I've noticed more and more that saints fans are very quick to get on the refs back at homes game with 'you dont know what you're doing' and 'wan*er, *****er, wan*er' etc etc... raining down from the stands from as early as the 10th mimute some times! In fact it seems more noise is directed at abusing the officials than backing the team at times. Now I love screaming at the linesman, as he trots down the line, as much as the next bloke. I say bloke, only there's a women behind me in the Itchen that says things that make me want to cover my ears is so excruiciatingly rude / toe curlingly cring worthy. My question is this, does it actually help us get the results or is it actually working aginst us? I mean if I were the ref and I had all this hostile abuse coming my way it might actually make me think, you know what f*ck em, I'm not going to give this free kick etc...
I wouldn't think it makes any difference to the team or the ref in all honesty. however the 'you're not fit to referee' chant last night was very accurate if not badly timed (while the media are all over him)
Some of the decisions were not that bad, particularly some early on, but by then the mongs at SMS had made their mind up to boo or ironically cheer every decision the guy made.
It was funny when the lino got a throw in decision right and got a standing ovation from the Kingsland!
It would be highly unprofessional for a referee to consciously make different decisions based on their interactions with the crowd. Clearly it has a subconscious effect however (home teams get the rub of the green more often than not, and when the crowd reacts strongly to a foul it seems more likely there will be a red card) in which case 'peer pressure' will if anything make the referee subconsciously favour us in order to win the crowd's approval.
When its deserved, dish it out! If we just continually moan every game, regardless of performance, we'll just get a Fergie-time-esque reputation!
you got to feel for the refs mum, watching the game with pride and her son being called a ****er by 28000 people
As a academy level referee when i receive alot of abuse, which is often. I sometimes get inclined to not give certain 50/50 decisions
It's every game now, and it's ****ing boring. My glasses are as red n white tinted as the next guy's, but even I can see that objectively most refs, including Mark Clattenburg, get a lot more right than wrong. And the decision is only ever "wrong" when it goes against the home support. What with abuse from the crowd, and a culture of diving and deceit that is absolutely rampant in the PL, a refs job is well nigh impossible.
I can't remember the actual figure, but someone analyzed several PL matches and the ref/lino got the call right in a very high % of times....not bad in real time. We all know that watching an incident again and again on video still divides people.
I read the David Ellery Autobiography... very interesting. In that book it was very clear that referees are not influenced by much. Ellery stated that if he knew he had made a mistake earlier in the game, he wouldn't try and "even things up", rather he made sure that he got the rest correct. I think on the whole, refs show a lot of integrity, they may make the odd mistake and like keepers theirs get highlighted and publicised, but generally they get most things right (perhaps we should genuinely celebrate a ref when they do so)... Ellery's book gives an interesting insight - he mentioned that when he sent Keane off, it was because the rest of the team crowded round saying "it's only a yellow".. Ironically, this convinced him to give Keane a straight red... so yes, refs can be influenced by what is said and done by the crowd and players, but you can be damn sure that in most cases, this is simply to crystallize what they already consider to be the correct decision, and not a buckling into peer pressure...
What is so frustrating is when the decisions are just so obvious. Little things like the ball being booted twice in two minutes into the stand by Danny Simpson and Newcastle getting the thro on. Simpson was walking away with his head down, Lallana had picked the ball up yet the assistant and ref can't read the so obvious body language, even if they genuinely didn't see anything. Then, there are the two incidents with the assistant in the first half Wednesday night. I sit level with the goal line at the Northam end (in the Kingsland). Lallana hada shot/cross, hit their defender and the ball is caught by the keeper approximately 1m over the line. I was watching the linesman run to the corner with his head down, looking at the ground... of course he can't see because his head was down. Two minutes later, Punch whips a cross in from the right that curves as an outswinger right in front of the assistant and he gives a goal kick. I was perfectly in line and the ball didn't go out of play, not even close. The last two games (neither have we lost) have shown me that offocials at this level are not up to the standard or importance of the games being played. The premier league need to think again.
We got on the back of the lino firstly. Missed a blatant corner, the keeper caught it a yard off the pitch. Missed a couple of offsides and a few throw ins.
Every club has fans that like to give the ref grief, i'm sure for 80k a year I could put up with with abuse.
Refs are human beings...no one is impervious to outside influences and this could affect 50/50 decisions. Anyone who thinks feelings don't affect their decisions at work is kidding themselves.
