Our referees are the best in the world

[martyn ellis]

31 March 2012: Aston Villa v Chelsea. 50-50 ball near the touchline between Agbonlahor and Terry with the score at 2-2. Agbonlahor comes away cleanly with the ball, linesman does not flag; Referee Lee Mason acknowledges Terry's appeal from the ground by giving a free kick to Chelsea, who attack, get a corner and score.
7 April 2012: Chelsea v Wigan. Spirited performance by Wigan cancelled out by two clearly off-side goals from the home side awarded by referee Mike Jones and his sidekick running the line.
8 April 2012: Man Utd v QPR. Ashley Young, clearly in an off-side position, is 'felled' by the merest brush against Sean Derry and awarded a penalty. Derry sent off by referee Lee Mason and subsequent appeal against a ban rejected.
9 April 2012: Aston Villa v Stoke. Debatable free kick awarded to the away side with the score at 1-0. The resulting cross headed firmly into the net by Robert Huth courtesy of a huge lift-off on the shoulders of James Collins who is powerless to jump with the scorer. Villa's protests waved away by referee Mike Dean. The game finishes 1-1 and the relegation strugglers drop two vital points.
15 April. Man Utd v Aston Villa. In the 6th minute Villa's already difficult task is made nigh on impossible when Ashley Young, who learnt his tricks at Villa Park so why should we be so surprised, ghosts into the penalty area and makes a beeline for the boot of the retreating Ciaran Clarke over which he flings himself to massed demands for a penalty. Referee Mark Halsey, of Thierry Henri free kick fame and countless other outrageous decisions, predictably obliges - the boys in the studio concur 'you can't do that in the modern game' What? Dive? Or try and get your leg out of the way?
15 April. Chelsea v Spurs. FA Cup Semi Final, Wembley Stadium. An even and entertaining match, with little to separate the two teams apart from an exceptional Chelsea strike at the end of the first half, is ruined as a fair spectacle when the referee, Martin Atkinson sees the ball go over the Spurs goal line, even though no-one else does and even though repeated replays show it was in play all the time. John Terry pleads with the ref not allow the goal as it hit him and so couldn't have gone over, but his appeals fall on deaf ears. Mr Atkinson is sure and awards the goal (I made the JT bit up).
And so I could go on. I'm sure you can find plenty more game-changing examples of inept refereeing from the annals of Messrs Webb, Dowd, Probert, Clattenberg, Foy, et al. I really am getting sick of referee apologists. I've described these few cases of ineptitude all occurring within the last two or three weeks (there's only mostly Villa ones here because those are the ones that upset me the most). Anyone care to join in and challenge Roy Hodgson's claim that we have the best refs in the world?

[luke25]

I was royally pissed off yesterday and accused them of deliberately cheating, maybe that was the wrong way of getting my point across, I think they're put under that much pressure by managers, media and players that the thought and stress of making  mistakes is causing them to make the mistakes, although we do need some stronger characters who don't get influenced by John, Wayne, Steven and Frank.

[john e]

i'l tell you what anoys me most about the two main incidents over the last weekend,

firstly Ashleys dive, yes it was a dive, he did it for us he does it for them, thats what he does, he's a  Diver,
 but talk to most Man Utd fans and they will tell you he didnt and it was 100% penenlty, thats what does me head in, at least when he dived for us we admitted it, they wont because they are the no nothings of football

secondly, the ref made a clanger with the Chelsea goal massive mistake, but i'm damn sure he gave it because he thought it was over the line, what i couldnt stand was the 6 Chelsea players who chased after him demanding a goal, some of them knowing it was never over the line, just cheats ,
 i hate cheats

anyway, thats what got my gander up

[gabbyisgod]

lets not also forget;

Saturday 22nd October 2011 - Aston Villa V West Brom - Chris Herd Pulls his leg away from Olsson's wrestling move only to be sent off for stamping

Saturday 29th October 2011 Sunderland V Aston Villa - Richard Dunne goes shoulder to shoulder with a Sunderland attacker only to be pulled up for a foul - Sunderland score from the resulting free-kick (Albeit poor defending mind)

Wednesday 1st Febuary 2012 - Aston Villa - QPR - Goal Keeper like reactions by Shaun Derry (I think) to block Charles N'Zogbia's (I think) goalbound shot.

Saturday March 10th 2012 - Bolton v QPR - QPR defender heads home however Bogdan in the Bolton goal claws the ball onto the bar, even though the ball had crossed the line - No Goal!

Saturday March 10th 2012 - Bolton v QPR - QPR striker is clearly 2 yards offside when putting the ball into the net however the linesman decides not to flag and QPR goal stands.


Just a few from the top of my head whilst on Lunch!

[luke25]

i'l tell you what anoys me most about the two main incidents over the last weekend,

firstly Ashleys dive, yes it was a dive, he did it for us he does it for them, thats what he does, he's a  Diver,
 but talk to most Man Utd fans and they will tell you he didnt and it was 100% penenlty, thats what does me head in, at least when he dived for us we admitted it, they wont because they are the no nothings of football

When he did it for us people on the Holte would shout ffs Ash get up. Thats the difference, we were ashamed of it where as they embrace it.

[N'ZMAV]

The whole game is ruined.

[timeoutbigbar]

Just playing devils advocate but if we were on the right side of these decisions, would we be complaining about poor referees?

[TheSandman]

Just playing devils advocate but if we were on the right side of these decisions, would we be complaining about poor referees?

No. But just because we're hypocrites doesn't mean there is nothing wrong with bad refereeing decisions.

Bad as referees have been lately, I don't think they are helped by players and managers. You have players like Young who dive and cheat to defraud the referee leading him to give a wrong decision. Then, you have the whole charade where players surround and attempt to intimidate the referee irrespective of whether the decision involved is correct or incorrect. Then you have managers, players and even office holders at clubs who use press conferences or social networking to whinge about refereeing decisions irrespective of whether they are right or wrong. They do this solely in order to intimidate referees ahead of any future decisions or to excuse themselves from their own shortcomings using a target everyone is too happy to blame and who doesn't get the chance to answer back.

[Colhint]

what about Wigans clear goal against united. Disallowed dont know what for.
Cieran Clark lying on the floor with a head injury, Ref plays on until MANYOO lose the ball. Or Heskey down holding his head and the ref plays on.

[john e]

what about Wigans clear goal against united. Disallowed dont know what for.
Cieran Clark lying on the floor with a head injury, Ref plays on until MANYOO lose the ball. Or Heskey down holding his head and the ref plays on.

in fairness if you stopped the game every time Heskey went down the match would last about 5 hours

[ClaretAndBlueBlood]

stop the players cheating and you will make the referees jobs easier - from things like appealing for throw ins when it is clearly them who have put the ball out to diving for penalties.

castigate the players, not the referees!!!

[James]

Retrospective punishment for diving (oh, fuck it, CHEATING!) is the only cure. First offence 3 game ban, sunsequent offences 5 games each. That'll stop it!

Alan Green on R5 (not usually my favourite person) was incensed by it yesterday and spoke very well. Fair play to him.

The thing is the ManYoo's of this world are happy to win by cheating, most of us wouldn't be if we're honest, though we'd probably take it and justify ourselves it was 'evening out'.

[ktvillan]

There were plenty of H&V posters defending Young when there was a thread about his diving on here, despite it being blindingly obvious he is, and always has been,  a cheat.

The players cheating is a big factor, but even the worst refs should be able to see that what Young did yesterday and last week was cheating. It's almost as if they want Man Yoo and Chelsea players to dive and cheat to give the an excuse to favour them.  Otherwise it would look too obvious.  Thick pundits don't help by trotting out incorrect platitudes like "there was contact so it's a foul".  Cretins.  Perhaps if more of them had the balls, not to mention the brains, to speak out against it, the FA and PL might take notice.  And the FA refusing to revoke obvious errors doesn't help either.  Bringing the game into disrepute is something they are all too ready to charge any dissenters with, but that's exactly what they are doing by condoning such behaviour and decisions.

Ultimately it's the fault of the authorities because there is no accountability, and no transparency.  In any other walk of life, wherever I've seen those two things lacking, it is usually a sure sign of some form of corruption.

[Brend'Watkins]

Once the officials cottoned on to Young's antics he got very little from them even when he was genuinely fouled.  Now he has a new shirt, a more important shirt in the eyes of the officals it's become a different situation.  He has instantly become a much better player and will be treated as a much better player.  If it's a 50/50 decision the shirt he's now clad in will give the decision in his favour. 

Officials are shit scared of getting a decision incorrect where ManU are concerned.  After all, they do have a carreer to protect.

Dowd, Halsey, Dean, the other clown we had for the Chelsea game...CAUCs the lot of them.

[philthebar]

I firmly believe that we have honest referees, yes, they make mistakes, but they are having to deal with cheating players, whether this be at one end of the scale the diving, and at the other appealing for throw ins that are obvious should go to the other team. 

The problem is not the referees, but the players and their management.