Mr Phillip Dowd-Welcome to Villa Park !

[CJ]

I think it's fair to say that Mr Dowd fully lived down to all expectations of him today

[eastie]

I'm not going to give the manager and players an excuse to hide behind- let them take responsibility  for their pathetic display today.

[CJ]

Not trying to give anyone an excuse for anything - merely an observation that Phil Dowd is still a crap ref

[Fin Feds Dad]

Again he was useless, the challenge on bent was in the box and stearman should have got a 2nd yellow, the crazy thing was none of the Villa players argued and just took the free kick.

Spot on - can you imagine the reaction of Man Utd players etc - just went to show how much they really give a fuck !

[Pete3206]

Can someone please explain the pass back rule to me, because there looked like a deliberate pass back in the first half.

[Andy_Lochhead_in_the_air]

Can someone please explain the pass back rule to me, because there looked like a deliberate pass back in the first half.

The back-pass rule refers to two clauses within Law 12 , these clauses prohibit the goalkeeper from handling the ball when a team-mate has intentionally "kicked" the ball to him, or when handling the ball directly from a team-mate's throw-in.

The ball went back to the keeper off the players knee, so was not `kicked`.
In this particular incident, Dowd did signal to his knee to play on.

[brian green]

I wonder at which point in a player's leg a kick is not a kick.   The same interpretation of intent that is used to judge handball should be applied.   If a player uses any part of his arm from shoulder to fingertip to control the ball it is handball.   If a player uses any part of his leg to control the ball - in this case to pass the ball to the goalkeeper, it is a kick.

To say that propelling the ball deliberately with your knee is not a kick because you kick with your foot is like saying a handball is not a handball because you used your elbow not your hand.

[Andy_Lochhead_in_the_air]

The law says it has to be kicked. I am not here to defend bottler Dowd but his interpretation was correct. If you are arguing the law should be changed fine.

The only proviso to this is that if the player had clearly and deliberately created a trick to get the ball back to the keeper. If he had intentionally flicked the ball up then pushed the ball back with his knee, then its unsportsmanlike behaviour and the player should be booked irrespective of whether the keeper then picks it up. If the keeper does pick the ball up, he has then committed a non bookable offence and its an indirect free kick.

[cdbearsfan]

He even managed to fuck up the minute's silence.

[ozzjim]

Thought he should have sent Stearman off. Came through the back of Bents head to in the first half, then booked, then what looked from the other end like a bad foul on the edge against Bent, then 3-4 more after that. Though he was a very lucky boy.

[pablopicasso_10]

certainly should have had a pen, although tbh, young would more than likely have missed it anyway, but dowd is appalling...