Ok so unsurprisingly we all saw Norwich try to cheat yet again but everyone was stupid. The ref - why didnt he blow when the goalie had the ball and then instruct Norwich not to contest the drop ball? This should happen every time if its in the defensive half. He did redeem himself by not allowing it even though he waved to take it so for once, common sense was used. Cardiff - always take up a position not to let this happen, where were the defender? How gullible can you be? Norwich - why didnt the throw in go straight back to the goalie? It wasnt just one player trying to cheat but 2. This crap needs to stop. Especially as 99 times out of 100, the player isnt even injured but just wants to stay down so he can moan at the ref. In the NHL they only stop play in a life threatening situation, ie cut throat or unconscious. This player broke his leg, in agony he got up and played another minute on that broken leg until he could get off the ice. Football should follow that. [video=youtube;h15m87WsCHQ]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h15m87WsCHQ[/video]
The idea of being sporting and kicking the ball out of play is an admirable concept and returning the ball after this has been done is all very noble and it should be applauded and encouraged. Unfortunately footballers and football in general has started down a path of cheating and deciving that leaves footballers in a quandry as to whether the massively overpaid to$$er writhing around on the floor is suffering from a broken leg or is just trying to desrupt play. ...it is this kind of rubbish that pushes me further and further away from the sport when I actually rather enjoy it...as much as it pains me the egg chasers have this right. The physio should get straight onto the pitch and the ref should only stop play when it really needs it.
Play should only be stopped if there is an obvious head injury. Players are pretending to be injured simply to stop the opposition attacking. It's ridiculous!
Have a look at David Busst's right leg. Enough to stop play? Referee's discretion I think, but agree its bad to see cheats prospering.
I had actually typed that the game should also be stopped in the event of an obvious broken leg etc, but I deleted it as I'm not sure the ref would always be able to tell straight away and therefore we could end up back where we are now.
The best one is when team As player goes down faking an injury, team A carry on, get the ball into the box but team B break the other way, then they are hacked down by team A who are pissed off that team B didnt put the ball out of play! did anyone see fat sam pissing himself at that swansea player faking an injury only for the swansea player to get mad and jump up right away to have a go at him. The obvious way is to see if a player is moving, if hes rolling around then hes not hurt, if hes still then its either serious or hes unconscious.
The whole thing was bit of a farce....can't for the life of me understand why the Norwich player just didn't throw the ball back to the keeper, why did he throw it to his team mate in the first place..... As Badger says.....the physio should just come on the pitch straight away as they do in rugby and not have to wait for the ref to invite him/her on....and the game can carry on around them.....if it is a serious injury the physio can indicate to the ref to stop the game to allow further treatment and stretcher if necessary.....
The thrown in taker wanted to cheat and score the goal, the goalie had come over expecting it to be thrown back to him. You can have physios on during play or any player needing treatment must be subbed. That would stop play acting dead. Both are such good ideas that theres zero chance of FIFA doing it, they are more likely to clamp down on some other non existent problem like making any hand contact a penalty or giving yellows to anyone who slide tackles.
Good example in our match. O'Neill went down and clearly banged his head quite hard on the ground. Ref saw this and did the right thing in immediately stopping play, much to the Burnley fan's displeasure as they were in posession. The restart was an uncontested drop ball which Joey passed back to their keeper, everything as it should be.
And I thought you were talking about the farcical football we are playing in our own half and Charlie Austin working his nuts off in the vein hope of receiving the ball. The football we are playing this season, to me, is unwatchable I would rather watch us play all out attacking football and lose a few games which in this league we probably wouldn't anyway, things have got to change 442 433 343 anything but watching10 Ray Wilkins phutt the ball about!
Another contentious point for discussion regarding ref decisions - after work I'm watching the 2nd half of the Brighton v Watford game on Bet365 live stream. Watford were 1-0 up, but right at the start of this half they clearly scored a 2nd goal, as ball was completely over the goal line, but it was waved off by the ref, with no assistance provided by his assistant - now Brighton have just equalized, so score 1-1, instead of potentially 2-1, or 2-0 to Watford.
Interesting point Kilburn and raises the question as to why was goal line technology only introduced in the Premier League? It really should have been brought in across all 4 leagues....i know cost is an issue but this is where the Sky EPL should have made funds available to lower league clubs to fund this sort of upgrade.....it is elitist at the moment and says to lower league sides that you are basically 2nd class in the professional football scheme of things.
I totally agree with that assessment with the technology available - now as things currently stand, a Brighton win/draw in this game is certainly a better result for us, but in the interest of fairness, come end of season if Watford were to say just miss out on automatic promotion, or the playoffs, this wrong decision could prove vital their potential promotion to the Premier League and all the wealth that brings. Now in this game, there is additional discussion that Forestieri (the phantom goal scorer) could have been sent off in the 1st half, and on a yellow card, and just took an obvious dive to try and get a penalty, without a 2nd yellow card from the ref resulting in a red.
Youtube video highlights from Championship games are generally hard to come by, but Bet 365 showed the incident twice in slo-mo and the ball was clearly over the line before being kicked out by the Brighton defender.
