I can't remember the last time I was this furious. Unbelievably terrible refereeing. The worst display I have seen in a very long time.
For me this game sums up why the respect campaign is bullshit. Why does that referee deserve any respect. If I turn up to work an performed that badly I would expect to be there the next day. That was the refereeing equivalent of turning up to work, taking a **** on the desk and waking out.
If that had been an Asian cricket match, a major match-fixing investigation would be about to be launched
Andre Marriner was 4th official, you couldn't make it up. What the flying **** are the FA doing giving the opening game of the season, one that could well be a close game, to someone completely inexperienced at this level?
From the BBC (Chris Sutton) The decision to disallow Cameron Jerome's effort for Norwich for a high boot does not go down well with the striker's union..... "That's the worst decision you will see all season - on the opening day. If Palace had scored it I would have been saying the same. It was a wonderful finish. Was it the referee or the assistant? It's ridiculous. All he did was hook it over his shoulder."
Is there any kind of system where clubs can complain about this level of incompetence? I know the result can't be changed, but this guy should never, ever referee a top game again. But I'm sure the authorities will protect their own as always.
Must have missed the memo on the new rules: 1. No more overhead kicks 2. Shove who you want in the box
Very unlucky today thaught you was the better team today. Good to see you lot back into the premier league. If u play like that you should do well this season.
So angry. But that shouldn't disguise the fact that we are in the poop if Jerome gets injured. We need someone at his level as back up/second striker, or we need to rehabilitate RvW or Hooper (although our style doesn't really suit them). The terrible refereeing can't disguise the fact that we can't start games with players from our second eleven.
Reasons to be cheerful. 1) England regained the Ashes 2).......that's all I can think of at the moment
Most people will take a glance at the 3-1 and think Norwich are **** straight back down. I am utterly shell shocked by the decisions that went against us, someone said we were 10/1 to win that game Corals must have paid those ****ing robbing ****s with the black shirts on today.
This is what we have to swallow though all season - we have to take those early chances and put ourselves well in front in these types of encounters, 'cos the paymasters will be too strong a force inside these inept referees to allow for a comeback score - they are just not clever enough to work out the odds. It was sub standard reffing today, and it does make you wonder...grrrrrr
Now I've calmed down, it was a strange game. For the first hour we really did look like boys against men and I feared we were all in for a long, depressing season. But then the spirit kicked in and it should have earned us at least a point and probably all three. I just hope the fact that 'we were robbed' (which we were) doesn't mean that we sit back and think all is well. That first hour showed that we have serious weaknesses in both attack and defence. Grabban isn't up to this level and the defence is always going to leak goals. We need to spend.
Upon reflection there is still reason to be positive. We did create chances and we played quite well on the whole against a good team. Perhaps Mulumbu could have helped us too had he been fit. That said I still think we need signings and I think that if everybody is fit Jerome and Redmond should start. Grabban is incredibly frustrating.
Seething at that. With all the money the PL has, why can't we have competent officials? Apparently all the national press thought it was a great goal. The ref had a much better view than his assistant and yet he accepted the assistant's view on it. Absolute rubbish. The push on Bassong was a blatant penalty but both the ref and assistant managed not to see it or simply chickened out on making a decision. Diabolical! Good performance though. The passing was excellent, 62% possession, 17 shots , 6 on target (should have been 19 and 8 with 3 goals) clear tactical awareness and the team kept going and fought their way back into the match. The downside was the second goal when Delaney was allowed to sneak in on the blind-side. Their first goal was well taken with a good finish by Zaha. Jerome and Redmond changed the game when they came on. Lots of reasons to see positives in the performance and it won't always be like this. On to Sunderland now!
