Absolutely woeful. Got told this was his first (or second?) game at this level and it showed. That booking for Dawson had a huge impact on the game. First foul, barely touched Dunn and ref was straight away in his pocket. He was walking a tightrope for the whole half and it showed for the goal - didn't even put a tackle in or try and take the runner out. Then again, maybe it wasn't such a bad thing, at least it made sure he was hauled off at half time.
I'm sure somebody posted his stats a few days ago, and he only has about half a douzen games at League 1/2 level. And a few douzen or so at conference, if I remember correctly. Think he was pretty poor tonight.
Sorry but Dawson deserved the yellow, stupid tackle. Ref was fairly poor though, bad for both teams as well
Matt on the com said it was his first Champ game. Fast tracked from the lower leagues. They can fast track the fecker back. Apparently we are guinea pigs for rookie refs. Ben should look into this and raise it with the FA.
That bit where he talked to Cranie about Proscwitz (when he hadn't even been booked, or even fouled anyone)... odd
Piss poor but I thought they should have had a penalty when Nyatanga pole-axed their striker first half from a cross, and we were lucky to get ours (admittedly from the linesman.)
I was about 15ft away from our penalty decision and for me it was a stone wall penalty. Lawrence trapped down a dark alley, nowhere to go and their lad clattered into the back of him. Maybe not the heaviest of contacts but a foul none the less. It was the sort of challenge that would usually go unpunished in the box but given elsewhere on the field, and even then the lino gave it. What annoyed me was that straight after Dawson was booked, one of their players went in 2 footed on Proskwich which didn't even get a free kick (we scored straight after), and after their player went off on the stretcher, he gave a foul everytime someone challenged in the air for the ball.
Yeah Dawson had to be booked studs were showing. If he'd done that tackle from behind he'd have been off. Forget who it was but he gave one of our players a second warning rather than giving him a yellow. Took ages to call him over to tell him it was his final warning. Seen the pen replay and it was weak. My gripe with him would be how often he stopped the game for nothing challenges. He was rather whistle happy.
