I hope that referees wife’s run off with next door neighbor........

I’ve said before and I’ll say again that we’ve found ourselves in league one as we weren’t good enough, so shouldn’t moan too much about the standard of refs being lower.

However tonight he was a different level. He was absolutely baffling at times. No idea what he saw a lot of the time.

Still, it was lackadaisical and passive defending by Josh Martin on the edge of his own box that led to their equaliser and ultimately us drawing, not the referee.

 

I have got to disagree because I am not sure how referees performances in previous matches have any bearing on the shocking performance of the official last night , from your comment Jay I take it that you did not see the game but I feel sure if you had then you would also have come to the conclusion that he was totally incompetent ,although I will add that he did not cost us the points as we should have been well out of sight before Vale got back in the game in the last 20 minutes .

 

And I’ll say again, it is not our fault that the standard of referring is so poor irrespective of what League we’re in. That is down to the FA. Of course any Ref at any level can have a poor game, but to treat players of both teams differently is cheating.

 

I’m still laughing at that offside kick they took in our half he’s surely come out of a Christmas cracker him, I hope his wife’s happier with his neighbor anyhow

 

The point is, because everyone has complained at every other referee we've had, when often there has been no justification to do so, you don't know if any complaint is legitimate.

It's the Boy who cried wolf.

 

That would be No justification in your view, Also, as I’ve repeatedly said, it’s not simply about the mistakes, it’s the inconsistencies in the way they treat players. It’s nothing like Cry Wolf.

 

But this time there really was a wolf, as everyone else has said. I honestly can't remember the last time we had one as bad as this - and I include the esteemed Mr Kettle, and Gavin bloody Ward in that.
This performance was of Willardian levels of incompetence and bias.

 

It had a lot to do with it. The amount of wrong ful yellow cards he dished out to reds players puts the pressure on us cos they have to be extra careful with tackles

 

He pranced about the field like he was star turn at palladium

 

That's the point. When the real wolf comes along people go "Meh" as they kept coming to look many times before when there was no wolf. That's the moral of the fable.

 

The moral of the fable has nothing to do with consistently poor officiating. That ref yesterday was the poorest of the poorest, not the contrary to what’s gone before him

 

You can get an offside free kick in your opponents half. We had one last season at home.

 

This is my biggest criticism. A referee who is good, bad or indifferent is not the problem, if he would just be equally as good / bad for both teams. Players were getting kicked, tripped, held, pulled and in one case, rugby tackled in their box, and not a card in sight. How they escaped 90+ minutes without a single card, or even a stern talking to, mystifies me. Booking Norwood before he entered the field of play was his Pièce de résistance.

What is more painful is that there doesn't seem to be any recourse to the FA. Does the manager, or is the manager allowed, to send in a report to the FA?

 

They submit a report on the referee every game. Tell you a story about that when I get home.

 

So, and this is directly from Danny Wilson...

Wilson's first season as manager, 94-95, we play Middlesbrough away on the coldest day of that winter. Middlesbrough are gunning for promotion and, unbelievably, so are we. All the terracing is shut at Oakwell, this is pre-development of the Ponty, the West Lower, and the North Stand, Wilson hasn't a bean to spend, but the team is an utter joy. Middlesbrough eventually win the title, and we end up 6th, just 10 points off the top spot, but for REASONS we're not in the play-offs.

Walking to the ground and it's freezing, the earth is hard as iron and there's a thick frost covering everything. Inside the ground the pitch is white over, looks like it's snowed but it's just the frost. There's no way the game should go ahead, but it does. All players start in football boots and everyone is falling all over the place. And then one of our players puts on some white trainers. And then another and then all our team change into white trainers. Somehow, at half time we're losing 2-1 but we're going to win the game about 15-2 because we are taking them to pieces, and the charmed life their goal is living isn't going to last. And they don't have white trainers. I say we're taking them to pieces, but it's Martin Bullock that's taking them to pieces. Evidently Martin Bullock isn't affected by frost. Maybe he was Mr Tumnus.

But the players don't come out for the second half. The referee decides the conditions are dangerous. He has a very valid point, but they were a lot more dangerous at kick-off than they were at half time. This was an early kick-off and the sun has done a bit of melting. Danny isn't too impressed and files a report on the referee that isn't too complimentary.

Fast forward to April and we're away at Wolves. And it's the same referee. In the first half a lot of decisions are going against us, so Danny asks him what's going on, and the ref says, "You're getting nothing from me today after the rating you gave me for the Middlesbrough game".

The game itself is brilliant, Wolves are also gunning for promotion, and it's poised at 0-0. Deep into the second half Wolves chuck over a cross to the back stick that just goes over Big Mal Shotton's head as he leaps for the ball. Their centre forward jumps higher, he's on his front foot, Mal was on his back foot. Their forward wins the header and directs it down and towards goal, but he's so close to Mal it hits him between the shoulder blades. The ref gives a penalty for hand ball. Danny asks him why and the ref sends him off. And then...

Watson saves the penalty. He bowls it out to that man Martin Bullock on the edge of his own area and Martin runs and he jinks and he feints and dribbles past the whole wolves team, coming right at us, and he's into the area, and we're all beyond words by now, we're just screaming, and it's the most intense couple of minutes in my entire life, and if this was a movie he would score...
But he doesn't, their keeper makes a brilliant save and we draw 0-0.

Danny told the FA the whole story about that referee and the ref never officiated a match again. They obviously believed him, but it was just quietly made to go away.

 

Paul Harrison was the ref in question. From Oldham.
In the early days of the Supporters Club (before it became the Trust) I remember Danny Wilson being the special guest at the one of the monthly meeting's the following season telling us very much the same.
Earlier in the game at Wolves that you refer to, he asked Harrison "are we getting any decisions then today red?". Harrison apparently said "Not after the marks you gave me at Middlesbrough". Wilson said they gave him 2/10 which was basically the minimum possible as they got 2 marks for turning up!!

 

I heard that after the game yesterday one of our subs was so worked up about the ref's performance he was actually in tears.

It was the boy Wolfe who cried.

 

My story comes from my attendance at both games, that supporters trust meeting that you refer to, at which I was also present, an article in South Riding, and a conversation I had with Danny when I was a bit drunk and I saw him in a pub. Because of the number of sources, I believe it to be true. And thank you for the refs name, I couldn't remember it, but that rings a bell.

 

Cheers for that Jay. Good to know they believed Danny, but I'm sure they could have stubbornly fined him for his honesty.

 

I do believe the willard never refereed again after the liverpool fiasco but he was given some kind of office job