Midweek referee Martin Woods takes second spot in the table. I fear Charles Breakspear won't be challenging the top end of the table. Having looked back, the penalty given was much more questionable than I first thought, and was reasonably similar to the one Styles didn't get. I haven't seen the Cosgrove one back, which looked a cert at the time, and there was definitely a hand ball when the Blackpool centre half had an air shot and practically caught the ball as it bounced up. Cole was booked on the say so of James Husband, and both he and Kenny Dougall were very fortunate not to receive second yellows. Mr Breakspear is certainly a contender for the Doink the Clown award.
Their penalty wasn’t hugely questionable for me - potentially a foul on Williams in the lead up but for O’Keeffe to dive in from virtually a different post code was naive and idiotic. All the lad had to do was make sure he made contact and he definitely did. Penalty all day long. The handball - I’ve seen worse not given. It was very short distance. The shove on Cosgrove should have been given, the Styles one to me looked a dive to be honest. Breakspear wasn’t a good ref, he allowed the Blackpool team to do what they liked, including referee the game. But he’s not the worst we’ll get either.
PS - the two utter twunts who vote 10/10 every week on these polls, grow the frig up and let the grown ups who actually debate this properly get an actual true reflection
Strange, I thought at the time it was a dive but reluctantly have to agree he was right after watching the highlights.
Ah so a player can deliberately make contact (even if the tackle otherwise would have missed him), go down in a heap and it's a penalty? That sounds suspiciously like cheating to me. My initial reaction at Oakwell was that it was a dive (as in your scenario) but I now think it was a penalty after watching the highlights. Opinions eh?
Their penalty was nailed on. Cosgrove's was pretty blatant as well, and although I couldn't really see it in the ground, the handball should also have been pretty obvious to anyone halfway competent having seen it on TV later. Gave us absolutely nothing in the first half, then everything in the second half, foul or not, as long as it was outside the box. Pulled play back twice to book players (one ours, one theirs) when he could easily have played advantage then booked the player once the ball was dead. Failing to give Dougal a second yellow was spineless. Overall - both inconsistent and incompetent. I'd rate him around 2.5, which gets rounded up to 3. That's very generous, but I'm pretty sure we'll see far worse this season and I need to save the properly low numbers for them.
Got their penalty right. Not sure all four of our claims for one were penalties but can't help feeling that at least one should have been given - law of averages and all that. Not the worst we've had.
Perhaps the poll should have "show how u voted" feature enabled, so we can confirm who the twunts are.
I ‘ve been on about this from the start. My take is that extreme votes such as 0 or 10 should be discounted unless they are accompanied by a post explaining why they are of that opinion, they are spoiling this thread
You can certainly make that argument for I think the first shout. But there was one shout where the defender has swung a foot at it, the ball has bounced up and sat on the top of his arm. He's effectively, whether deliberate or not, controlled the ball with his arm. Without that contact, he struggles to make the clearance that he did. I've no quarms with their penalty, but Styles's shout is exactly the same, he's felt contact and gone down. Cosgrove's is a penalty all day long. The only thing I can think is that he's been too honest and tried to stay on his feet. Rhodes certainly wouldn't have done that had it been down the other end.
I agree. Breakspeare was pretty crap yesterday, but not in the same stratosphere as Willard or Kettle. Zeroes surely need to be reserved for clear and blatant errors, near riots, completely incomprehensible decisions, and a general impression that the official has never read the rules of football before. Not just a few contentious calls which went against us.
I’ve given a generous 4, the push on Cosgrove was a major decision. 2 or 3 times he got in the way of players highlighting his poor positional sense.
But if contentious decisions actually influence the result like yesterday because of the narrow scoreline, then I can understand the zeros. The 10 markers are just on a wind-up
I already admitted that I voted 0 and I stand by that. I know refs are just flawed human beings, like all of us, but some take it to extremes. Reasons for a zero marking: Letting the opposition get in his face all through the game and not dishing out cards for it which is one of the new rules this season isn’t it? Ignoring blatant fouls on us, the biggest being the TWO-HANDED push on Cosgrove in the area. I think our whole support screamed out loud for that one, much louder than usual. Constantly getting in the way of play, usually affecting our players. Going out determined not to send anyone off, no matter how many booking offences a player is guilty of. His “telling off” towards Dougall was the prime example. The second foul deserved a booking but he couldn’t manage to find his back pocket. Finally a general inconsistency of decision making which ruined the game. Pulling up play when advantage was on or ignoring blatant fouls when everyone in the ground could see them. Oh - I nearly forgot one. Forgetting to switch on his comms equipment for contact with the linesmen. He was obviously so arrogant that he didn’t need their help and the other two were so spineless that they daren’t wave a flag to tell him he’s missed something. Is that enough justification for a zero mark? I think so