Referee

[SUFCinks]

To be fair, haven't seen many deplorable comments of that genre.

(Of course one deplorable comment is one too many)

It was aimed at that 1 comment. I think there are a few others who have backed it in a round about way. I’ve made my view on it clear. I don’t feel he was any different to any other refs in our games this season that are full of inconsistencies. Refs constantly will make ‘bad’ calls that will upset at least 1 set of fans, usually both feel they have been shafted. His skin has nothing to do with it.

 

[SUFCinks]

Top insurance CEO announces that white male new hires must be personally signed off by herself

But the diversity measure hasn't gone down well with some.

fortune.com

I'm not suggesting for a second that he's been promoted to the PL for anything other than his refereeing performances in the lower leagues, but statements like Blanc's give an unfortunate impression that in various industries people are hired/promoted on the basis of diversity rather than ability.

As I said, based on today the ref is not PL standard, but then neither are 99% of the ones we get.

I think most sane people would always put ability as the key skill for employment. I certainly wouldn’t disagree with that. I also agree that secondary to that, creating opportunities for disadvantaged communities has weight as well.

Ability always first though.

 

[Bladesman]

Don't care about his colour but his decision making today was wildly inconsistent and seemed to let the players make a mug of him

McBurnie being assaulted for most of the match by 2 Luton players and he barely got a free kick.

 

[FMBlade1]

I think most sane people would always put ability as the key skill for employment. I certainly wouldn’t disagree with that. I also agree that secondary to that, creating opportunities for disadvantaged communities has weight as well.

Ability always first though.

Agree with that, however Blanc's statement showed that Aviva are treating people differently based on their protected characteristics which in my view is deeply problematic.

With that said diversity certainly has benefits, Matthew Syed wrote an excellent book called 'Rebel Ideas' critiquing the so-called ability-only argument.

Anyway, imho the ref had a bad day today, and the hype he received beforehand was unhelpful.

 

[hodgy747]

Just about ok. After the non-corner goal he was awful for both teams. No worse than the other shite we’ve seen this season.

That's rather the point. The level of officiating in the EPL and EFL is consistently poor. Howard Webb: got your work cut out mate.

 

[Blademan89]

How they come away without 1 booking is astonishing, making similar fouls we get booked for and they don't. Barkley making numerous fouls with not even a speaking to. Very bizarre ref, looked a park ref.

Get him back to where he belongs.

 

[Rochdaleblade]

BBC and the Grauniad reports both praise today's ref for "playing advantage" in the lead up to our first goal. Looked to me like he just bottled the blatant penalty shout and made no decision. He definitely made no "play on" signal and playing on when our player was lying on the floor surrounded by defenders would seem a strange decision.

 

[FMBlade1]

BBC and the Grauniad reports both praise today's ref for "playing advantage" in the lead up to our first goal. Looked to me like he just bottled the blatant penalty shout and made no decision. He definitely made no "play on" signal and playing on when our player was lying on the floor surrounded by defenders would seem a strange decision.

Just seen that, astonishingly:

"The Blades thought they had turned it around after the interval, Oli McBurnie equalising after Sam Allison - the first black referee to take charge of an English top-flight match for 15 years - played a smart advantage when James McAtee appeared to have been fouled."

Vs

"James McAtee runs at the heart of the Luton defence, the referee is lucky because he is fouled and looks to hide behind VAR. Looked like a stonewall penalty, but he is lucky that a goal comes not long after."

The latter was the comment from Paul Robinson at the time. Think I'd lend more credence to him rather than BBC journalist Neil Johnstone.

Are the BBC wanting to make it appear like the ref had a good game?

Certainly gives that impression, and didn't mention the corner mistake.

Very strange...

 

[jt64]

Between him and the two linesmen it looked like nobody actually wanted to make a decision. That one where the defender had his arm fully round McBurnie’s neck and ref and the linesman just stood staring at it was appalling. Also not sure what the fuck the ‘fouls’ were for when their players held it up in the corner.

You mean the one where Morris was being fouled by two of our players at the same time but we got the free kick?

 

[JimW1889]

You mean the one where Morris was being fouled by two of our players at the same time but we got the free kick?

Yeah lol, one on other side a bit earlier looked very similar. I can forgive the mistakes like the corner because it is hard in real time from certain angles, but there seems to be no consistency with how much wrestling is or isn’t allowed.

 

[FMBlade1]

"At least the referee stayed stoic. Following Rebecca Welch’s debut as the first female Premier League referee last weekend, Boxing Day here marked another milestone. Somerset’s Sam Allison, a former firefighter, became the first black referee since Sheffield local Uriah Rennie 15 years previously. He showed authoritative command of a match of muscular challenges and 50/50 balls fully contested."

From the Guardian.

Is that a joke?

 

[JJ Sefton]

What I don’t understand is how the jury could find Ched guilty and MacDonald innocent?

 

[Big Hitter]

"At least the referee stayed stoic. Following Rebecca Welch’s debut as the first female Premier League referee last weekend, Boxing Day here marked another milestone. Somerset’s Sam Allison, a former firefighter, became the first black referee since Sheffield local Uriah Rennie 15 years previously. He showed authoritative command of a match of muscular challenges and 50/50 balls fully contested."

From the Guardian.

Is that a joke?

No - its the Guardian

 

[Balham Blade]

My tuppence worth...

He's clearly a decent ref as he'll have had to face some ridiculous bias on his way through the ranks. Today he seemed to be so scared of being seen to be influenced by the crowd that he was only giving us free kicks for indisputable fouls. The two Luton centre halves were all over McBurnie all game but he got very few decisions. Archer gets a barge in the back and accidentally handballs it...free kick to them. Any of ours nudge theirs off the ball and it's a free kick...to them.

I thought he was poor overall.

 

[FMBlade1]

Nope, he doesn't clearly signal advantage.



"The referee signals advantage by extending one or both arms forward at shoulder height."

https://www.footballrules.com/game-events/advantage/

He clearly doesn't do that here.

So what on earth are the BBC talking about?

 

[jt64]

From the Guardian.

Is that a joke?

You've answered your own question

 

[LBA_Blade]

The standard of refereeing in this country is just poor.

It is only down to 2 things the Laws of the game with the understanding of them and the retrospective TV coverage. Based on the current Laws of the game. They have approx 12 laws with subsections to be thinking about in milliseconds making a decision instantly. With a screenshot or TV slow mo it is easy to say that, this should/could have been this or that. Any Law 12 Fouls start with words to the effect of the opinion of the referee so regardless if x happened if the referee thought y happened that is the case.

Not always justifying referees and their decisions but I would honestly like to firstly see people that criticise referees be able to quote the Law of the game that they are referring to and especially in most cases which decade they think it applies (many out of date) but secondly I would like to see people pick up a whistle and give it a go with your local Sunday league teams. See how different it is getting the angles that you get and what reports you get back. There will be the occasional incorrect decision but when you take your blades tinted specs off not every referee is against us. Any professional player should be able to least be able to hit a target that is 7 feet tall by 7 feet wide but how many times do we actually hit the target but it’s ok because “they gave it a go” if you were comparing the errors according to the stats we had 21 Shots with 6 on target if a referee made 15 obvious errors there would be mass riots sometimes the problem lies closer to home

 

[Proper Blade]

Clearly and obviously out of his depth from minute one.

There are a lot of things I despise about this league, but maybe most of all is how we're treated as an irrelevance. New referee? Give him the Sheff United game - that doesn't really matter anyway.

And so we get a Sunday League ref attempting to referee a Premier League match, and all the associated chaos that comes with it.

Constantly out of position (and so always looking pleadingly at his linesman/VAR to make the decision for him), wildly inconsistent, unwilling to give any decision at all in the final third (he wouldn't have given the McAtee penalty). Just floundered all match and should never ref in the top flight again.

 

[Rufus Smalls]

My tuppence worth...

He's clearly a decent ref as he'll have had to face some ridiculous bias on his way through the ranks. Today he seemed to be so scared of being seen to be influenced by the crowd that he was only giving us free kicks for indisputable fouls. The two Luton centre halves were all over McBurnie all game but he got very few decisions. Archer gets a barge in the back and accidentally handballs it...free kick to them. Any of ours nudge theirs off the ball and it's a free kick...to them.

I thought he was poor overall.

Agreed, for the Archer handball he was nudged in the back first but the Lino, who was about 5 yards away , saw nothing ?

As I’ve said previously, the ref today was just ok (at best) and both teams could point to examples of him making wierd decisions. It’s a fact now that most PL refs are well below the standards required to control a fast moving game with top athletes.

 

[metalblade]

He was shite booked 5 of our players none of Luton's despite persistent fouling on McBurnie, no doubt the brown envelope will now be in his trouser pocket

 

[metalblade]

BBC and the Grauniad reports both praise today's ref for "playing advantage" in the lead up to our first goal. Looked to me like he just bottled the blatant penalty shout and made no decision. He definitely made no "play on" signal and playing on when our player was lying on the floor surrounded by defenders would seem a strange decision.

He hadn't got a clue what to give McBurnie putting the loose ball into the net saved his bacon. He was an awful ref 0 bookings for Luton v 5 for us says it all.

 

[Klaatu Barada Nikto]

We give players time to make the step up from the championship to premier league, but expect the refs to be 100% from day one.

 

[Mouth of the South]

I wasn't particularly impressed by him today - his decision making was questionable and he got quite a few calls wrong. He wasn't helped by his assistants on a couple of occasions when they were in better positions that him (no excuse for that with comms sets).

However, from an observer's perspective he got the KMIs (key match incidents) right including a good advantage for Utd's second goal (which would otherwise been a free kick on the edge of the box and not a penalty as some on here seem to think).

All of his discipline calls were right and consistent (all cautions were correct and justified).

His fitness was good and enabled his positioning to generally be ok.

Where I expect he'll be pulled up though was not adjusting his approach when the temperature of the game rose in the second half - he looked in danger of letting it get away from him. He needed to get hold of the game and didn't.

Not an easy game to make your Prem debut and he looked nervous in the first half and a little out of his depth in the second. I'm sure he'll improve but today I personally thought he was only worth 6/10.

 

[FMBlade1]

We give players time to make the step up from the championship to premier league, but expect the refs to be 100% from day one.

As I said, he had a bad day at the office and I hope it's the exception rather than the rule for him.

It's fair enough to comment that, in the same way it was to comment that one/several of our players had a poor PL debut for us and so on.

What's strange is for the BBC/Guardian to insinuate that he did have a good game which is just not true, I don't know why they would do that?!

 

[jt64]

Agreed, for the Archer handball he was nudged in the back first but the Lino, who was about 5 yards away , saw nothing ?

I mentioned this one in the game thread - sell the foul and go down. A bunch of people on senior tickets might cry about it and say it's not "the United way" but it is the professional thing to do and would have won the free kick

 

[metalblade]

I wasn't particularly impressed by him today - his decision making was questionable and he got quite a few calls wrong. He wasn't helped by his assistants on a couple of occasions when they were in better positions that him (no excuse for that with comms sets).

However, from an observer's perspective he got the KMIs (key match incidents) right including a good advantage for Utd's second goal (which would otherwise been a free kick on the edge of the box and not a penalty as some on here seem to think).

All of his discipline calls were right and consistent (all cautions were correct and justified).

His fitness was good and enabled his positioning to generally be ok.

Where I expect he'll be pulled up though was not adjusting his approach when the temperature of the game rose in the second half - he looked in danger of letting it get away from him. He needed to get hold of the game and didn't.

Not an easy game to make your Prem debut and he looked nervous in the first half and a little out of his depth in the second. I'm sure he'll improve but today I personally thought he was only worth 6/10.

The man was weak, he let Luton's defenders man handle McBurnie from the first minute which signalled to them this was OK and they could get away with it for the rest of the game, My rating would be weak and piss poor.

 

[Mouth of the South]

The man was weak, he let Luton's defenders man handle McBurnie from the first minute which signalled to them this was OK and they could get away with it for the rest of the game, My rating would be weak and piss poor.

I'm guessing you're not a ref nor an assessor / observer MB.

When attackers and defenders are both jostling, refs generally let them get on with it. He applied the same apprach to the battle between AA and Adebayo

 

[Mouth of the South]

Agreed, for the Archer handball he was nudged in the back first but the Lino, who was about 5 yards away , saw nothing ?

As I’ve said previously, the ref today was just ok (at best) and both teams could point to examples of him making wierd decisions. It’s a fact now that most PL refs are well below the standards required to control a fast moving game with top athletes.

You won't get fouls for that sort of thing at Prem level (or anything above step 6 tbh). Personally, I thought it was good, clever defending and the right decision was made.

 

[Rochdaleblade]

We give players time to make the step up from the championship to premier league, but expect the refs to be 100% from day one.

I thought he let them get away with too much alehouse stuff, but that is hardly unique. We have tended to struggle against these sort of teams, e.g. Millwall, Birmingham, particularly when referees don't clamp down on it. I didn't think he was noticeably worse than some of the chumps we have had this season, but the praise from certain media outlets is laughable, particularly over the "advantage " when he clearly just didn't give the penalty.

 

[jt64]

You won't get fouls for that sort of thing at Prem level (or anything above step 6 tbh). Personally, I thought it was good, clever defending and the right decision was made.

You certainly won't get fouls for it if you don't make a case that it is a foul