[video=youtube;_JOncCVzTic]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_JOncCVzTic[/video] Incredible keeping at the end. Looks a blatent dive for the second pen.
Good grief I've seen some rubbish decisions in my time and some piss poor officiating but even I'm struggling to come to terms with this fiasco. The first is not under any circumstances the assistant's call to make. The second is beyond a joke. These officials need demotion to non league pronto.
Looks terrible, not only from everyone's comments, which obviously have value, but from the highlights too...
For the second it is so clearly a dive, it's embarrassing. No wonder Lucky Eddie "did not see" it and refused to discuss it. Absolute joke and that ref will be having nightmares after watching that.
Yes we all agree that the ref should be embarrassed for the second penalty, but it seems that he is not a newcomer feeling his way into the game, but someone who has been on the list for 13 years. Surely by now he would have expected players to try and mislead him. On the first penalty it appears that he did not see the tackle as a foul but was led by his lino. The lino did not know who was involved clearly or the wrong player would not have been sent off. The ref probably didn't know either seeing as he had already dismissed the incident. Blame the ref by all means, he had a shocker, but the lino should be sent back to school before he is let out again.
Frenchie, the first pen was for a pull back. You can see the Lino clearly signalling this. What also pees me off is that 24 hours later we are still none the wiser because refs are not required to explain themselves. Ridiculous!
The more I watch it I can almost see the pull back for the first pen. It is a very, very harsh one but there was a tug, I think. The sending off though, for a tug, is a joke, esspecially as the ref got the wrong man. The second pen is such a bad dive the player should be hanged, it is beyond words...
I think we are all missing something potentially much more serious, namely that there is a sniper visiting football grounds and taking pot shots at players. And there may be more than one as I dont think the sniper at Bournemouth had time to make it all the way up the Anfield in time for the Liverpool v Villa game
I won't lie, I am falling out of love a little with the game. The Premiership is the 'be all and end all' for so many clubs but the only reason for that is money. A club like us will never really challenge for honours, so all we can expect is to survive up there. Years ago we could have looked at this Saturday with excitement, hoping for an upset - but it now just feels we will go there for damage limitation! The mentality of 'must win at all costs' is even filtering down to the Championship now, where teams feel they need to con the ref to try and gain wins. I know we ourselves have had people falling over far too easily, but at least we seem to criticise our own players for it rather than try to jusitfy it as 'part of the game now'. It also seems like we have picked up a reputation for it - would FF or Fabbrini have got that 2nd penalty Saturday (or even the first)? Not a chance! Oh well... sorry for the rant!
I have to say that I am having similar feelings to you. Another thing that is making me lose interest is that managers are quick to criticise other team's players and decisions that do not go for them, but not to criticise their own players or "not see" contentious decisions in their favour. Not just Eddie Howe, but all of them. Arsen was always looking the other way. It would be good for the game if someone could say, that wasn't a penalty, bad decision by the ref, when they themselves have benefited form it.
I'm in total agreement with you and Salisbury Kev. It does have to be said though that it isn't even just football where this is happening now - you see certain behaviours in cricket and rugby union that simply wouldn't have happened, or at any rate been commonplace, 10 years ago.
While I too have little interest in the EP these days, I'm not convinced behaviours on the field have changed much in football, cricket or rugby. Ever since the origins of these sports there has been a battle between the law-makers and the players' desire to win (and in the early days the gamblers' desire to profit!). Certainly diving is the current form of cheating to receive massive publicity but other dubious methods of trying to gain an advantage have always existed, though especially in the case of cricket and to a lesser extent rugby, were rarely admitted to and hence frequently overlooked.
Why don't the club try to keep us up to date with what is going on? http://www.watfordobserver.co.uk/sp...es_mean_they_must_rescind_Angella_s_red_card/
Not sure why not - just like I'm not sure what this bit of the article means... "When a club does not lodge a claim, The FA can request a commission to do so within seven days and if the governing body decides the club attempted to gain an advantage by not notifying the FA about the case of mistaken identity, they could be charged with misconduct." That appears to suggest that the club must appeal or face a misconduct charge? Doesn't make sense, but then, neither did the refs decision. I wonder when/if the refs reasoning for the red card will be announced - this article, as well as other reports, appear to think that Hall was the culprit for shirt tugging, but it's very hard to see where/when he did it, if he did it. I'd say that if the red is transferred to another player, it will be Eckstrand who misses out at Man City.
I guess it means if a club deliberately doesn't lodge a claim because the player sent off is less critical to the team than the correct player which would create the advantage, would be a difficult case though in most cases. I don't think Fitz Hall committed a red card offence anyway, any tug was not what stopped a goal scoring opportunity, what did that was a good effective tackle which resulted in their player going to ground and wasn't the offence indicated by the assistant, whole thing should be overturned and award us 3 points in the process, oh and half a million quid in libel damages, the deformation of character suffered by Angella is worth at least that and it should be paid directly by the ref and his sad assistant...bitter moi? never...
Having seen both penalties the first I would agree with, the ref made a major cock up with the red card And the 2nd that was a very cheap "spanish" penalty
Although said in bitter jest, You raise a valid point there aberdeen, although you can't know for sure, that red card quite probably cost you 2 points, which, at the end of the season, could have a dramatic effect on the clubs fortunes!
