I mean his hand was high up and not in a natural position. No but you can bet had we lost or even drawn some would have made the most of it. .
Well, whatever we say about yesterday's referee, he is not in Anthony Taylor's class of officiating muppetry.
I didn't think that Arsenal disallowed goal was a foul tbf so unlucky for that. VAR took a while on one of the goals checking an offside and Van Dijk did have a sly kick out which on another day would have got a booking. The worse decision of the day was that late penalty for West Ham and now Tan Hag has lost his job as a result.
Van Dijk kicked his opponent twice. I think the ball was still in play in which case it's Serious Foul Play, or if the ball was out of play it becomes Violent Conduct. Either way it is a stone wall red card. Kicking or attempting to kick an opponent is a specific offence, up there with striking, headbutting and spitting. It's not open to interpretation, which is why it's such a poor decision. It struck me that VAR were looking for a reason to disallow the goal. Poor, but the right decision was reached. I was surprised that the penalty incident wasn't shown back to Taylor. I'm pretty sure we'd have been on the wrong side of each decision. I've not seen the West Ham penalty, off to find it now!
On the subject of dodgy refs and their dodgy decisions, these are causing a bit of heated debate up here at the moment. I know it's difficult to judge from photographs, but as a ref what would you do with both these incidents?
I guess they should end in the same decision - did the player with the high foot win the ball? That is probably the first though process and what intent is there.
The bottom picture is actually from a Celtic v Hearts match last season - the Celtic player was red carded. The top one is from the Rangers v St Mirren match on the weekend - no yellow or red card issued, the ref apparently gave Rangers a free kick for some odd reason. Two different refs, but surely that shouldn't make a difference as both offences were clearly dangerous play. The Rangers incident simply added fuel to claim that referees favour Rangers.
On the photo evidence alone, both look to be reckless endangerment and straight red cards. They are both facing their opponents, so it doesn't look good from my perspective. I'll have a trawl around You Tube, see if I can find them. I had an incident once where an attacking player tried a bicycle kick, full mid-air stuff, the defender came in on his blind side and took the full force of the follow through. The ball went in the top corner. The defender had a fractured cheekbone and play was held up for forty minutes whilst we waited for an ambulance and then for the crew to do their thing. A sickening injury, literally for a couple of the players not least the poor guy himself and the guy who kicked him. I called the two captains together and their managers and told them what my decision was, asking them if they wanted to play on, which they did. A genuine no-fault, bad luck, incident. I was less than ten yards away with an unobstructed view. If they hadn't wanted to play on I would have been happy to abandon the game. I've been carried off in a match (player) with a concussion from a stray elbow (proper Nat Lofthouse stuff, the reason for the goal area!) - I was out til I hit the ground - and spent four days in Watford General. Didn't get the decision and they scored from the resulting corner. That was half time - I got up to start the second half (yeah, riiight), took a swig of lemon squash, threw that straight up along with my breakfast as I keeled over! Next thing I remember was in the ambulance!
You know that Anthony Backhouse [ref vs Oxford Utd tonight] uttered those immortal words... HOLD MY BEER!
You know that Anthony Backhouse [ref vs Oxford Utd tonight] uttered those immortal words... HOLD MY BEER!
