Standard of Refereeing

[Toronto Villa]

I don’t want us becoming Forest but that Merino non call for a second yellow was scandalous. I know we were 2-0 down but we are a side that has consistently shown an ability to come back in games. Against 10 men that place will become very nervous. It might not have mattered but we don’t know. Those are massive decisions in games and across a season. Getting it right matters

[Smithy]

Whilst we have applauded the decency of Emery in not calling out the sort of decisions we saw last night, I think it's reached the point where he and/or the club need to start doing so, and loudly.

It's not going to happen.  If Roger's goal-that-never-was at the end of last season didn't have the club bleating all summer about how the ref robbed this club of £100m, then we're not going to start doing it now after a poor reffing performance and a bad result.

It's shit, but bad decisions happen.  I'm more disappointed that no pundits have picked up on the Merino foul, as "consistency" is the sort of thing they normally make a big deal of, and it was most definitely a deliberate foul denying a promising attacking moment.

In the ref's defence, I will say it was probably not possible for him to see Merino holding Rogers' arm to pull him down once he was turned, and there is no facility for VAR to say "you should book him" - they can only act on straight reds - so once the foul is given and no booking is handed out, that's it.  C'est la vie.