I don't think today's ref is getting enough credit for his performance today. Firstly I should point out I'm in no way trying to suggest we lost just because of the ref today, but he certainly didn't help. I try to avoid being influenced by stereotyped opinions and because I'm aware this guy gets a lot of bad press I went into this game with the intention of giving him a chance before getting on his back. However, the guy was nothing short of a joke. He had absolutely no control over what was going on whatsoever, Sergio Torres was actually officiating the game, he awarded himself free kicks on several occasions. The Crawley players were the most unsporting bunch I've seen in ages. I've never seen so many 'head injuries' coinciding with City attacks in one game, and they wouldn't stop playing for free kicks; every time a city player was running behind a Crawley one they hit the deck and got a free kick every time. The ref just kept promoting it by dancing to their tune all game and giving them whatever they wanted. We all know diving is a problem in football but the next worst thing is this 'trying to be fouled' business going on at the moment, players are effectively putting themselves on the deck and making no attempt to actually play the ball, they were at it all game today and the ref didn't have a clue. He and his officials were totally oblivious to it and couldn't seem to understand what had annoyed the fans so much. He did nothing to protect Fryatt from their massive dirty defenders, he gave a free kick against Garcia for jumping in the first half, his lino somehow missed a massive touch from their full back in the corner and gave a goal kick, and the ref was throwing his cards around for every tackle (but only for one team of course). One further point, everyone says that at Old Trafford or in front of the Kop, referees feel pressured into giving decisions. Yet at the Kc whenever a ref is vocally criticised by the crowd he spits his dummy out and makes things worse, noticably and deliberately being more annoying with petty decisions as if to get back at the crowd. We need to master the art of squeezing the best decisions out of them like the massive clubs can.
We lost on our own accord today, but I agree the ref was poor. Fell for Crawley's play acting (not taking anything away from their performance) and gave strange decisions and seemed to give Crawley the 50-50 decisions. There also seemed to be a lot of coincidental injuries when we came forward.
Indeed. That Garcia one was farcical. Garcia and there defender both ran to the ball and then jumped, didn't even collide and he gave a free kick against Garcia for jumping. Another incident that's come to my head is one of the 'head injuries' in the first half when their players went down and the ref wasn't interested in stopping while they had the ball, then when it fell to us and we started an attack he then decided it was a good time to stop the game for the player down. He gave us a free kick for it almost in apology - he wasn't going to give anything at first.
I mentioned this in another thread, five fouls where basically identical today, two got yellows both of them where ours. You can't be so inconsistent and not expect there to be moaning afterwards.
Tried to have a laugh with you but sorry you squeal like a fukin girl. 3 bookings for us and and as Ricardo says on another thread Hobbs is lucky to stay on. They did what we would do playing a premieship side, as Browny used to do, waste time all the time. Get over your refs obsession. We were sh1t nothing to do with the ref.
Unfortunately if you're a ref, you can. The only refereeing errors that ever get addressed are the major ones that make it onto MOTD. If it isn't in the PL, and it isn't a really major decision it simply doesn't matter to anyone but the fans. In other words refs can do what they want in the middle of the park and in innocuous positions, these are the ones where IMO the most bizarre decisions are made and the ones that piss me off most.
Well sitting behind the referee's in the players lounge today they seemed to believe Attwell is going back to the PL. This is one thing that annoys me like it does you, the major decisions change games, but the little decision make games. People who say it has no affect on the match are allowing poor refereeing, surely there should be more consequences for poor officiating?
Yes 3 bookings for us, that's what annoys me. They were all over us all game, both their massive CBs wouldn't leave Fryatt alone but it's us that get 3 bookings for totally random tackles (in fact, 2 of them weren't even fouls) Hobbs was lucky to stay on? Just because their manager says so it doesn't make it true. That was yet another fabricated foul awarded by that prick Torres, Hobbs didn't even touch him. You mention us under PB, those were the days, we used to win games as underdogs without cheating and messing about we just defended well. It pisses me off that after what we achieved through skill other teams are acheieving the same through basically cheating. So we can complain that the team were **** but not the ref? Both as bad as each other weren't they?
Atwell was CLEARLY biased toward Crawley. As people have said that had little to do with the result. That was down to their team being better than the one we put out. But what annoyed me most was that our players were getting booked for tackles almost identical to those they were getting away with. That meant they were free to continue fouling without fear of receiving a second yellow whereas we were not. Mind you any ref capable of this is capable of anything!! [video=youtube;O0YiuSbBdaQ]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0YiuSbBdaQ[/video] Got sick of seeing that fat phuck Evans jumping around on the sidelines trying to persuade the inept ref to send our players off.
