Just finished. I am immensely proud of my team and the supporters. Yet once again, the men in black almost ruined the day. Clattenburg had a nightmare of a game. It was a physical battel from start to finish and Rangers won it. Tackles flew in from both sides and yet we have 4 bookings and they have none. Barely twenty seconds before the sending off, Parker blatantly dived to get a free kick because he did not fancy the challenge. Clattenburg saw that. Booking? Of course not. There is then another 50:50 challenge and this time Hill is penalised for a fair but robust challenge. Yellow card. In the meantime Adel who had played an absolute blinder for us kicked the ball away. Unfortunately second yellow. Except Clattenburg had forgotten until that prize ****er Probert told him so. Funny how 4th officials can never see a mistake by the ref when it really matters such as dives leading to penalties leading to sendings off. Funny how appranetly they can intervene on a selective basis. Were any of the challenges by the Rs players any worse than those made by Spurs players? No I didn't think so. Finally, he made a mistake in giving the free kick for handball that led to the goal. I suppose we should be thankful that Lee Probert missed that one. Any way, great performance by everyone and you could see that even a team of men in black conspiring against us would not have denied us this win. Exactly what we need from now on. Even away from home.
Incompetent the officials this season have been ****e, not just for us but they've ruined alot of games the FA should "grow a pair" and sort it out
It's great to be moaning after a win instead of a ref having cost us points. At least we are consistent.
i'd say the refs did a pretty good job today, apart for the red for Tarbs. Fairly consistent and not many mistakes
I honestly think Clattenburg had forgotten he'd already booked him, if he had I'm not sure he'd have sent Taarabt off. Let's face it, he hardly kicked the ball away, more rolled it less than 10 yards back. But at least we only lose him for the Chelsea match and he'll be back for Stoke, which is really the only game that matters.
Their players were a disgrace, Defoe, Modric and the two centre backs were the only ones who didn't dive! there must have been at least 5 great tackles in which the ball was clearly on but he gave a free kick against us
I agree that today we had a lot of yellows for "fouls" that Tottenham had also been committing. If not, they were committing worse! There was one tackle on Diakite early in the game that was actually quite dangerous but nothing was given, not even a warning.
I'm not so concerned about the merits of the decision to book a player for deliberately kicking the ball away if that is the way he honestly saw it at the time. It's just that the officials forget what is actually important in a game of football. Blatant acts of cheating are simply not punished. He saw what Parker did, spoke to him at length and left it at that even though the guy had been found out and the free kick and booking not given. He then sees an instinctive kick of the ball a few yards down the pitch after the whistle has blown and instantly reaches for the yellow card. FFS which is the act which deserves most to be punished? Hard tackles and tackles which are very slightly late are sometimes penalised sometimes they are not. Did we really deserve 4 bookings and Spurs none? If so. please tell me what the difference was? It shows what is wrong with the game when 'old purple nose' says that Young's dive against Villa was definitely a penalty while accepting that he dived. The defender pulled his leg out of the way. Even more shameful I see that Alan Wiley, has said that he was entitled to go down because there was contact and that it was not a dive. Absolute bollocks. Young could have gone on with the ball but why bother when you can win a penalty the easy way? Are defenders simply not allowed to tackle these days? Contact with the opponent's body is not automatically a foul in what is a contact sport. My other gripe is the fact that we still do not know what role the 4th official actualy plays. If he can intervene to get a player sent off why can't he intervene when the ref fails to see that not only has the ball crossed the line it has almost hit the back of the net. Sorry what was that? Oh, I see. You mean he really is in radio contact with the ref just to help him with his maths. The easy kind. "1 + 1 = 2. Therefore you now know what to do with that red bit of plastic in your pocket." And there was me thinking they actually did something useful to earn their match fee.
Agree totally. Texted the same theory about fourth official to my Man Utd supporting brother after the match. What gets me is that Rooney scythed down Diakite and got nothing; Rafael give the ref the old 'it's only my first / second / third' and gets all out of shape when he's booked after his fourth leg snapper. Same applied to Paul Scholes. As Fergie says, it's cause they're Man U!
Yes, well said. How he can follow the rule book and give Tarbs his second yellow but choose to be lenient when it comes to Parker's disgraceful dive is beyond me.
There were 2 sets of rules for the teams, I think he had a look at the FK we scored from and realised it was wrong and then tried to give them everything. MOTD clearly pointed out he forgot he already booked Adel. The 1st booking was a dive as well, Walker was already on the way down before he was touched.
I couldn't agree more. Adel was laughing and joking with Walker during the first half. They were having an old team mates joke. Then Walker does what was said in above quote, and then ran to the ref to complain that Adel kicked the ball away for the second yellow. ....Life lesson...never seek to appease an enemy. They ultimately only wish you harm!
ADel had him in his pocket both attacking and defensively (never thought Id say that!) so Walker got frustrated and had to cheat. Who in their right mind would have thought Adel would have marked Walker out of the game?!
I think although he was inconsistent he wasnt nearly as bad as people were saying. Taarabt had to go and he has no one but himself to blame. Our goal was a freekick, it was handball. End of. However I do understand and felt the frustrations of some Spurs players getting away with it. Parker diving and then Bale wading into the crowd to get the ball back. Leaving the field without permission which is an automatic yellow. Think players celebrating with the fans. However in general play I didnt think he was that bad at all.
