First ever female fourth official in the Prem at weekend. I’ve seen her once for us against Accrington away last season and she was the worse referee I saw and that’s saying summet. Hope the Prem aren’t pushing her just because she’s a female rather than her actually being good enough….because that performance Boxing Day was diabolical.
It's barely possible for her to be worse than some of the incompetent excuses for referees we've had to endure over the years.
https://www.skysports.com/football/...ier-league-this-weekend-for-fulham-vs-man-utd Dunno anything about her apart from she was utterly useless at Accrington last season. Pompey were complaining about her this season...... https://www.portsmouth.co.uk/sport/...end-after-controversial-draw-at-derby-4340219 To be fair the standard of refs is so poor that it won't take much for anyone to be promoted.
I was embarrassed by our some of our fans at Accrington. There was one incident could have gone either way in a collision but if Cole had a touch then he would have been away easy.
Everything, in life, in general, should be based on talent & ability. If you’ve gone through leagues, gotten older, gained years & plenty of experience & are competent & able to officiate at the very highest level, absolutely brilliant. Knock yourself out, you deserve it. If you’ve got a ‘helping hand’ because you are a minority & talent isn’t what it’s all about, that’s where it all falls down. Not just football, it’s everything & it’s getting worse.
Quite apart from whether positive discrimination is a good or a bad thing, I really struggle to care too much about it when you look at how many politicians, judges, journalists, captains of industry etc have been privately educated or just come from the right families over the years. Our country's whole history is practically built on giving helping hands to the less competent - we've got an actual monarchy FFS. The hands are just occasionally offered to different groups of people nowadays - and what's so different about that? Anybody who thinks that the UK has ever been anything close to a meritocracy needs to have a serious word with themselves.
I remember her performance being criticised at the time, and yet I also remember thinking she was only the 3rd worst referee we had that week. Does anyone remember the name of the referee we had against Fleetwood a few days later? Without checking, I bet you don't. And his performance was much much worse.
I'd have 50% female referees as soon as we can appoint them. I'd also have the referees miked up so we can hear just how many foul-mouthed cheats there are in the game. It's time the childish criticism of referees by supporters after every game was stopped instead of being used as an excuse for the shortcomings of their team.
Or maybe get officials who can officiate a game properly and explain why certain situations are given as opposed to there incompetence at times, like I posted some time ago, our game and officials should use rugby as a example of how to go by
Doesn't matter whether they're black, white, yellow, male, female, straight or gay. It's whether they can do the job. That said, they will always make errors and and get stick and in some instances be vilified rightly or wrongly by players, managers and supporters.
Secondary to me, to players and supporters accepting decisions, whatever they are. To many on here a decision is wrong if it is given against Barnsley. It's utterly pathetic. I agree with you about rugby refs though.
She was poor. Some joke decisions. But worst ever. nah. Some have been equally as bad if not worse this season imo. If I'd to pick one that sticks in my mind. It was a guy called McNally, (v Cardiff 1980) but he is closely followed by many. Willard among em.
She was truly awful at Accrington - it wasn't so much that she got penalty decisions wrong at both ends but that after about ten minutes she just lost control, let Accrington's captain completely referee the game and fell for every play-acting trick in the book. She also wasn't fit enough and couldn't keep up with play resulting in the bizarre situation of her constantly being stood with the Accrington midfield and forward line when they had the ball and giving them free-kicks whereas she was literally miles behind our forward line when we had it and gave us nothing. At one point in the second half she even seemed to lose interest and was looking down at the floor half the pitch away from play in one of the corners when an incident needing a decision happened and she hadn't a clue what was going on when she looked up. However, other than TV snippets of further bizarre penalty decisions she's made, that Accrington game is the only time I've seen her and it merits at least another 3 or 4 'encounters' before making a firm judgement. For example, the guy who the BBS (although not me personally) currently has as top of the 'rate the ref' table this season gave two absolutely stinking performances last season, including one on a par with Welch's at Accrington when he totally shrivelled and let that useless thug John Marquis referee the game from start to finish at Bristol Rovers. It's also the case that the referee cadre is currently littered with poor male refs too and many of those are there only because there isn't any real kind of performance management and demotion system. How can the likes of Kettle last for decades, Eltringham be a permanent fixture in the Championship and Robinson get into the highest league as just three of many examples? As a fan who spends most of my dwindling leisure pound on going to football all I ask is for a ref to be - fit enough, get their positioning right, be consistent between teams and situations, stand up to and punish cheating, don't let themselves be influenced by players and crowds, try to let the game flow and leave their ego in the changing room. I can accept that genuine errors will be made but not that someone can't be arsed or isn't able to get around the pitch, lets themselves be dominated by sh!thousery and/or thinks the game is about them.
Without checking it was Ben Speedie and it wasn't much, much worse at all but it was almost on a par (it certainly didn't change the outcome of the game as Welch's did). We then had Seb Stockbridge against Bolton to complete a Holy Trinity of Festive misery.
