I was a bit wrong about the referee! The offside calls were wrong though. We were 1-0 down and 0 points on the board! Guess I was just frustrated at that! Not been mentioned I don't think (forgive me if it has) but it felt like we were playing against 14 at times today. -Could have had 2 penalties prior to the one given (shirt pull could have been given but would have been soft). Pulled back for offside a few times as well when I thought we looked on and at worst level. One time was just before the Bent goal (Lallana onside- level) -Possibly a last man foul on Lambert also? (wrong here Lambert fell over himself shouldn't have been a foul) -One more, He could have played an advantage when I think it was Lambert looked in on the keeper but pulled it back for a foul. was very confident we could win it even at 1-0 down at half time as I thought we were clearly the better team even with Fox on the pitch! And he went off at half time making me even more confident we could turn it around! We were immense today, could have easily got 6 or 7 on another day. Brilliant performance.
I thought they were fine today. A couple of dodgy calls as in every game but I certainly didn't pick up on bias like you're suggesting.
The ref was fine, but I agree the linos (or maybe it was just one) were appalling. Lallana was flagged offside twice when he didn't look it to me, and the first time they went and scored!
That is odd because I thought the Referee was one of the better ones that I have seen recently, both linos did seem to get some of the off sides wrong but I will look at MoD before making any specific complaints.
Just before Villa's goal Gaston was flagged off, he was just on. The rest of the offsides I saw were correct. The only other thing he got wrong is booking Vlaar for not fouling Lambert. They might look wrong but unless you're dead in line, you can't tell.
The ref let the game flow well but it was a fairly easy game to referee. He also showed common sense in cautioning the Villa keeper rather than sending him off. Although I was at the other end of the stadium so I don't know if Guzan would have been sent off if it happened earlier in the game or was a close game at the time of the incident.
What was Yoshida like out of interest? With everyone praising Ramirez I noticed Adkins gave Yoshida a nod during the post match interview but was he just doing that to boost his confidence or did he really play well today? Sorry for diverting from the main subject matter, didn't see the match so can't comment on that.
He was very solid apart from the start of the 2nd half where he allowed the Villa striker to get 2 free headers in from consecutive corners.
I definitely thought he played well. Fonte looked more comfortable alongside him too. Chalk me down as being impressed... but yeah everyone was kind of overshadowed today.
By the letter of the law it probably should have been red, Mayuka looked like he would have scored. But I agree a yellow card was probably right in the circumstances.
So no one thought Lambert should have got at least a penalty? One time the defender clambered all over him (first half) and the other time the defender seemed to grab his shirt and stop him challenging for ball (second half). Went to ground both times and both penalties for me . Also the foul at the end of the first half was surely preventing a one on one? Agree it's hard to know about the offsides unless you are level with it
If you're referring to Vlaar's then it wasn't even a foul. As for the penalty shouts, they both looked pretty soft to me, I'd have to see them again though. I watched the game on a livestream so I'm certain Lallana was not offside for that first one at least.
I would agree that there were some questionable offsides. However, as the game was not at all dirty and there were few fouls the referee did very little and my only criticism of him would have been the recalling of moving balls which seemed a bit fussy; however no contentious decisions and I thought he was ok.
Oh ok. I was quite far away so presumed it was a foul. I just thought it looked like a situation that had to be a red if the foul was given
I don't think Lambert was ever going to get that ball and knowing how strong he usually is I thought he went down quite easily. Villa look a big, strong side but less finesse.
Looks like I am wrong then! Thought Lambert was catching it at the time. Probably got over-excited thinking we had a breakaway
Think we were a bit desperate at the time, but credit to the team and Adkins who kept positive and it paid dividends.
