It's one thing for a ref to make a mistake: it's a tough job as everyone knows, decisions have to be made quickly and without replays and there is often immense pressure from home crowds. It's quite another to review a blatent injustice at your leisure and still not admit to making the mistake however. This is quite simply a case of Mason and the FA putting their own credibility before the interests of fairness. What else is a referee for other than to be impartial and fair? I trust that we will offer Mason a warm welcome should the FA ever dare put him in front of us again.
This is the Barton ghost head butt all over again. The Ref didn't see Joey Barton face up to Norwich's Bradley Johnson and neither did the linesman. Barton was fouled a couple of seconds later and the ref blew up only to red card him for what was meant to have happened just before. The 4th official notified the Ref/Linesman of the incident. No other explanation. Look at where the Ref/Lino were and they had an un-obstructed view but missed it, the 4th official would only have seen Barton's back and the reaction of Johnson who reacted like a pussy which got Barton sent off. After seeing the Derry/Young incident again I wondered if Young thought the Ref had blown for the off-side and went down like a sack of spuds in protest. Or maybe he is just another cheat. The FA could not have admitted that the Ref only sent Barton off because of intervention from the 4th official because, as I understand, he should have no influence on the game. It should have admitted why the card was given, apologized and not let it stand. The FA should have looked at the Man Utd game and seen it for what it was but yet again chickened out of making things right so as to protect another Ref. I don't expect Refs to get everything right, there have been many decisions that I've been spitting at during a game only to see a different angle on TV and realize I was wrong. What sticks in the craw is their failure to admit that Referees can make honest mistakes and then put the record straight afterwards. How can fans of other clubs not think that Man Utd get better treatment when something like this happens not long after the FA go cap in hand to reduce Wayne Rooney's 3 match ban at the Euros? Sickening.
In that Bartons ghost-butt case i have always wondering that, why on earth ref did not give a yellow card to that Norwich player who fouled Barton few seconds after the "ghost-butt" happens? Was that blatant foul forgotten when ref heard about Joeys "headbutt"? I was at the match and my first reaction was that ref is sending off that Norwich player who fouled Barton......
