my thoughts. We played well. Did a good job of soaking up the pressure and looked comfortable in defence. Tadic is our lynchpin and needs more support, Boufal please get here quick. Shane Long drives me nuts. Just nuts. I'm predicting him to struggle to get past 6 goals this season - please prove me wrong. Romeu showed how good he is. We are over stocked with dogged, workhorse midfielders. I like Redmond, he will be dangerous with the right combo of players around him. Hojberg brings a real spark to the game. We should have and could have won that game. The referee's a ****er.
And why do you think they don't come out? Because they get ripped apart by managers, players, the media and fans. If everyone was more ready to accept that mistakes happen then it might be different. I agree that Madley not stopping the game for a head injury was awful refereeing. But I'm not talking about the incident yesterday. I'm talking about in general. Referees will give penalties where they shouldn't have and not give penalties when they should have. People need to accept this. I understand the anger towards the head injury because that's black and white. Head injury and the game has to stop. But calling fouls is the trickiest part of a referee's job because it can look like a foul from one angle and not from another. Or it looks like a foul in real time but replays show it wasn't a foul. Every time a referee makes an incorrect call he gets ripped apart and it's not fair. People seem to think I was defending Madley yesterday. I wasn't because I can't understand why he didn't stop the game. Frankly, I don't care that I get ridiculed for defending referees. I'm going to keep doing it because I know how hard it is and I'm not nearly under so much pressure as PL referees.
Being a ref first and a saints supporter second is never going to go well on any board. Unless it's that dark web one that all the refs use (made that up.)
Sweet. Do you have to do that here or is there somewhere else that might want you for that. Have you been on saints web and discussed it there maybe? Seriously. This is a forum for saints supporters, do you expect that you will positively affect people's opinions of refs after that result? With the new rules and added protection it just becomes unbearable. ****ing ridiculous penalty decision but don't have a go at the ref or youre booked.. and again and now you're off and out of the game.. for being right. Ridiculous.
To be fair, Tom agreed that it was a crap decision but he wouldn't agree that he was biased. Not an unreasonable stance.
I think there's a bit of crossed wires going on here in that we're all angry at Madley's horror show and a completely unforgivable series of decisions leading to the (soft) penalty, whereas Tom is (fairly) pointing out that refs get too much stick for forgivable errors - reference the moaning that's going on about Clattenburg's performance in the Manchester derby, but which was actually fine.
Oh Tom mate............sometimes you just have to turn your referee's head off and turn your fans head on!!! You berate fans for having a go at referee's that in reality if you were just a fan you would most likely agree with. We all know and except that refereeing is a difficult job......but a fan of any club...it is a natural thing to be biased towards your own club. If you just had your fans head on I am pretty sure you would be in agreement about decisions that have and haven't gone for us. To me any rate it is clear in your posting that acknowledge some mistakes by referee's and disagree with other decisions. However you will never be able to justify any decision to any biased fan. By continually trying to just creates more and more disagreement. Whether you are right or the others are right in the end is going to do nothing to enhance the forums discussion of the game. Oh and before it is said I am not saying you shouldn't have an opinion or express it, just that sometimes you have to agree to disagree early in a conversation just so others can take part in more about the game itself rather than one particular decision.I had the distinct impression that this was what some were trying to say to you in a round about way and were trying to move on. Please just bear that in mind and some of you others as well..........
Bizarrely maybe, but I support the, 'don't have a go at the referee' thing. How many times have we argued on this forum that teams like Man Utd regularly intimidate referees? From a purely practical position, of course they were hugely frustrated, but when did a referee change a decision? 'Having a go' is pointless especially as you know you could be booked. Understandable though I suppose.
I've defended referees plenty of times. I've called for TV contract to be written so they broadcaster can't show replays regarding decisions at anything other than full speed. That doesn't make them beyond criticism when they make mistakes that are so obvious they don't need replays. So, yesterday, I missed the foul on Shane as well - so what, he does go down a hell of a lot and I can understand refs ignoring his antics when assessing an incident. Then we have someone with a head injury - no discretion, stop the game We then have Saints defenders milling around someone dealing with a head injury (in an offside position) and waving to the ref - should have stopped play at that point; they do it often enough. Then he sees a foul by Fonte - gives the penalty. Oddly, I'm not bothered by the first and last ones. Those decisions are rub of the green decisions. Shane's an "agonised roller" and José's always been a bit of a shirt puller. The second and third aspects are the ones for which Madley deserves to be sent to bed with no tea. And they didn't need frame-by-frame assessment, I was shouting at the TV while they were happening in real time. Madley needs to suffer some kind of sanction for his choice to keep on playing. Vin
If what you say is true, then the system has to change to protect the Referee from compounding mistakes through lack of technological support. A simple replay review would have got the decisions reversed, it works in cricket and tennis so why not use it in football?
The biggest joke around Officialdom these days is the role of the Fourth Official, what exactly is it?
Time for the relevant bodies to accept that technological assistance would help then Tom? Or do we just accept that less favourable decisions for the smaller teams are the price the game pays? Less pressure at the time through noise and less pressure in the media afterwards at the current time make these decisions as easier out where there is any doubt in the officials mind.
The worst bit is purely the amount of time from when the blow to the head took place from him blowing the whistle to give the " penalty". He could of been there on floor having had his eye kicked in or fractured skull for example and he just let play carry on, he didn't even check he was alright afterwards from what I saw.
Agreed - it was clearly a serious one becuase it was the attacking team's player who stayed down. You could understand a defender staying down to try to get the play stopped, but not the attacker!
