The worst possible display of refereeing by Trevor Kettle cost Rotherham United their first win in 13 league and cup games when they were cruelly denied at Oakwell as the official completely lost his way with a string of baffling decisions that were to prove so costly. It meant the Millers were reduced to ten men on 56 minutes when Deon Burton was sent off for his second booking and it was even worse going down to nine men for the last ten minutes when Lee Williamson received the same harsh treatment. Manager Mick Harfod was banished to the stand then to rub salt into the Millers wounds the Tykes scraped a draw when they "netted" a goal in the fourth minute of added time and even that raised questions as it looked as if the ball hadn't crossed the line. Then after the final whistle recalled skipper Colin Murdock was shown the red card for displaying his understandable anger at the referee. To make the officials actions even more baffling it had been far from a dirty game despite the fact that both teams gave their all as they battled for supremacy in the local derby game. It was Rotherham who made the first launch on goal but Martin Butler's fifth minute shot was saved and two minutes later Burton received the first yellow card of the afternoon. At the other end Shaun Barker did well to cut out a low cross from Devaney and then next effort on goal came from Rotherham but after linking with Williamson, Burton's shot was wide. On 23 minutes John Mullin's cross was headed down by debutant Paul Evans for Williamson to shoot wide and then a good Mullin cross was headed out. Rotherham opened the scoring on 31 minutes when Paul McLaren curled in a superbly flighted free kick and Barker lost his marker to score with a close range shot. It was no more than the Millers deserved and they had a great chance to increase the lead on 39 minutes when another McLaren free kick found Burton but he missed a great chance by heading wide. Four minutes into the second half two corners in quick succession saw the Millers fail to make anything of them while at the other end Burns fired wide after Neil Cutler had punched out a Devaney cross. Then on 56 minutes Burton was racing through when he appeared to be brought down by Watt but to everyone's disbelief it was the striker who was dismissed when it should have been the defender. That gave Barnsley fresh impetus and they started to push forward a lot more and barker had to clear off the line following a corner. The Millers responded with Evans hitting a fine shot that brought a good save from the home keeper and then Richards wasted a chance to level matters when he shot wide. On 85 minutes the game took another turn for the worse as far as the visitors were concerned when Williamson was shown the red card for an innocuous looking offence to leave the Millers with an even more difficult task to hold on to their lead. But they battled magnificently with Cutler pulling off a brilliant save before they were rocked by a hotly disputed equaliser. Shuker's corner wasn't dealt with and Watt was adjudged to have forced the ball over the line but this was highly debated by the angry Millers. The final whistle was blown very soon afterwards and that led to Murdock being shown the red card for venting his understandable anger at the pathetic referee. Barnsley: Colgan, Hassell, Watt, Reid, Burns (Tonge 81), Hayes, McPhail, Austin (Jarman 70), Shuker, Richards, Devaney. Subs: Flinders, Carbon, Williams. Rotherham: Cutler, Worrell, Barker, Murdock, Hurst, Mullin (Gilchrist 77), McLaren, Evans,, Williamson, Butler, Burton. Subs: Montgomery, Hoskins, Monkhouse, Otsemobor. Referee: Trevor Kettle (Rutland).
Murdock was probably saying "How can you send 2 players off but not me when I've held their strikers arms all through the game"
And they have the audacity to slam our report?! Erm... Burton's dive was so obvious it's unbelievable, how anyone can say it was a foul is beyond me. And Williamson wasn't sent off for the 'innocuous foul', it was for dissent. So whoever wrote that ought to get a few facts straight and also learn how to write a report properly, the English is shocking.
burtons dive wasnt that obvious i suppose it depended on your view but everyone around me thought that watt had caught him and had been sent off.
Saw highlights today... It wasn't clear from that Burton had dived. It did look like Watt had caught him.</p> Williamson also appeared to be sent off for the tackle. As soon as the tackle went in, the ref stopped the game and was in his pocket for a card.</p> I wasn't there, job to hold down...and even if i was, i wouldn't have been able to hear from where i normally sit.</p> However, from where you sit, you had a better view of it than the tv cameras...so i have no idea what i'm talking about!</p>
I thought Watt had been sent off Couldn't understand why the Ponty End were cheering. Not saying Burton didn't dive, just that it wasn't obvious. For what it's worth, both reports are biased towards their teams (although at least the Barnsley report mentions the Rotherham chances and gives a much fairer reflection of the game, where as the Rotherham report glosses over our efforts). I'm not sure our official site should be calling an opposition player a 'cheating Miller' even if he was sent off for diving. The language is too inflammatory. Similarly, I don't think the official Rotherham site should be calling the referee 'pathetic' no matter how poor he was.
both reports are shocking rob should have learnt his lesson when his boss has already made him change one before but it seems not.</p> bless him, he's really proud of the fact that he MISSED his deadline this week.</p> I thought watt had gone, it looked like he'd clipped him. It was too far away to see clearly though and I dont think the ref helped by showing the red car whilst burton was still on the floor and watt was facing the ref, it just made the confusion worse because it looked like he was showing the card to watt.</p> Their other sending off the ref had the card out before he mouthed off at him, and he did the same in anothe incidednt, the card was already out and then the player moaned and bizarrely the card was (apparently) given for dissent. In which case why was the card already in the refs hand?</p>
The dive WAS obvious It was right in front of me, and Williamson was almost certainly sent off for dissent as he slammed the decision to give the free kick, and THEN the card came out. In any case, it was a cynical challenge probably worth a booking. His attitude was summed up when he took 2/3 minutes to leave the pitch.
I couldn't understand that... the incident looked about 3 strides away from the touchline???</p> Didi the ref let him walk all the way to the tunnell on the pitch?</p>
RE: both reports are shocking It was obvious to me he'd sent Burton off because it was obviously a dive, but maybe I had a better view...
I've not seen any highlights But from where I was sat , there appeared to be daylight(?) between Burton and Watt when the striker went to ground . What I couldn't see was whether Burton had lost control of the ball and , therefore , decided to try and con a freekick.
RE: I couldn't understand that... Indeed... he took his shinpads off, all the tape and everything, and indeed littered the pitch with the tape.
It will be interesting to see it soon... If it's shown on the ITV news/sport at 6.30. I'm pretty sure what happened in both cases, but I suppose I could be wrong!
I just couldn't tell Didn't know whether it was a foul or a dive, free kick to us or them, Watt sent off or Burton. Same was true for the majority around where I was sat. From some angles it may have been obvious, but not from where we were sat.
RE: What could he do? Send him off again? after he had been sent off the player no longer had any right to be o nthe pitch and could have been ejected by police or stewards. The ref should have had him kicked out of the stadium.
Maybe i don't understand the rules properly... has the referee got to wait until he leaves the field or until he gets up the tunnell?</p> If he can leave the field and play can be restarted, he could have asked him to take 3 strides to the left and then got on with the game, but maybe he has got to be up the tunnell before the game restarts. I admit, i'm not sure on the rules with this.</p> I suppose its a good job he took forever to leave the field.</p>
RE: I just couldn't tell I think the referee pointed for a free kick to us when he went over which immediately showed he was going to send Burton off.
