Minority Report - Norwich City

First of all, an apology. My report is misnamed this week because I guess that I will be writing what everyone else has written. No matter. My reports are all called “Minority Report” and that is how they will remain.

Secondly, I need to state right from the off, how much I enjoyed the game today. It had everything. It had two fine goals from the home team, it had a fight back from the away team, it had tension, it had skill and it had farce in the shape of the referee. Most of all, it had emotion of every description.

Our goals in the first half were both out of the top drawer, and there was no sign as the teams left the field for half time that we would come under any pressure at all in the second half. But at half time, Alex Neil made 2 substitutions and he changed their shape and they began to overrun our central midfield players and defenders. For 20 minutes, the game was as open as any that I have seen, but you got the feeling that we needed to hang on to what we had, rather than try to trade goals with what looked a decent side. As it was, our keeper really should have stopped Oliviera’s strike. No matter how much power it had, it was from nearly 30 yards and it was less than a yard to his right.

After the goal, we battened down the hatches. Firstly, Scowen strengthened our central midfield area, which was in grave danger of being over-run. Then the front two were sacrificed to go 4-5-1 with the addition of Payne up front to play a lone fiddle. It might be the wrong day to judge Payne in that role as the service up to him was by that time very poor. It was desperate stuff at times, with our central defenders always seeking to make things interesting as Norwich threw their kitchen sink in our direction. Rarely can the appearance of Adam Hammill be regarded as a defensive move, but on this occasion, that is what it was.

About the only thing positive that I can say for the referee is that he did not book anyone. As a result, it was a full blooded encounter with no punches pulled. But the scales are weighed heavily against him because of his incompetence. I do not usually criticise referees. My usual argument is that if you have only 39% of the ball, it means you are making more tackles and there is a greater chance of mistiming some, but our ref today was simply incompetent. He missed at least 2 penalties, one each, and his interpretations of foul play seemed to consist of whether a player went to ground or not. But his piece-de-resistance came in the first half when he marked out a line 15 yards from the ball for a free kick. He lost the respect of the players, and with it, he lost control of the game. It was not Mr Woolmer’s finest hour and a half.

Finally, I agree totally with Scowen’s nomination as man of the match. They say that you do not win matches by just running about. Scowen may have an argument to the contrary.

 

Blimey mom for just running about. Even though his sublime cross made Bradshaw's opener. Very harsh, josh can play.

 

From your view in the East Stand you would have missed an even poorer piece of judgement with regards to the referee's eye for 10 yards.

10 yards from the small D around the corner flag, on the goal line, is a little mark. Makes it easy for the referee and linesman to see that players are 10 yards away from the ball when taking a corner. I don't think it's not an official part of the pitch, but it's accurate and the officials use it. The players use it.

Late in the second half we had a free kick down by the corner flag, about a yard and a half from the touch line. The ref managed to measure 10 yards from that point to be about a yard and a half nearer the touch line than that little mark on the goal line. He used his can of spray to mark on the pitch what a joke of an official he is. There for us all to see.

We have to be 15 yards away from the ball when they have a free kick. When we have one, they only have to retreat 7.

 

What I found farcical about this particular instance is that he didn't even measure out the yards.

He'd moved away from the incident, and only appeared to approach the Norwich players when the first one rushed forward as Hourihane moved towards the ball. He then walked across to the 2 man Norwich wall, and drew a line in front of them, without even considering the distance which they were from the free kick. As you say, the 10 yard marker could easily have been incorporated into making it easy for him to measure it out.

Another incident was the disallowed goal. John Ruddy got the ball out of the back of his net, rolled it in front of him, then played a pass up field with the ball still moving. The referee waved play on, sort of like he was giving an advantage.

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