Men in black in the dock.

[Tony Erdington]

complete ****** , but then most of them are,

he made uriah rene look competent.

[AlwaysAVFC]

Interesting fact about ref/linesmen...did you know the ref is assessed on decisions made or missed. But the linesmen and those behind the goal line are only assessed on decisions made (apart from offside of course). Hence why the linesmen or assistants rarely get involved in fouls unless asked by the ref, if they don't make any decisions on fouls then they can't be negatively assessed.

That's a ridiculous situation, they should be assisting the referee at all times. I imagine they are all qualified to be referees at this level and if not they should be.
Yacob's sending off against us highlights this as the linesman was standing right by the incident and must have seen what happened better. They are mic'd up I think? It should be compulsory for the ref to consult with the nearest or both assistants before making a big decisions like a sending off.

[Holte132]

WBA have a player sent off - the wrong one. So, they play the rest of the game with 10 men, which is what would have happened even had the right player gone off. Now they will appeal the red card and it will correctly be rescinded - but the player who should have been sent off will not face a ban! Where's the fairness in that? And why is Pulis making such a fuss about it? Can't he see that his team has benefited?

As for the referee at VP yesterday - words fail me.

[Tokyo Sexwhale]

WBA have a player sent off - the wrong one. So, they play the rest of the game with 10 men, which is what would have happened even had the right player gone off. Now they will appeal the red card and it will correctly be rescinded - but the player who should have been sent off will not face a ban! Where's the fairness in that? And why is Pulis making such a fuss about it? Can't he see that his team has benefited?

As for the referee at VP yesterday - words fail me.

At least West Brom won't have a suspension against QPR.

[Holte132]

WBA have a player sent off - the wrong one. So, they play the rest of the game with 10 men, which is what would have happened even had the right player gone off. Now they will appeal the red card and it will correctly be rescinded - but the player who should have been sent off will not face a ban! Where's the fairness in that? And why is Pulis making such a fuss about it? Can't he see that his team has benefited?

As for the referee at VP yesterday - words fail me.

At least West Brom won't have a suspension against QPR.

Good point!

[Boz]

The ref wasn't just poor yesterday. If he'd been poor Swansea would've suffered some bad decisions too. Instead it genuinely seemed like he had money on Swansea. I was only surprised he didn't award them a pen or send one of ours off at some point.

Absolute shambles.

I made a similar point on the match thread about the inconsistency of the ref. He let a lot go for Swansea

[steffo]

A yellow card is a farce. Doesn't a professional footballer get fined by the FA the same as a 14 year old? The only fair way is to take a player off the pitch for ten minutes.

If a player is wrongly booked - it's only ten mins. Goalkeeper time wasting in the last ten mins. currently he takes a booking for the team. Send him off 10 mins and they need a new keeper. If they have made three subs they are fucked.

Stop the cheats. John Terry, Steve G, questioning every decision.... shut up or 10 mins in the bin....

[Villa in Denmark]

A yellow card is a farce. Doesn't a professional footballer get fined by the FA the same as a 14 year old? The only fair way is to take a player off the pitch for ten minutes.

If a player is wrongly booked - it's only ten mins. Goalkeeper time wasting in the last ten mins. currently he takes a booking for the team. Send him off 10 mins and they need a new keeper. If they have made three subs they are fucked.

Stop the cheats. John Terry, Steve G, questioning every decision.... shut up or 10 mins in the bin....

There was a suggestion along these lines from Platini last year.

Given how adept teams are these days at defending with 10 men for 50-60 minutes, I think a 10-15 minute sin bin could just as easily work in favour of the "punished" team.

Imagine how much better someone like Gerrard, who's normally struggling to keep up in a high tempo game by 60-65 minutes these days, would look if he was forced to take a 10 minute breather at 50-55 minutes.

The only advantage might be it would make teams more wary of the cynical fouls that could result in another yellow and risk going down to 9 for a period.

[ROBBO]

In defence of referees, they are under enourmous pressure not just to get their judgement right on tackles and offside decisions but they are subjected to harrassment by players all day, players trying to get other players sent off, players behaving like prima donnas throwing themselves down, managers moaning all day to the reserve ref. Yes the guy had a bad day on Saturday but no decision he made lost us the game the truth is Swansea scored and we didn't.

[Salsa Party Animal]

I think there should be a red flag challenge in each half for the manager like NFL head coach have the power to challenge the referee, but if they get it right they keep their time out, but if they get it wrong they will lose their time out.

Perhaps losing a substitute should be punishment if the manager get it wrong.

[frankmosswasmyuncle]

The ref was piss poor yesterday. Some of the fouls he gave were just nonsense.

He was.

He was one of the generic two types of ref I have come to know and hate.
Type 1: almost as yesterday but not quite...don't give any big decisions about big things (avoiding any controversy/"bad" reputation) but blow up for almost anything that involves physical contact...this includes making a massive fuss about players taking free-kicks from the wrong place, having an inappropriate haircut or farting on the pitch. This f**ks the game up and turns a potential exciting spectacle into a drab stop-go-stop-go series of things where not much happens...
Type 2: Dowd, Clattenburg etc...keep everything under control until something "big" happens then go completely over the top by sending off Hull's latest South American full-back for scratching his nuts or telling John Terry - in no uncertain terms - that if he hacks Benteke/Milner/Hull full back to death he will have no alternative but to take him off his Christmas card list.

Yesterday's bloke was a poor version of type 1 who seemed to have had a bet on Swansea winning.

One thing's for certain: we always get shit refs!

UTV!   

[Steve67]

The Albion sending off will be transferred to the correct player. This shouldn't happen though because it shows me that the F.A. will back the referee instead of giving him a bollocking for screwing up. Our referee yesterday was behind the play all the time. It was also like he was asking for it to be a non contact sport with some of the stupid fouls, let the game flow for goodness sake!!

[MalcolmP]

The Albion sending off will be transferred to the correct player.

How can it be transferred to Dawson when Brown's mistaken Sunderland sending off wasn't transferred to O'Shea - they got away with it completely!

[UK Redsox]

The Albion sending off will be transferred to the correct player.

How can it be transferred to Dawson when Brown's mistaken Sunderland sending off wasn't transferred to O'Shea - they got away with it completely!

Because in the Brown/O'Shea situation, if the foul had been given against the correct player it would not have been a red card offence (well, at least that's what I read in the aftermath).
ie the player that committed the foul was not the last man.

[brian green]

On the Witton train to New St the Swansea fans were gloating in very animated Welsh tones about the bias in their favour shown by the referee. The only time I ever went in the directors' box for a game at VP there were at least ten FA suits evaluating the officials. That is who the young, wet behind the ears refs are trying to impress. Look at me I am not being influenced by the crowd. Forget the fact that the crowd may be right, I am tough. No you are not you are showboating to get noticed.