We cashed in some ref luck yesterday... ours was a blatant penalty, but QPR and Wigan could both have felt hard done by.
I agree with this for the most part. Although I'd say more about respecting their decision than respecting the person themselves. Don't want to see us crowding and harassing the ref and very happy we don't, but doesn't mean we can't disagree with the ref or appeal for things rather than just hope he makes the right decision and gives them to us. As much as referees are meant to completely ignore players and the crowd, it is blindingly obvious that these things do affect decisions. If he sees a tackle and our whole team and the crowd jump in the air appealing for a foul, he may well give it, if he sees a tackle and our players do not react and simply expect the foul to be given, even if he might think it was a foul, the lack of appeals may make him think it wasn't one. It's somewhat like diving, it gets to the point now where if you don't dive you don't get decisions, because players do it so often that when someone is honest and doesn't the referee will think 'Well why didn't he go to ground' or 'Well why isn't he making a meal of that', and decide that the player himself doesn't think he's being fouled because naturally every player who's even touched would throw themselves to the floor screaming. And like that, if our players aren't throwing temper tantrums and jumping up and down and screaming for decisions, the referees might not be giving us decisions because of that, unfortunately. I think referees definitely have to be respected, but that doesn't mean you can't criticise them and doesn't mean they shouldn't be held accountable, because quite plainly some of their decisions and some of the referees themselves do not cut the mustard.
After the Stoke game the five yellow card suspesion rule will be removed. From Arsenal owards get ready to see Schneiderlin picking up some yellows like he used to!
The days of defenders or midfielders diving in are over, they have to stay on thier feet and make the other player beat them. Yellow cards are given now for the slightest mistake and the quality of player now will really punish a defender that dives in
Nigel Adkins urges Southampton to maintain discipline against Stoke http://www1.skysports.com/football/news/11095/8364119/?
I suppose we have to wonder if he'll rest Morgan just in case? Davis has done well in last two matches.
I wouldn't be surprised. Some of Morgan's best performances have come against the bigger teams (I think he was MotM against United?) and with Arsenal to play on Tuesday, we would could do without him being suspended.
Adkins will play his strongest team for every game as each one is worth 3 points. Makes no sense for a team like us to save best players for the tough games....better to use them for a game that you could get points from. Only a team going for the title will switch about so they have the strongest team for their rivals, because they would hope to win most games anyway.
If anything, it makes more sense to save your best players for the winnable games. But then you get a fine like Mick McCarthy did.
Is it that we have improved, or Arse have got worse but alot of people on here consider the Arse game as winnable yet not against stoke. Yet Arse are the team that handed us our biggest spanking in many a year
Its a combination of things - we have def improved defensively, Arsenal are beatable at SMS i think if Saints play well and the 6-1 scoreline was a one-off away from home when we were trying to get going in this league. Stoke away are tough as Liverpool found out the other night, but i am going north tomorrow morning expecting a decent Saints performance and a point.
My old barber said that he used to play for Barnet in the 70s. I could never work out if he was having me on.
