Portland Bill

Going back to our years in the old first division, Man City were one of the few teams that their supporters filled the entire open end. They were a club that were getting 30k plus in ( what’s now) league one, they are far from ‘upstarts’. Yes the oil money has taken them to another level, but they have always been a massive club, with local support.

If Liverpool win the title, I’m going to move to Liverpool to get away from their fans!

It’s football, some you get some you don’t. every game played is littered with mistakes, strikers miss open goals and defenders make mistakes to concede goals. You can’t expect everything they all do to be perfect. I’m sure we have had plenty of decisions given to us that the opposition claim are wrong. Referees have to make decisions, yes, some are wrong in ‘our’ eyes, but just you wait till VAR starts reversing decisions that have gone OUR way, because that will happen, and this forum will then go into meltdown. Personally I think VAR is going to ruin the game and I would rather the game stays the way it always has been.

Probably because they have 22 players on the pitch doing their best to con and cheat. Im not saying all non league players are angels, far from it, but the vast majority are honest, just a shame that at the top level that’s not the case. Which in turn makes it far harder for the officials.

Yes, there are some very poor refs in these leagues, but also a lot of good ones. I watch Somerset Senior and Western League football on a weekly basis, the thing is, without them we haven’t got a game. The Somerset senior league is a tough one for referees, they don’t get any support, only club linesman. I’m not sure if it’s correct, but I was told it’s the only county league in England where you don’t get three ‘proper’ officials.

Regarding things like throw ins, the officials are in constant communication with there headpieces, they will be talking to each other in these throw in instances, it’s not a case of a linesman not wanting to make a decision, a lot of the time it’s discussed between the two of them to try and make the ‘correct’ decision.

My reply was slightly tongue in cheek but also genuine. It seems as if referees and linesman are the fool guys in football atm, constantly getting slagged off on this forum. More and more people seem to think they could do a better job judging by some of the comments. Well, as there is a big shortage of officials in this country, and many of the local leagues don’t have enough to go round, I wonder if the critics would have a go at refereeing and see how they get on. They would then get some idea of how hard the job actually is! Re, you point about centre half’s/centre forwards, you would know that the top refs are getting assessed at every game, if the assessor feels that the refs judgement on these incidents isn’t correct, then you would also be aware that the ref would soon be told! You would also be aware that centre half’s get away with more because they are nearly always on the blind side of the referee, Whereas the centre forward is nearly always in full view of the referee.

Go and take a referees course mate, it’s open to all. Your chance to show your worth

And if they blow and an advantage is lost, everyone goes mad at the ref and asks why he didn’t play the advantage!! They cant win.

Why, the players probably deserved the sanctions, and it’s hardly newsworthy to award a penalty and disallow a goal, let it go mate!

Well there are 2 English teams in the ‘champions league’ semi finals that haven’t won a Championship in decades. So you never know!!

There has always been good and bad decisions, mistakes have always been made by officials. But players make far more mistakes than officials, also players cheat, officials do not. I think our officials are bloody brilliant, it’s the hardest job on the football pitch, these officials are ‘now’ under intense scrutiny because of the amount of TV games and cameras. A linesman gets one look at an incident, the referee gets one look from ‘his angle’ at any incident. TV viewers get about 10 views from different camera angles. Most bad decisions aren’t picked up until the armchair experts have seen at least 2-3 replays!!! I’ve a son who is a referee at a decent level, he’s still young and potentially could go a long way, people who constantly criticise referees don’t realise the constant scrutinising of every decision they make, not just from players and coaches ( some who don’t even know the laws of the game, seriously) but from the accessors who are severely strict. Everything a referee does, from his pre match talk and warm up, to his positioning at corners and even how he. blows his whistle are marked. It really is incredible how in depth everything they do is looked at and reflected in their marks. It amazes me how so many on forums like this slag off referees, but they themselves ( this isn’t aimed at you cider-manc ) have never attempted to referee a game and never will. I just wish some would try it, they would then actually understand what it entails. Being an official in ANY football match is one of the hardest things to do, doing it at the highest level with the hatred and criticism that goes with it ,must be horrendous at times.

It was a mad mad day!

The law is that handball must be deliberate for a free kick to be awarded, end of. In Fifa's Laws of the Game under Law 12, Fouls and Misconduct, it is stated that a free-kick or penalty is awarded if a player “handles the ball deliberately (except for the goalkeeper within his own penalty area)”. ... Any goal scored after striking the arm of an attacking player would be disallowed Then you will just get players kicking the ball at players arms, it would be ridiculous.

It’s not irrelevant Harry’s, law 12 of the game tells you that handball HAS to be a deliberate act.