I'm pretty sure that Luke Steele got booked a few weeks ago, maybe against Forest, for apparently delaying a goal kick. Burnley repeatedly time wasted today and all the referee did was point to his watch. Yet all we got at the end of each half was three minutes. It's always three minutes. I think we had five substitutions in the second half, along with all the time wasting. Yet only three minutes and none of the players spoken to. He even allowed a Burnley free kick to be delayed in the first half whilst one of them tied his shoelaces. And then, to top it off, near the end we won a throw-in in a defensive position. As the ball was going out their player knocked it away with his hand, over the advertising hoardings. Did the referee have a word with the Burnley player? No. Instead he gave a foul throw when Nyatanga tried to get the game moving again by taking the throw in from behind the advertising hoardings, turning a bit of time wasting from Burnley into an attacking throw in for them. There were plenty of times today when it looked like the Burnley players were refereeing the game and it got on my t!ts. The referee should have been stronger. Couldn't wait to book O'Grady, but barely gave him a free kick all game. Burnley were a much better team than us, so it really pi55ed me off that they also got the little advantages from the referee all game too. Can't wait for this season to be over.
Agree with everything you've said, but it does beg the question - when will we ever learn? This bunch of players seem happy to take it all lying down. Why don't they wise up? If someone is pulling your shirt, make sure the ref sees it. If someone takes a **** corner that goes straight into the Ponty End, don't shrug it off and trot back to the half way line, tell the useless W'nker to do it properly. If someone gives you a suicide pass that you have to jump over or have your legs broken, don't just wave your arm about a bit... tell the idiot. If someone is fouling you all game and the ref is penalising you ... go to ground. That's what teams at the top of the league do.
To be fair, given tonight's attacking masterclass you could assume that the referee stopped it early because he felt sorry for us.
Agree with all that, we have never had players who can play act like others, do we put something in their contracts to stop them doing it?????
No, but when Daswon did it on Saturday people complained saying they don't want to see our players doing that. We can't have it both ways.
It's not just goalkeeper or their set plays it was ours too, every time we got a free kick 4 of there attacking players round the ref contesting it, not because they didn't agree with it but because it'll run the clock down wile the ref deals with them and gives their defence time to get organized the captain run as far away as possible from the ref knowing he'd want a word with him to tell his team to stop moaning when the ref shouted him over he walked over slower then Darren Moore west ham are masters at it and Burnley have gave them a run for their money in both the games against us this season
It comes from us not having a captain who'll get in the ref's face & moan & remind him about things. We've not had a captain who'd regularly talk to the ref since Shackell. When you look at some of the captains we've had since (Butterfield, Wiseman, Steele, Cranie etc) it's no wonder we don't seem to get many decisions / time added on. We're too nice. Simple things like staying down after a poor tackle or not rolling the ball forward a few extra yards should be done. It's not something any of us like seeing but 'if you can't beat them join them' & all that. We must also be the only side that consistently takes throwing's from further back than where we won them