Ref Watch ..... Bristol Rovers (H)

[Lord Football]

Really poor reffing today. Way too trigger happy with cards imo. The red card, while justified, ruined the game as it forced Bristol to put 10 behind the ball and play for the 0-0.

You can't blame him for Rovers' tactics due to the send off. And I don't think he was trigger happy with the cards, Rovers' were quite happy kicking people. So cards were need.

However...... he was bloody terrible. It was only thanks to the assistant or fourth official being alert that we didn't end with a player with two yellow cards not being sent off. That's basic. And he made a complete fool of himself with the positioning of the ball at a corner.

 

[LBBlue]

When was the six second rule for goalkeepers holding the ball abolished? I must have missed it? Can't say that I'm looking forward to the no doubt many times he will be refereeing us in the future.

 

[OldBlueLady]

Way out of his comfort zone, totally incompetent. One of the worst we've seen this season - I have a sore throat from shouting so much at him! :thumbdown:

 

[shrimper-james]

You can't blame him for Rovers' tactics due to the send off. And I don't think he was trigger happy with the cards, Rovers' were quite happy kicking people. So cards were need.

However...... he was bloody terrible. It was only thanks to the assistant or fourth official being alert that we didn't end with a player with two yellow cards not being sent off. That's basic. And he made a complete fool of himself with the positioning of the ball at a corner.

I wasn’t blaming him for Rovers’ tactics and I probably should’ve worded that better. But it certainly did make a difference.

 

[SHRIMPERPETER]

Bloody midget refs are always the worst! Probably bullied at school when he was a kid so uses reffing to get back at society:winking:

 

[ace]

Way way out of his depth. All became about him, and he carried no authority. For a "nothing" game, surprisingly both teams looked up for it, which he managed to turn into a side show about him.

 

[1966 and all that]

I wonder if assistant referees comment on their ref's performance after the game. Perhaps silence (rather than 'well done') means 'I think you had a shocker today'. Any idea?

 

[Somerset Ex-TTB]

Not that it would of made a difference, but only 4 mins added on at the end summed up his performance. There were 4 substitutions and possibly the worst amount of time wasting I have seen for a long time.

I would of expected 6 or 7 minutes. You know the ref has had a shocker when both sets of fans boo him.

 

[OldBlueLady]

I wonder if assistant referees comment on their ref's performance after the game. Perhaps silence (rather than 'well done') means 'I think you had a shocker today'. Any idea?

The one on the west was just as bad, missed just about everything all day long.

 

[Mick]

The last referee and certainly the least, in terms of experience.

...... and I'd say the least in terms of ability too - no mean achievement bearing in mind some of them !

 

[Malcontent]

...... and I'd say the least in terms of ability too - no mean achievement bearing in mind some of them !

Is there a systematic issue as there seems to be a common theme across the leagues that refereeing standards are getting worse? Now this might be moaning fans, just interested to hear from those who know whether they think there needs to be a shake-up in the system

 

[LBBlue]

...... and I'd say the least in terms of ability too - no mean achievement bearing in mind some of them !

He's not learned much in 10 years has he!

http://www.southwalesargus.co.uk/news/2015290.Ref_takes_centre_stage_as_spoils_are_shared/

 

[Massimo Giovanni]

Is there a systematic issue as there seems to be a common theme across the leagues that refereeing standards are getting worse? Now this might be moaning fans, just interested to hear from those who know whether they think there needs to be a shake-up in the system

I do not know how many refs of league level there are; but I don't expect it to be more than a gross (no funny intended) or so. And I don't know what coaching and rule interpretation they are given by the FA; however I have noticed that they seem to be lacking, too often, in humility, humour and flexibility of thought. The incident with the corner/white line/ball placement is a classic example of this. IMO the egg chasing officials seem to do a far better job of rules interpretation and also communicate their instructions clearly and openly. If, (AND they MUST), the FA want to improve the standard of officiating then communication skills ought to be high on the agenda for training.

 

[Mick]

I do not know how many refs of league level there are; but I don't expect it to be more than a gross (no funny intended) or so. And I don't know what coaching and rule interpretation they are given by the FA; however I have noticed that they seem to be lacking, too often, in humility, humour and flexibility of thought. The incident with the corner/white line/ball placement is a classic example of this. IMO the egg chasing officials seem to do a far better job of rules interpretation and also communicate their instructions clearly and openly. If, (AND they MUST), the FA want to improve the standard of officiating then communication skills ought to be high on the agenda for training.

Rugby officials enjoy the opportunity to arbitrate over players who at pretty much all times afford them the utmost of respect. Their players do not spend every minute of the game trying to cheat, feign injury and get opponents sent off. A hurt rugby player tries to pretend he's not hurt. An unhurt football writhes in fake agony. It is so much easier for these rugby referees.

The rugby authorities maintain this respect with very strong action against the occasional breaches.

The FA, UEFA and FIFA are too busy wallowing in their troughs of self-interest and have done less than nothing to clean up the game.

 

[Fish]

All sorts of man and match management errors from the ref. In addition to those set out above the foul on Demetriou for their first yellow card, by choosing to card Oxley for whatever it was he said before dealing with the foul itself was just plain wrong. Deal with the incident, then go and deal with any follow-up to it afterwards. As a result he lost the trust of the players.

the evidence of that was when he played a perfectly good advantage after Cox was clattered on the right wing touchline. MacLaughlin had the ball, ref was signalling advantage but all players just stopped. Result was Southend lost possession and the (justified) advantage was therefore spoiled by the players stopping. Obviously players should play to the whistle, but equally obviously the ref had lost the trust of the players and therefore chose not to go with it.

Two or three times he chose to hold play up for a foul in the middle of the park where a promising attack was building, rather than let the attacking team get on with a quick free kick, without even showing a card. If you're going to **** all over a good attack by blowing your whistle to have a word, at least make it worthwhile as you can by showing a card too. otherwise you're just completing the job that the defending team started in the first place, which is a deliberate foul to enable defenders to get back.

 

[Mick]

All sorts of man and match management errors from the ref. In addition to those set out above the foul on Demetriou for their first yellow card, by choosing to card Oxley for whatever it was he said before dealing with the foul itself was just plain wrong. Deal with the incident, then go and deal with any follow-up to it afterwards. As a result he lost the trust of the players.

He lost the trust of the players, if he ever had it, by not being very good. The sequence of cautioning Oxley and their player is neither here nor there and, in fact, he probably got it the right way round. If Oxley is in his face demanding a caution then deal with that straight away. You don't want to be sending him away, cautioning the other player and then calling him back.

 

[Mick]

the evidence of that was when he played a perfectly good advantage after Cox was clattered on the right wing touchline. MacLaughlin had the ball, ref was signalling advantage but all players just stopped. Result was Southend lost possession and the (justified) advantage was therefore spoiled by the players stopping. Obviously players should play to the whistle, but equally obviously the ref had lost the trust of the players and therefore chose not to go with it.

Don't understand this at all. If the players think the referee isn't very good, why would they be less likely to play on at an advantage (they probably wouldn't be expecting the kick to be given anyway!). And what did the ref "chose not to go with" ?

I'm sorry but this particular critique has baffled me more than his decisions did.

 

[RobM]

Really poor reffing today. Way too trigger happy with cards imo. The red card, while justified, ruined the game as it forced Bristol to put 10 behind the ball and play for the 0-0.

That's hardly the referee's fault. "Oh I know, no red card because it might ruin the game!".

 

[Fish]

Don't understand this at all. If the players think the referee isn't very good, why would they be less likely to play on at an advantage (they probably wouldn't be expecting the kick to be given anyway!). And what did the ref "chose not to go with" ?

I'm sorry but this particular critique has baffled me more than his decisions did.

Because when players are unsure whether the ref is dealing with something, they stop and look at him to force him to do something. They effectively end up "self-refereeing" the game, because they don't trust the ref will blow things up. Happens in a lot of sport especially at lower levels; unusual to see it at Southend's level.

The ref on Saturday took too long to realise this is what was happening; he could have realised this, decided to blow and deal with it but chose not to, possibly because he didn't want it to look like he was giving a free kick just because Southend appealed and stopped.

 

[Fish]

He lost the trust of the players, if he ever had it, by not being very good. The sequence of cautioning Oxley and their player is neither here nor there and, in fact, he probably got it the right way round. If Oxley is in his face demanding a caution then deal with that straight away. You don't want to be sending him away, cautioning the other player and then calling him back.

If he'd dealt with the original incident adequately, Oxley wouldn't have had the chance to get in his face. Blow your whistle, get your card out, done. Why faff around walking over to the player, everyone knows who's just committed the foul!

This was the first incident in the game which demonstrated he wasn't up to dealing with the players. It's where he clearly lost the confidence of the players by choosing to be officious in the manner in which he dealt with that situation. He took far too long getting his card out for the incident, thereby inviting further protest (because footballers have no self control), and getting himself into more contention and confrontation.