VAR

[pablo_picasso]

I’m not even sure Attwell is a Luton supporter. His family is well known in Nuneaton and he was believed to be a season ticket holder at Highfield Road. Thats why I’m always worried when he officiates the Villa.

I think the Luton thing may be a joke because he gave that phantom goal against Watford,

They have to give a list of the clubs they support before the season kicks off.

The fact that the FA/Premier League/whoever decided to give an important relegation game to a Luton fan isn't ideal though.

It's like when we get given that official from Manchester to officiate games against both Manchester clubs.

Not ideal...

[Clampy]

Yeah, I think Forest should have a word with whoever runs their twitter account. It was a crazy thing to post and it's kind of overshadowed the penalty claims. The fact that the third one wasn't even looked was ridiculous.

[Risso]

I’m not even sure Attwell is a Luton supporter. His family is well known in Nuneaton and he was believed to be a season ticket holder at Highfield Road. Thats why I’m always worried when he officiates the Villa.

I think the Luton thing may be a joke because he gave that phantom goal against Watford,

They have to give a list of the clubs they support before the season kicks off.

The fact that the FA/Premier League/whoever decided to give an important relegation game to a Luton fan isn't ideal though.

It's like when we get given that official from Manchester to officiate games against both Manchester clubs.

Not ideal...

Yes, they obviously can't ref games of the teams they support, but other than that, it's getting a bit difficult if they have to start considering games that their teams might have an effect on. You could have a situation where 5 or 6 teams might be threatened by relegation, in which case the pool of games you have officials for starts to get a bit small. It's not as if the VAR guy is sat in a room by himself, there's a whole team of them.

As the saying goes, "Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity".

[Somniloquism]

All challenges in the box are looked at, it is just that most are knocked on the head fairly fast. As MOTD pointed out, the fact the Ref seemed to state "he got the ball" is perhaps why it should have been called back after the cursory review. But the on field ref could have just as easily been saying he lost control of the ball. Still would have been dubious but less of an "obvious error" then the other call.

Obviously it would be more stop-start, but I still feel most penalty claims should go for video review by the ref for a second check. But I also suspect more penalties would be given if they did that.

[edgysatsuma89]

Yeah, I think Forest should have a word with whoever runs their twitter account. It was a crazy thing to post and it's kind of overshadowed the penalty claims. The fact that the third one wasn't even looked was ridiculous.

I would be pissed if that wasn't given as a pen for us, but yeah, how it wasn't looked at I'll never know. Murphy was right, ref signals he got the ball, he clearly didn't, so just have a look. It's a pen. It's not corruption though, it's just incompetence. The other 2 I don't think are pens.

[Risso]

I think the first penalty shout wasn't one, it was similar in a way to the Luiz incident against Arsenal at home, with a mild contact of legs where the attacker has made a massive meal of it. Fuck off with that shit, no penalty. The Ashley Young handball, I think he got the benefit of the doubt because he was so close to it, think 7 times out of 10 that wouldn't be given. The last one looked the most nailed on. The ref signalled that the defender had got the ball, but VAR probably should have had a much closer look than they did.

But just because there were three incidents all not given it doesn't mean that they were all wrong, and it certainly doesn't mean that cheating was afoot.

[Toronto Villa]

I have it in good authority that Stuart Attwell made the VAR decisions without bias, while wearing a full 85 retro Luton kit with Stein 8 on the back.

[jon collett]

I’m not even sure Attwell is a Luton supporter. His family is well known in Nuneaton and he was believed to be a season ticket holder at Highfield Road. Thats why I’m always worried when he officiates the Villa.

I think the Luton thing may be a joke because he gave that phantom goal against Watford,

They have to give a list of the clubs they support before the season kicks off.

The fact that the FA/Premier League/whoever decided to give an important relegation game to a Luton fan isn't ideal though.

It's like when we get given that official from Manchester to officiate games against both Manchester clubs.

Not ideal...

As far as I am aware that list has never been published and he is staying silent.

I have never seen him ref a Cov game and that’s the assumption locally. It’s why I’ve always been nervous when he’s involved with Villa matches.

I think the Luton thing may be an internet myth because of the phantom Reading goal against Watford

[dave.woodhall]

I have it in good authority that Stuart Attwell made the VAR decisions without bias, while wearing a full 85 retro Luton kit with Stein 8 on the back.

And doing a David Pleat dance.

[Paul.S]

I think they got the first 2 correct but the last one was a stonewall penalty. I thought VAR was brought in for decisions like this and I think we all need to know what’s gone on.
The standard of refereeing is the worst I’ve seen it but some of that is down to the confusion that is VAR. How they can’t get decisions like this right with the aid of camera’s is beyond me.
Saying that, the Forest statement was somewhat child like and really hasn’t helped.

[robleflaneur]

For me the first Ashley Young challenge wasn't a penalty.His second half tackle from behind was a stonewall penalty.
The handball was similar to the Coventry one which probably shouldn't have been given  but without Ashley  accidentally stopping the ball ,it would have reached Wood a few yards from goal.So I can understand Forest's anger there.
VAR infuriates me when they start drawing lines,if the naked eye on the replay and the assistant can't see an offside,forget it.

[Skerra]

I like to think that I’m reasonably fair but, have to say, based on other penalties I’ve seen given this season, as Villa fans, we would all be spitting feathers if we were in Forest’s shoes.

[Somniloquism]

I like to think that I’m reasonably fair but, have to say, based on other penalties I’ve seen given this season, as Villa fans, we would all be spitting feathers if we were in Forest’s shoes.

We, as fans, have complained about Watkins not getting the same type of penalty as the third at least twice this season. And the natural arm position non pen as well. What we haven't done is had our manager and captain complain to the cameras, released a couple of club statements, and had another paid employee of the club write a newspaper column over it. I would say we, as fans, have never claimed corruption over them either, but I know some of the more excitable posters have.

[Somniloquism]

Did I read the other day that Forest are considering suing Gary Neville and Sky because Neville called their complaints out for what they are. Should we delete our responses to it to legally protect the website as well?