Gary f*cking Willard

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Thanks for that. I was just about to go to bed but now I want to kill somebody. Preferable Gary Willard, but I'd settle for Steve McfcukingManaman.

 

i will remember that **** to my grave

 

I hate very few people but that Shitehawk is definitely one of them

 

I'm flying back from Germany this aft. After watching that I'm going to jump out of the f*****g window at 38000 feet. Either that or hijack the plane and crash it into Willard's house. Where does the t*** live?

 

Watching the video back it strikes me, how much pleasure Willard seems to be getting from sending the players off. His face is so smug.

However, it's always bothered me that if he was "paid off" to screw us over, why would he give us a late and relatively soft penalty to equalise? Don't get me wrong, the man's an ar5ehole. But I think he is just that, and wasn't intentionally trying to make us lose. He just totally lost the plot and with it, any sense of discretion.

 

that guy is a fecking disgrace

I had some Liverpool mates at the match & even they said he was out of order

 

The noise, that crowd noise, oh for that at Oakwell again.

 

It's easy to blame Willard, but as someone posted above, why would he give us a last minute penalty if he was trying to ensure we lost. I think that Willard was just completely incompetent and was swayed by two England internationals who were the real villains. A much worse moment of refereeing had occurred at Old Trafford in the Cup when the referee had a perfect view of Neville's clear foul on Liddell but didn't give the penalty. Again, I don't think that referee deliberately cheated us, it's just that he wasn't up to the job and was too scared to give a last minute match winning penalty in front of the Stretford End, in much the same way, several years later, that Martin Atkinson bottled it, to quote Le Tiss, when Hyypia grabbed hold of Howard's ankle. I think all three of those referees should have been suspended and forced to retrain before being given top level matches to referee again, because they clearly weren't capable of making the right decisions in the face of pressure from crowds or big name players/managers.

In fact, all through the Premiership season we saw evidence of referees seeming to favour the bigger teams and I think this is all down to the fact that they couldn't handle the pressure and were scared to make decisions whereby they would have the crowd or the bigger name players/managers on their back. For example, how on Earth did Di Canio stay on the pitch at Hillsborough? And then he went and scored the last minute winner.

Back to the Liverpool game. Difficult to see from this clip, but Barnard's sending off looks soft, as Owen went down quite easily. However, it did look possible that Barnard deliberately tripped him. Would need a better view (which presumably Willard felt he had). The second sending off looks very soft though, as there seems to have been minimal contact and Owen went down like he'd been shot and stayed down for treatment. This allows us to look again at the first sending off with hindsight, as if Owen went down that easily for the second it makes you suspect that he could have stayed on his feet for the first.

But, and this is a big but, you can also apply hindsight to that one nowadays, because Morgan's elbow on Owen, that we all feel was something and nothing, occurred a few yards away from where Morgan went on to elbow Hume, in an incident that Sheffield United fans and some parts of the media (albeit Sheffield United supporting factions of the media) felt was something and nothing. Morgan's arm definitely was raised against Owen, but you can't see from this video what contact was there. My suspicion is that the contact was minimal and that Owen dived, but we could be accused of wanting to have it both ways here, i.e. Morgan was hard but fair for Barnsley but dirty when he played against us.

No idea why the third sending off happened, but by all accounts it came after Ince had words with the referee. So I don't think that Willard deliberately set out to do us over, but he certainly was intimidated by the occasion, the Liverpool superstars and, as was evident later, the crowd. I think that what made it so galling for Barnsley fans was that all three sending offs came in the same game and it was a game we desperately needed to get something for due to our league position. We also then felt cheated at the end after we dragged it back with 9 men, only to still end up losing. If either of the first two sending offs had happened in other games, or if they had been the only sending off of the game we probably would have forgotten about it a long time ago. But for them both to happen in the same game and then have them followed up by having Sheridan sent off for some unseen crime it appeals to the conspiracy theorists in us and it's easy to see why.

 

But where was Wiseman for their first goal? Shocking positioning.

 

Turning point of our season just when we were on a run and looking good.

Oakwell atmosphere white hot.

Redfearn was awesome.

Dave Watson was class.....still is.

Martin Bullock ripped em a new one.

Team commitment and fans together......best I've ever (and likely to ever) witnessed.

Owen was a diving lovely person.

McManaman was just a lovely person.

Ince was always a lovely person......and bottled it with Shez, who would have killed him.

There is no word to describe Willard that day.

That day makes me PROUD and makes me ANGRY.

MEMORABLE to my death bed!

 

My Dad saw Shez punch Ince. He turned to me instantly when he saw it, minute or so later he saw red. Don't think it was ever picked up on camera

 

Yep, Shez definitely punched Ince.......but nowhere near hard enough.

 

And by the way, I thought Ince refereed that match pretty well.

 

That was my first thought too! Great atmosphere and passion, shame it's nowhere near that level anymore.

 

I will never forget that afternoon or the anger and sense of injustice I felt during and after the game (even now when I think about it). There were people around me who were usually mild mannered, sensible fans who were literally wanting to go on the pitch and attack Willard or a Liverpool player. The game that broke our will and sent us down emotionally.

 

Shez did punch Ince. Without doubt, no question about it. The reason? Because Ince punched him first. Shez should have been sent off, the only one of our players that should, but so should Ince.

 

I don't even think Barnard caught him, if he did, I don't think he did it deliberately. But let's say he did catch him, full on, and he clearly meant it. We're judging it by 2013 standards. In this day and age for such a challenge the majority get sent off. Some get away with it, but most see the red card. Not in 1997. No one saw a red card for that sort of challenge back then. Way out of the area, rushing through with everything still to do - yellow card every single time. Well, every single time until Barnard did it.

 

We also have to bear in mind that Owen was very good at 'winning free kicks' which is how the Premiership loving media seem to describe cheating! He did, after all, replicate Maradona's feats in the 1986 World Cup match between us and Argentina, by scoring one fantastic goal and cheating for the other, when the two teams met again in 1998.

I think the 'last man' sending offs came in some time before 1998 though, as I recall Gerry Taggart getting sent off early in the game at Luton for being the last man when he was still inside the ruddy Luton half!