What is it with Phil Dowd?

[Clampy]

Going for the ball and not getting it is still a red.

He did get the ball though did'nt he?

[PeterWithesShin]

Going for the ball and not getting it is still a red.

He did get the ball though did'nt he?

Getting the ball doesn't stop it being a dangerous challenge and a red card tackle. Long could easily have been out for months and was lucky he wasn't.

[The Left Side]

I think Dowd is one of many below par referees that enjoys the limelight and is not impartial as it happens to often against us (and I am being realistic), I dread games when he is in the middle. Sadly he isn't going to go anywhere and he will come back to haunt us in the future too!

[KevinGage]

As for the Wembley Vidic issue - I appreciate how some of you feel it doesn't matter because we weren't good enough - and that Man Utd had a man sent off against us weeks earlier and it made no difference.  I disagree.  Here are the excellent Martin Samuels thoughts on Vidic at Wembley ...

United had Nani dismissed at Villa Park, after 29 minutes when the scores were tied at 1-1 and that was the score at the end.

So had the scores also stayed the same when 10 played 11 yesterday, Villa would have won 1-0. Plus, there is considerable difference between losing a nippy winger with 61 minutes to go and the most experienced centre-half with 86 minutes to survive. To replace Vidic, United would have had to introduce Wes Brown at the expense of a
midfielder: Ji-Sung Park, perhaps, or Antonio Valencia, who set up the winning goal and won man of the match.

I tend to agree with him.

He is excellent because he agrees with you?   I've heard him called many things in the past, excellent isn't one of them.  United didn't have to hang on at Villa Park to secure the point, indeed they felt unlucky not to win. 

A more possession orientated team might have capitalised on the numerical advantage, pulled the opposition apart and eventually wore them down.  That type of play wasn't exactly a feature of our game under O'Neill, it didn't happen a few weeks prior to the League Cup final, so why was it suddenly going to happen that day? Brown, Carrick or whoever else wouldn't exactly have been having kittens dealing with the big boof ball up to Heskey either, had Vidic walked.

Yes Villa were poor against Norwich - but they came to play nine men behind the ball and stifle the middle - they succeeded in the main.

But watch our first goal again - against the run of play - not a fluke - not a hopeful glancing header from a set piece - or a deflected toe poke - it was pass then move then cross then control then sublime finish.   And I mean sublime finish.

Don't tell me if we'd have had our full compliment on the pitch we wouldn't have scored again instead of enduring a battering.  Because I won't believe you.

You can believe the moon is made of cheese and General Krulak is the Big Bopper for all I care.  We have struggled to create clear cut chances in a number of games this season even with eleven men -as we did up until the sending off on Saturday.  Our goals for column this year bears that out.  So why were we nailed on to score again with Bennett remaining on the pitch? 

[Clampy]

Going for the ball and not getting it is still a red.

He did get the ball though did'nt he?

Getting the ball doesn't stop it being a dangerous challenge and a red card tackle. Long could easily have been out for months and was lucky he wasn't.

But he went to try and win the ball, not knacker the player. What i'm trying to say is, i don't think there was any malice or intent in it. I saw worse fouls over the weekend than that one, Craig Gardners and Suarez's to name but two. Ok, they were both booked but they were both deliberate.

[stuart445]

So rutski, are you siggesting he is just anti Villa? Was marriner anti liverpool today then and Clattenburg anti chelski, cos they fecked up as well, actually the linesmen did more so

i couldnt give a flying frig about anyone else, dowd IS anti Villa. and in no way should that 2nd have been a yellow card, just as they had players making late challenges on ours and him not booking them. tell me if he would have sent off ferdinand at old trafford for that? the answer is a resounding no. would he have sent off my son in a under 12's game at enville this morning? no! he should though because the laws of the game are exactly the same. it should have been a talking to at best, both players were at it.

It was a yellow card offence for which a yellow card was rightly shown.  I'm struggling to see what the issue is.

Was it as bad as the Suarez stamp on distin ankle which also got a yellow card. It wasn't as i also believe it was 50:50 as elliott bennett also had hold of joes shirt, i very much doubt fat dowd would have booked suarez but i am confident he would have sent a villa player off for the same tackle.

[rutski]

Going for the ball and not getting it is still a red.

did  he get it though lovejoy?

[eastie]

[You can believe the moon is made of cheese and General Krulak is the Big Bopper for all I care.  We have struggled to create clear cut chances in a number of games this season even with eleven men -as we did up until the sending off on Saturday.  Our goals for column this year bears that out.  So why were we nailed on to score again with Bennett remaining on the pitch? ]

This

[rutski]

[You can believe the moon is made of cheese and General Krulak is the Big Bopper for all I care.  We have struggled to create clear cut chances in a number of games this season even with eleven men -as we did up until the sending off on Saturday.  Our goals for column this year bears that out.  So why were we nailed on to score again with Bennett remaining on the pitch? ]

This

that is a surreal post, what are you on about?

[Clampy]

[You can believe the moon is made of cheese and General Krulak is the Big Bopper for all I care.  We have struggled to create clear cut chances in a number of games this season even with eleven men -as we did up until the sending off on Saturday.  Our goals for column this year bears that out.  So why were we nailed on to score again with Bennett remaining on the pitch? ]

This

I don't think there's any reason to think that we would'nt have got a 2nd had we kept 11 men. Norwich might have pushed forward in search of an equaliser leaving gaps at the back and we might have been able to make better use of our subs.

[Risso]

There are lots of reasons to think we wouldn't have.  The main one being that 1 goal a game is above our current rate of scoring, and the other being that we were shite, and have only kept one clean sheet in the league all season.

[eastie]

[You can believe the moon is made of cheese and General Krulak is the Big Bopper for all I care.  We have struggled to create clear cut chances in a number of games this season even with eleven men -as we did up until the sending off on Saturday.  Our goals for column this year bears that out.  So why were we nailed on to score again with Bennett remaining on the pitch? ]

This

that is a surreal post, what are you on about?

Sorry quoted from Kevin gage post but the quote bit didn't come our right , as it happens I agree with his point , I think we were lucky to lead at half time and saw nothing to convince me we would increase the lead and go on to win when we had 11 men- I thought we were poor with 11 men and with 10 men.

[john2710]

Dowd is a useless incompetent fool, but I don't believe he is particularly biased against us.

I could however, happily punch the gobshite in the mouth.

He was very quick to issue the 2nd yellow, which based on his position was either a guess or made on the advice of the linesman (again).

[paul_e]

Interesting to see Wilshere and Cleverley, both on yellow cards, get a final warning for fouls that are at least on a par with Bennett's second.  Mike Dean deserves a bit of credit for letting the match go on and giving the manager a chance to make a sub, if only dowd had shown the same common sense.

As I click to post he's followed up on the final warning to Wilshere and sent him off, again exactly the right thing to do, Wenger had a chance to withdraw him, took the risk not to and has been punished for it.

[olaftab]

Good referee Dean.