
Am tempted in a match soon to take a stopwatch and find out just how much game time is played... Any bets gentlemen?
