Morning, I just wanted to say what a dreadful performance the referee put in on Saturday. Some of his decisions were absolutely laughable and I thought when he booked Forte for the handball when he was obviously just stopping the ball from going into row Z of the nearest stand, not to give himself an illegal advantage as he had to leap and then put his hand high in the air to stop it, was quite frankly the worst referring I have ever seen. I think Forte was out of play anyway when he touched the ball. Please comment if you have seen worse or if you thought he deserved it?
I can honestly say I have never been so frustrated, so livid etc at a football match before! I was still raging even after we won the game...!
I agree , he has to be the worst ref this season by a country mile! Regarding Forte : The yellow card given to him was RIGHT ... Why on earth Forte decided to dive and reach for the ball when it was still "in play" is beyond me Absolute school boy error, lack of concentration so for me the ref was right in doing that. As the ball was never going to reach him , why didn't he just leave it be... like other midfielder would do. As far as I am aware Midlfielders can not dive to save to the ball from going out of play with a hand??? The only yellow card I thought that was justified was ... Forte : as above Hammonds: Cracking tackle , shame he didn't get the ball
To be honest, although Forte was very stupid to do it, I'm not sure it warranted a booking. It was obvious that he wasn't trying to gain an advantage, nor did he. As well as being questionably in or out of play, I think it's just needless of the referee to book him - he gave it for the sake of giving a yellow card. So yeah, the ref was pretty terrible. Sian Massey was an excellent assistant, in my view. Good to see she's back after all that stupidity with Sky. Hopefully it won't be too long before a woman referees a top level game.
Was quite impressed with her , however think she could have flagged a few more time for fouls on Lambert first half that wasnt given.
He was pretty awful, but I've seen many worse than that. Think it was a cumulative effect of poor decisions along with being frustrated at Saints performance that got the crowd on his back more. He was reffing to the letter of the law and not allowing a bit of common sense. However, I did not understand him booking both Barnard and the Rovers player for their tiny bit of squaring up to each other.
Sian Massey was a very good asisstant. In fairness she hasn't done anything wrong...ever... to my knowledge. Kingsland, I was sat in the Chapel and my seat was directly in line with the touchline. Regarding the Forte 'handball', the ball had already gone out of play... I still don't understand why he would help the opposition get the ball back quicker but he-ho it's happened...
I recall Nicky Holmes catching the ball in the penalty area at the Dell once thinking the ref had already blown for a freekick... and the ref instead awarded a Penalty. A lesson learnt the hard way and I expect Forte will never do anything like that again.
He had a shocker. Frustratingly inconsistent in terms of what he was booking players for and what he wasn't. It doesn't make for a good game when a ref keeps pulling the yellow card out but if he is at least stay consistent! Forte was stupid and it was a foul but the ref needlessly booked him. A free kick would of been enough. Sometimes I worry that the accessors will think he's having a decent game!
The Forte thing seemed pathetic, although maybe a "deliberate handball" is always a card? I was sat towards the end of the Itchen and I must say I thought it was probably handball, but it wasn't a game changing moment. I was concerned at how our defence seemed to have gone to sleep after we scored. Had we lost the game, or even drawn it, then I think I would be more bothered by probably the worst and inconsistent ref I have seen at St Marys this season.
As i couldnt watch the match on saturday i feel it hard to comment on this particular refs performance and specifically the forte 'handball', however i will say that i cannot remember a game i have attended, where in one way or another i haven't moaned about the referee. I think that when you watch a match live it is easy to criticise a referee because with the view from the stand it often looks like they get a lot of things wrong; when you watch highlights however you can see that they generally are right most of the time. Despite what i have said though i do believe that the refereeing standards in this country aren't good enough (particularly in the lower divisions) and beleive the introduction of technology will significantly increase the amount of correct decisions however i have no idea how it should be introduced
The ball was out of play......I sit in Chapel almost in line with the incident the ball was maybe half a metre over the Lady assistant got it wrong although how is a mystery as she was so close.....although that could have been the problem she did not have much of the line to look at as we did. She did flag, she waved it like there was no tomorrow, to indicate it was a hand ball. It is decisions like that can cost clubs games and valuable points. He was an atrocious refree I must say mainly blowing for the second foul rather than first contact. At one stage he seemed to have lost control of the game. There did not appear to be too much common sense going on out there at times
Regardless of whether the ball was in or out, it was a stupid decision to book Forte - it was obvious what he was doing, and that he wasn't trying to cheat or gain any advantage. But at the same time, it's no more stupid than booking players for taking their shirts off when celebrating in my opinion. Give me Ryan Giggs running wild and swinging his shirt over his head, over Thierry Henry pretty much just arrogantly strutting away or Wayne Rooney looking like the world is against him, any day of the week.
