P.P.S - How can we have a game against a team from Yorkshire, refereed by a Official from... Yorkshire??
I think Chris has quite rightly pointed out the inequity of the situation, firstly with Wagstaff being clattered and secondly with Novak who should also have been sent off even if Kay stayed on the field. They're close knit folk in Yorkshire and Boyeson certainly appeared to look after his own. How he is allowed to referee matches with Yorkshire clubs involved is beyond me particulalrly ifyou look at his previous when a team from Gods own County (Their description) is involved. It will be interestingto see if either Sky or BBC are allowed or have the guts to put the clip of the Wagstaff incident up so we can all see what amounts to fair play in Boyeson's mind. It is time for the closed shop of refereeing to become public with referees explaining their decisions particulalrly when there are promotions at stake.
All the other sides would swap with us..as for sheff utd beating chesterfield points in the bag ain`t it rather than games in hand it aint as if sheff u are in form. We are soooo negative we are top we are capable of winning all 7 games.
...and when two other Yorkshire teams are chasing us down? I don't blame the referee for this, it's down to the FA to guarantee neutrality and for both sides to make representations early if they feel that neutrality might be compromised. Mind you, from all accounts, he sounded so incompetent that it's pretty much a moot point where he's from. As CP always says "We move on".
Why are we making such a fuss over the fact that the ref came from Yorkshire? Yorkshire is BIG - there are plenty of clubs there, and I believe he came from East Yorkshire. If he were in any way known to support any team he would not be allowed to ref their games. Refs make mistakes, yes, but that is NEVER due to bias, rather their own view of an incident.
The referee was an absolute disgrace. 1) In the first half, Kay went right through Wagstaff, the type of challenge which can end a career, all four corners of the ground knew it should have been a red. Wasn't even booked...we weren't even given a free kick. 2) The Boris Johnson-esque challenge on Russel was ridiculous, but Russel shouldn't have kicked out. However, Novak pushed Russel to the ground (apparantly pushed his face? Didn't notice that myself) and was shown a yellow. How can one player be sent off for violent conduct and another be booked for it? 3) One of their defenders studded Wiggins in the shins off the ball. We were given a free kick but nothing else. How can intentionally studding a player not be classed as violent conduct and thus a red card? 4) Another off the ball incident happened involving Wagstaff(?) being tripped but the ref was facing the other direction. 5) Both Hollands and Morrison were tripped and pushed down in the box...goal kick. 6) Every time we attempted to play advantage and launch a counter-attack the ref would blow the whistle and make us take a goal kick. 7) Constantly got throw-in/corner-kick decisions wrong. We were absolutely robbed of that game, I hope he never refs another league game in his life.
As i mentioned yesterday, i listened to the Udd match commentary for the second half - and even they were surprised by the refs leniency towards the Udd players - especially over the Russell sending off incident.
Just got back (stayed with friends up there), it's not often I get to see a game now but I went up there and well, a draw was fair, they made nothing apart from the first half (and fantastic) save from Hamer and the pen, we made nothing too, was poor game but even poorer refereeing, it's been said, we get a red, surely they should have got two, it's pathetic, there were times it was just straight up lunacy, and the only reason Powell won't be fined for what he said about the refereeing decisions is because he was right, we all know he was, and friends from Huddersfield who were at the game said they deserved 2 reds and they didn't even see what russell did, Stephens and Hollands are always my first choice CM, and N'Guessen looked really really poor, Lee Cook anyday... Waggy tried but wasn't his day, I know my Dad said Green back in and I'd agree (i've always prefered Green Anyway). Hayes got some stick from those sat around me, but they were playing like he was Kermo, Hayes is like Berbatov in style (no where near as good) with flicks and that, Kermo is full of power and strength, Hamer, few bad kicks but I'm not going to complain, Taylor rather then Cort (sorry) and well yeah, that's pretty much it oh and Russell would never play again if I had my way, he kicks out, albeit I needed a replay and even that isn't clear, he cost us the penalty by losing it in their half in the first place and then doing a stupid tackle and he constantly lost the ball. But it's a bad day, bad ref, and bad luck, we'll still go up
Thanks for that, WeWant and Ted - good to get eyewitness reports - the ref really does sound completely useless. Ted, Green is definitely out injured with a problem shoulder.
Could be that he's fit enough to do some running but a shoulder barge or sliding tackle could leave a bit of lasting damage on him.
Just back from the match & read some of the more recent comments. Yes the ref was abysmal, not because he was from Yorkshire, but he was simply out of his depth & perhaps next week he'll be back with the East Yorkshire under 11 league, more to his skill level. What I have missed & perhaps they are in earlier comments are views on our lack of creativity & actual real chances we created. Please don't let the failing of a very poor ref performance hide the fact that we did not create the chances to score & so get something out of the game. Oh & to ad to the ref debate, having seen the "highlights" on football league show, A good spot to see Russell's kick, deserved a red. Huddersfield were lucky to get away with it & showed up the weak ref. Waiting for the Waggy incident to be shown. Doubt it will be online with either Sky or the BBC. Must admit I missed the "tackle" looked up to see two bodies on the ground, so can't comment on that one.
Just watched the highlights on Player. Wow , the 'tackle' on Russell by Kay was more suited to Udd Rugby than Footy, how he stayed on the pitch i dont know, and compounded with Waggy's so called 'assault' in the first half (they didnt show it), i am certainly surprised he was still there. I would suggest, that should Udd get promoted with us, a certain Mr Kay might have to be a bit 'aware' of himself at The Valley next season- else he might find himself in Row Z in the 90th minute. deposited there by any 1 of 11 players.
I know that highlights can be a bit misleading, but we had a lot more chances than Udd did. However, we havny been playing well for ages - and understand where you are coming from. Believe that if we win on Saturday, and one of the Sheff clubs dont then we are up - not mathematically, but have us down for beating Wycombe and Pools, so the Sheffs would have to win all of their remaining games.
I hope you're right Stu, can't believe we will blow it. But been a fan too long to get over confident. Looking at the run in, we should make it with ease & brain says we will, my squeaky bum is less confident.
Ted, keep the faith ! I'd rather be 6 points ahead, than 6 points adrift. If you think about promotion, Sheff Wed are 8 points behind, which relates to 3 wins difference, so that would take us up to 42 games should we , god forbid, lose all 3 , but Wendies have to win all 3 .Cant see it myself, in those 3 we have Orient,Oldham and Walsall, that we are going to lose all 3, can you? Even if we lose 2 and draw 1 we will still be ahead of Wendies due to goal diff. Firmly believe a win on saturday will settle all the nerves, and send us almost up - lets say, 8 points clear, and only 6 games to play.
Good, strong stuff from CP here - very unusual to find a story being posted on the O/S on a Sunday. http://www.cafc.co.uk/page/NewsDetail/0,,10267~2691710,00.html
Apologies that my previous post on the thread was entirely about the ref. In terms of our own teams performance: Hamer 6.5 - Great save in the first ten minutes or so. Very little else to do really but was pretty solid. His 'chin up' body language to the fans made me smile a bit, still hasn't won me over though. Was perhaps a bit silly in running to the halfway line to have a go at the ref a few times, but didn't get a booking for it. Annoyed me a bit in that Wagstaff made a brilliant unmarked run early in the game which was just asking for a perfect counter attack, but Hamer hesitated, waited for all the players to move back up the pitch then hoofed the ball to the most predictable target (N'Guessan), further to that...as Kermorgant wasn't playing, all of his Kermorgant-targeted goal kicks were all sent to N'Guessan instead, he is poor in the air for his height. Solly 6.5 - Some great tackles and really pressured the defenders well (pretty sure I've typed those words 38 times already this season ). Was a bit shakey at times though. Cort 6 - Did very well in the air but seemed far less comfortable than normal, kept launching the ball vertically into the air strangely. Also not a great threat from set pieces despite his height. Morrison 6.5 - Usual fairly solid performance. Wiggins 6 - Wasn't as much an attacking threat as normal. Was on the receiving end of a pretty cruel 'studding' of the leg, which went unpunished. Waggy 6.5 - Was constantly running all game and got himself into some decent positions. At one point he could of, and should have scored, but mis-controlled the ball. Russel 5.5 - To say he 'cost us the game' would be a fair comment if you completely ignore the referee's poor showing. He lost the ball at the half way line, and in an attempt to retrieve it after chasing their player down (good on him for catching up), he stupidly tripped their lad in the box. Controlled the ball to get into a good shooting position outside the box at one point, but controlled it instead of shooting (as there was a defender coming in who could have blocked it), then laid it off to Wagstaff (the aforementioned chance which Waggy miscontrolled). Perhaps if Russell had shot instead of taking another touch, he probably would have scored. Deserved his sending off. Hollands 5.5 - Pretty anonymous really. Did well to cover the left flank once N'Guessan was subbed, but nothing more of note. Needs desperately to be given a rest. N'Guessan 4 - Did nothing worthy of note. Mis-controlled a few aerial crosses and sent some passes into row Z. Good decision to take him off when we were down to ten men. Hayes 5.5 - Not his fault that he didn't play well, the rest of the team seemed to think he was Yann Kermorgant. Too many balls to his head. Didn't link up well with BWP (perhaps a product of them not actually having played together for months). Few of his flick-on's reached their man. BWP 7 - Made himself a danger by constantly hanging off the last man and using his blistering pace to anticipate through balls...sadly he didn't receive many. Stephens 6 - steadied the midfield a bit, but again seemed to have been given orders to play more defensively. Played some great through balls and passes. Pritchard 5 - very little time to do anything, but even so, lost the ball every time it came to him Fans: 5 - we sung constantly before the game started, but I think the anger in the air amongst us halted our vocals through the first half (minus shouting various insults at the ref of course). Second half we were a lot louder. In general, I'd say Hudders players should be proud of their performance, apart from of course, Kay (for the two disgraceful challenges), Novak (for his push) and Roberts (for studding Wiggins). They played the ball well and apart from their keeper, didn't time waste much. We really put on the pressure in the last ten minutes or so, and it showed, with the Hudders fans nearly deafening everyone in the ground with their whistling. As for their fans, they made a pretty decent amount of noise throughout the game (the section nearest to us on the left being the noisy section with the rest of the ground not making much noise). Our lot seemed to play a lot better and apply much more pressure once we were reduced to ten men, shame that Hudders had 12 men otherwise we could have got a point. Not going to lie, I left the ground feeling the most dissappointed I have ever felt since the Swindon play off game, but I'd put that down to us being quite clearly robbed of the game. Special mention for the Huddersfield stewards who were incredibly good fun, and helpful throughout the game. Probably the friendliest I've ever met.
