He would have to join the queue headed by Clattenberg ( Medro Pendes 'goal'v Man U & Nani's goal disgracefully allowed after he handled )
We had Robbie Earle as co-commentator- who previously I respected as a pundit,not now. He stated it was a blatant dive even when numerous replays contradicted was he said,the other commentator didn't agree with him either.
But he's far from the only one that's dived in the Premier League, yet everyone else seems to be able to get fouled without being booked for it. And what about the other 2 blatant handballs that were dismissed? Yesterday summed it up for us, we are not getting a penalty until we start surrounding and intimidating refs like everyone else does so I hope we don't waste our time practising them.
To be fair, even though it was a penalty, he doesn't help himself with the dying swan "legs arching out behind him". None of the contact from the Sunderland player should make his legs arch out like that. It was a foul, followed by an exaggerated fall.
Fall at attention Bale, legs straight, arms straight no uneccessary head movements. BEGIN! We obviously don't play by the rules!
Saints fan in peace.... A natural interest in Bale obviously... Mariner should never referee in the premier league again.
So in one post you claim an Arsenal fan has observational powers of 0 out of 10... then in the very next post you try and claim that Bale's tumble wasn't exaggerated?! Even when he is fouled, he still falls over like a dying swan.
Unbelievable all these posters claiming he dived. What is the natural way to fall? Top penalty converters this season: Arteta and Lampard-no wonder those are the two teams that finished a couple of points ahead of us. 5 each!
Correct it's called consistency. You are just a victim of biased vision, you see what you want to see. Are you a ref?
Next you'll blame him for putting his arms out infront of himself to stop his face hitting the floor. He's pushed forward off balance, where are his legs supposed to be?
What's the media got to do with football fans being able to watch a replay and come to the conclusion that Bale fell over like he'd been shot? It was a penalty and a dive all in one.
Handball decisions are so subjective because of the issue of "intent". However, most refs will rule against any defender who raises his hands towards the ball so Spurs were unfortunate not to get each of those decisions yesterday. We've discussed the question of Bale diving before and most Spurs fans here conceded that he was guilty of diving on occasions. There are notable examples of it, such as the game at Anfield last season (the cat on the pitch game). Although he clearly didn't dive yesterday, some refs may be reluctant to give him the benefit of any doubt if there are unsure if he is sinned against or sinner. He's not the first player of his kind to suffer in this way. I don't see any conscious or unconscious bias against Spurs (why should there be?) even if there is no doubt you've had some rough luck.
I wouldn't worry if the ref had not given the penalty. But to show him a yellow card was ridiculous. I'm not a conspiracy theorist but this was beyond incompetent for the ref chosen for the FA Cup Final.
You're right Luke there is no discenable bias. Man U. Chelsea and Arsenal get the good luck, Spurs get the bad luck. We need to practice our Luck more if we want to move forward. There is a precidence for the small guys: The Dinosaurs were really unlucky and the little rodents struck gold. We live in hope.
There's no reason why officials would deliberately target Tottenham. The refs have been pretty poor all round this season, you've just been unlucky. It was the same for us last year..
Excellent point. But that decision was just laughable. Funny if it wasn't so disgraceful. Yes Bale had dived, but so have very many others, many of whom have actually got penalties and game changing results as a consequence. How many of those bookings he's got this year were actually dives? And even more ridiculously people that actually and clearly dive are not getting booked for it, and even getting penalties!
