Referee today

Credit where it's due, he was excellent.

 

Mentioned it in other match day thread....very good.

 

Agree. One of the best we’ve had all season. Although that’s not exactly saying much!

 

Thought at times he was awful

 

Should have booked a few of theirs for obvious dives

 

Not bad but then the bar is exceptionally low.

 

Third time we've had him, I think. Third time I would say he's handled the game pretty well.

 

Got a feeling views about Tuesday's ref will be a bit more, errr, polarised.

 

I’m going to start a sweepstake as to how many minutes into the game it will be before whoever the ref is gives a single decision against Ipswich.

I’ll go for 37…

 

I think he was a bit naive sometimes. Their players were playing silly

 

He seemed very pedantic about where we took free kicks etc from but didn’t give a toss when it came to Oxford ones. I did like the fact he made their wall stand about 20 yards for one at the end of the first half.

 

Yeah I noticed that, there were two of em loitering round the ball and not moving back, so he gave one a shove then started pacing robustly, and clearly added 2 or 3 at the end. Great stuff!

 

I did like it when Herbie Kane tried to take a free kick for offside in their half though!

 

Have Ipswich let us know who they have chosen to ref the game yet?

 

Really? As usual I thought he was gash. Looked a clear stamp that he turned a blind eye to. Weirdly counted out 12 strides for a foul at one point. Failed to brandish his card for the easiest yellow if the season just before half time. Randomly waited ages to suddenly shout two players over to rub 49 yards in each direction to have a chat with him seemingly just so the attention was fully on him rather than speaking to them when the attention was elsewhere. Look at me, look at me. Was crying like a baby about our kicks being from the exact blade of grass but let them take them from a different postcode.

 

As someone who criticises them a lot, yeah, I thought this was another good display from Mr Joyce. That's 3 out of 3 this season following Cambridge and Wednesday.

No ref is going to get 100% right - do any of the players get 100% of what they do right? However, it's good to see a ref who gets the bigger stuff correct, talks to the players, treats them on the same level as him (eg was having a chat with "Kitch") and, above all, is fit and mobile enough to keep up with play and get in good positions to make decisions for the whole 90 minutes. He also tried to keep play flowing with a number of good advantages.

The only thing that got my goat yesterday was the 5 minutes added on at the end. I'm not saying that was wrong at all but how on earth could there could be the same amount of added time between the game at Lincoln, where there were also multiple substitutions and the same amount of routine stoppages but additionally at least half a dozen minute-plus long Oscar-winning fake injury performances by the Lincoln players, and yesterday? It beggars belief what went on, seemingly un-timed, at Sincil Bank.

 

Did he get the big decisions right though when the crowd were chanting off off off after a stamp?

 

Are the crowd always right though? If it's the incident I think you are referring to, we weren't sat far from it and none of us saw a deliberate stamp. Moreover, it was about a millimetre from the lino and so if it was a deliberate stamp and he didn't see it from his ringside view I think it's more of an error from what is supposed to be an assistant referee. The bar might be low but imho yesterday's ref over the three games he's done is definitely the best I've seen this season.

 

Can’t remember his name but it’s the one that did Derby a solid yesterday against Burton. Naturally I’m fearing the worst.