Dave Bryan and Ceri Richards are being axed for the rest of the season

Blunder linesmen shelved until next season

Published 21:31 13/04/12 By Alan Nixon


Linesmen Dave Bryan and Ceri Richards are being axed for the rest of the season – in a *crackdown on recent awful decisions.

Bryan was the assistant who missed two offside goals in Chelsea’s win over struggling Wigan last Saturday, to the fury of boss Roberto Martinez.

TV evidence showed both Branislav Ivanovic and Juan Mata had goals allowed by Bryan that should have been ruled out.

And Richards made it a bad couple of days for the men who run the line by failing to spot Ashley Young was offside prior to Manchester United’s controversial first goal against QPR.

Young was brought down by Shaun Derry, who got the earliest of early baths in the confusion that followed and Wayne Rooney scored from the ensuing penalty.

To add insult to injury, Derry lost his red card appeal and had to sit out Rangers' midweek win over Swansea.

But now the Premier League heirarchy have suspended the duo for the remaining games as they react to intense criticism of some recent key blunders by officials.

The linesmen are the fall guys in both of these incidents – a move that has shocked some in the game and even brought the pair some sympathy from the managers who suffered.

Wigan chief Martinez said: “Bryan has been a linesman for 15 years. I don’t know what happened to him on Saturday.”

Many bosses are now of the view that the three men in charge at each game need more help from the sidelines.

Both Blackpool boss Ian Holloway and Wigan’s Martinez think that the fourth officials should be drawn from the ranks of experienced, recently-retired referees.

The current pool of fourth officials include some Football League referees and even young Stuart Attwell has been called from a Premier League demotion to fill that role.


http://www.mirrorfootball.co.uk/news/EXCLUSIVE-Linesman-Dave-Bryan-Ceri-Richards-shelved-for-rest-of-season-after-gaffes-that-cost-Wigan-QPR-article890042.html

 

This is the definition of shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted. Nice work F.A.

 

The linesman is the one who should least take the blame. It was poor of him to miss it but not to the extent that he should miss half a dozen games and a serious wedge of cash in the process. Mason's failure to think about what he was doing for a couple of seconds and being more concerned with doing everything humanly possible to get in Ferguson's good books, not just the penalty incident either, and Young's incredibly blatant cheating are surely bigger deals. It's like a banker siphoning millions out of Lloyds and the company sacking the girl on reception.

 

I agree that Mason was a totally, cheating inept twat....but the linesman deserves all he gets! It was such an easy decision, not hard at all, as Young was offside for 2-3 seconds before he received the ball in that same offside position. Had he flagged, none of the rest would have followed!!

 

It was a poor one, it can't be argued otherwise, but no worse than the decision to flag SWP offside against West Brom. How he missed it is beyond me but I think depriving someone who is clearly a decent lino to have got to this level of so many matches and a couple of grand (I believe they make £400 a match but am probably wrong) isn't right and just smacks of the FA doing something to be seen to be doing something without addressing the real villains of the piece. They have the power to fine and/or suspend players for 'ungentlemanly' conduct I would presume which what Young did was the very definition of.

 

If you look at the view from Mason's angle there was clearly no trip and Derry barely got a finger on Young's shirt. If Rugby players went down like that their fellow pros would die laughing, Young is a cheat, nothing more nothing less and Mason is simply incompetent but has been backed by the FA because he hasn't the good grace to accept he got it wrong...

 

Didn't really expect to see so much support for Ceri R after the amount of crap he got earlier, after the game. It was stated that he did on many occations wait for Mason's ruling before showing his own verdict of the situation.

 

Everyone makes mistakes. We see strikers missing open goals from a couple yards out, keepers misjudging crosses and numerous mis-timed tackles.

Referees and linesmen will make mistakes too. However, I believe that they should only be removed if their performance is poor over a period of time. Just like a striker will be dropped to the bench or even the team if he doesn't perform.

If there are mistakes in a match, (SWPs goal that wasn't, the penalty against Derry v Man U) there is nothing that you can do about it.

HOWEVER what CAN be done is not compounding the error by turning down appeals against wrong decisions, thus punishing a player/team from their next match or matches. A mistake in one match cannot be allowed to impact on other matches.

There also needs to be much stronger action against those who cheat. From players that steal 15 yards at a throw in to those that throw themselves to the ground in the penalty area; from players that crowd the referee trying to pressure him into producing a card to those that get smacked on the shoulder and go down holding their nose and writhing in mock agony; those that go down in a heap having been fouled - rolling around as if they have had their leg broken only to jump up after the decision and run the full length of the pitch, to those who kick the ball away when faced with the possibility of a quickly taken free kick and the mess in the penalty areas from free kicks and corners when everybody is holding on to everybody else.

These things CAN be addressed. It is about time that they started doing just that.

 

Appeasement pure and simple. Unless Lee Mason is removed from the PL list for next season, I for one will not be satisfied. We need to keep up the criticism, not feel sorry for them. The guy at Wigan is the same twat who contrived with his ref to be convinced that Barton must have headbutted Johnson even though he was looking at the pair at the time, did not flag (and therefore clearly saw nothing wrong) simply because of Johnson's playacting, the ref's lack of bottle and Barton's reputation. He is a disgrace, blind as a bat and should never be running a line again.

 

it's about admitting your mistakes. I haven't seen or heard anywhere that Mason has admitted he has done horribly wrong at od traffofd. Now the linesman is going to pay the price even he did an error that happens about five times a week. Masons mistake was gigantic as he gave a pen ,show a red card and din't admit that he was wrong even 99,9% of peoples has seen he was wrong. Hope Mason is safisfied with his actions

 

And to repeat the message we have given out before, where's the apology as the result and decision stand. Why can refs and linesmen not be charged with bringing the game into disrepute because decisions like that surely do more than any incident of "handbags at dawn"

 

I'd bet my West Brom ticket that Mason stands by his decision. What I would do with two tickets I don't know.

 

This, so this.

 

He HAS stood by his decision which is why Derry lost his appeal...

 

As I've mentioned before, what makes this all the worse is that less than one week later, Lee Mason is rewarded for his incompetence by being the 4th Official for an FA Cup semi-final at Wembley today. And Martin Atkinson, who apparently saw Balotelli's challenge and deemed it legal and failed to see Clint Hill's header 2 yards over the line at Bolton is given the high profile job of refereeing Chelsea v Spurs tomorrow???

I have lost all faith in the FA.