I was right

[shelts]

Think the focus should be on our players and management team 

[BCFCGav]

Me and my dad both noticed today - we don’t seem to help ourselves in the penalty conundrum. Pring hopped over an outstretched leg during one of his darting runs inside today. Commendable - and his runs are so dangerous so I don’t want to criticise - but is that an opportunity to take the hit?

On the Semenyo one - he climbs straight back to his feet. Makes the refs mind up for him. Give him a decision to make!

Only seen both events live so apologies if I’ve seen it wrong. Also, as always, the buck stops with the refs - they should still be getting calls right which they often don’t.

[Davefevs]

1 minute ago, shelts said:

Think the focus should be on our players and management team 

There’s plenty of other threads for that.

[shelts]

1 minute ago, Davefevs said:

There’s plenty of other threads for that.

Thanks Dave . Pointing out the obvious. Easy to blame a ref . 

[Always Believesham]

1 hour ago, Davefevs said:

I’ve only seen Andy Davies horror show twice, Preston (a), QPR (h)…Eltringham is every game!

I think I might have a form of PTSD reading through some of those games. [was that Wolves game at the bottom, the one where Wolved scored a mental own goal? They substituted Ikeme at half time, not out of shame but because he'd punched a wall and broke his hand on the way down the tunnel.]

I didn't think it was anything out of the ordinary today* - having world cup games so recently in the mind to compare it to, the players really don't help. He tried to keep the game flowing in the first half, although should have pulled up players for consistently kicking the ball away (or walking off with it). The turning point was that corner though, I wasn't sure whether he booked Weimann or Semenyo but it was out of character with how he'd tried to referee until that point.

There had been a bit of injury exaggeration creeping in until that point but it got a lot worse from there. Credit to him for forcing the Stoke player off when he wasted enough time to call for the physio, I thought he was going to book the player that dived infront of Semenyo and then claimed cramp - but it looked like he picked something up that came from the crowd (which could come back to bite us).

*That's in the context of the rest of the rubbish we've had to put up with and some of the games in that list though.

[BigAl&Toby]

1 hour ago, Davefevs said:

There’s plenty of other threads for that.

No @Davefevs I was right.

Who’s to blame?

The ref.

Pearson.

Naismith.

None of the above. I’ll tell ‘ee who’s to blame. The ******* baboon at the top of the ******* tree.

The ultimate beneficial owner. He who has overall control. And responsibility.

Yawn. Here he goes again. How about you @BTRFTG You enjoy the game?

Who’s up for progress with Steve? Back to League One. Anyone……

Thank **** I’m sunning meself Down Under. 

Making us proud. In the Lansdowns some trust…..

[W-S-M Seagull]

3 hours ago, Dr Balls said:

He let a lot go, hardly showed a card for 60+ minutes but then started flashing cards around like a supply teacher trying to do GCSE revision for those not expected to pass the exam. And even then he missed a shocker of a tackle by Campbell their number 10, who he later yellow carded for the retaliation for Pring’s yellow-card-worthy foul. Also booked Weimann for complaining when he missed a clear corner when Semenyo had been tangling with Souttar.

Even Souttar wagged his finger at the ref cos he knew it was a corner so therefore a undeserved yellow. 

[W-S-M Seagull]

4 hours ago, Davefevs said:

Geoff Eltringham is the joint worst ref in the Champ along with Gavin Ward.  Don’t bring Keith Stroud into the conversation, they aren’t fit to lace his boots.

Not using him as the excuse today, two poor goals conceded cost us 3 points, but he loses control of games so easily.  You can see why he’d been demoted to lg1/2 this season.  You start seeing bad tackles go in because he frustrates both sets of players.

 

I think when the ref doesn't give a blatant penalty then we have every right to use the ref as an excuse. 

[Davefevs]

3 hours ago, shelts said:

Thanks Dave . Pointing out the obvious. Easy to blame a ref . 

It is when he’s regularly as inept as he is.  Last week I praised Simon Barrott on his Champ debut.  I don’t fall into the “Keith Stroud” hate brigade either, so I’m not just a ref blamer.  But I do think Gavin Ward and Geoff Eltringham are effing abysmal refs.

Oliver Langford is another I dislike, although he improved a bit over Covid before falling back to his old tricks.

(and I know youre a ref too )

And as you’re a ref, are you taught as refs to run away from play turning your back to the action, missing any shenanigans that might be going on because you’re facing away from the ball?  Because both the refs I mentioned do exactly that.  When they get near the halfway line they turn to face the play or hear crowd noise and wonder what’s happened.  Surely they should run backwards?

[Steve Watts]

Although it's true that we only have ourselves to blame for not getting anything from today, the ref did play a part in their winner, not to mention the customary mannequin with a flag. We had possession in the corner and there was what looked like a clear foul on Wells, from which they broke and scored. Of course we had plenty of opportunities to stop them scoring after the foul, but the fact still remains that we probably should've had a free kick instead.

I'd say my biggest bugbear with referees at the moment though is that they aren't protecting players who are jumping for a ball and being clattered in mid air with the only intention being to play the man. It's so dangerous, but I've noticed this repeatedly over the last few games for us. 

[firstdivision]

5 hours ago, Davefevs said:

Geoff Eltringham is the joint worst ref in the Champ along with Gavin Ward.  Don’t bring Keith Stroud into the conversation, they aren’t fit to lace his boots.

Not using him as the excuse today, two poor goals conceded cost us 3 points, but he loses control of games so easily.  You can see why he’d been demoted to lg1/2 this season.  You start seeing bad tackles go in because he frustrates both sets of players.

 

Yes, Dave. He was as bad as the two goals we conceded. 
I saw your thread defending Andy King’s selection as a back-three defender. I said last week to a friend that sooner or later that selection was going to cost us. Sooner, obvs.

Where is Rob Atkinson? You said he might be ill. My hunch is that he’s still paying off his debt  for Lincoln. 
With a largely fully-fit squad, we can afford to keep selection simple.  

[Rob k]

That ref yesterday didn’t look fit enough to me - do they do fitness testing?

[Red Army 75]

4 hours ago, Rob k said:

That ref yesterday didn’t look fit enough to me - do they do fitness testing?

Totally agree. That’s why he was so slow to clamp down on their time wasting. So the useless ***** could get a breather in 

[nonameface]

Stoke fan here.

The referee wasn't that bad by championship standards, if you want to see bad you should see our highlights versus Cardiff.

 

Its unfortunate, we went ahead and then used football dark arts to destroy a pretty dull game into a nothing match.  Its the first time we've done it all season, so from our point it was good to see we could do it.

 

Semenyo could have had a penalty if he'd stayed down, but I've seen much worse not given.  Surprised he didn't start, especially with us playing a striker at right wing back.

 

Thought one of your centre backs could have been sent off at the end for a foul on Powell.

 

Dull game, showing how poor we both are, could easily have been 2-1 either way or 2-2.  

[Sir Colby-Tit]

11 hours ago, Davefevs said:

I thought the referees at the WC were excellent apart from the Brazilian who reffed us v France and the Spanish one who looks like my old next door neighbour and reffed the Argentina / Holland game:

https://www.football-espana.net/2022/12/12/spanish-referee-antonio-mateu-lahoz-leaves-world-cup

Wilton Sampaio who was the referee in the England Qtr final has been excluded from officiating in the final after match fixing allegations.... 

 

In a statement he said that he denies any wrongdoing and is devastated at not being able to be part of France's 2-1 win over Argentina later this afternoon.

[Bar BS3]

When our manager starts doing his job properly, I'll be more inclined to start blaming defeats on the standard of the match officials. 

 

[Barry Sheene]

Two pages in and not one word about James Lillington he is the worst referee by a country mile.  

[shelts]

9 hours ago, Davefevs said:

It is when he’s regularly as inept as he is.  Last week I praised Simon Barrott on his Champ debut.  I don’t fall into the “Keith Stroud” hate brigade either, so I’m not just a ref blamer.  But I do think Gavin Ward and Geoff Eltringham are effing abysmal refs.

Oliver Langford is another I dislike, although he improved a bit over Covid before falling back to his old tricks.

(and I know youre a ref too )

And as you’re a ref, are you taught as refs to run away from play turning your back to the action, missing any shenanigans that might be going on because you’re facing away from the ball?  Because both the refs I mentioned do exactly that.  When they get near the halfway line they turn to face the play or hear crowd noise and wonder what’s happened.  Surely they should run backwards?

I like Stroudy as he’s a character . Everything as much as possible should be in your peripheral. These guys are miked so regularly turn their backs on incidents. You’d be surprised how much the 4th official is involved in the game . 
It’s quite hard to run flat out backwards so he’s taking the easy option to get in place for the next phase of play and the next dropping zone . 
I did get my hair off with him yesterday after Prings tackle . He missed a blatant corner as he didn’t get wide enough or near enough the bye line . 
He didn’t look the fittest ref I’d seen !!

[Davefevs]

10 hours ago, firstdivision said:

Yes, Dave. He was as bad as the two goals we conceded. 
I saw your thread defending Andy King’s selection as a back-three defender. I said last week to a friend that sooner or later that selection was going to cost us. Sooner, obvs.

Where is Rob Atkinson? You said he might be ill. My hunch is that he’s still paying off his debt  for Lincoln. 
With a largely fully-fit squad, we can afford to keep selection simple.  

My comment on Atkinson was pre-match…Nige confirmed that wasn’t the case!!!

Yep re King, you are right…it’s the risk / reward of can we eke points out of it until it catches up with us.  The problem is even our natural defenders have given goals away too.  So I don’t know what to expect anymore!

43 minutes ago, Bar BS3 said:

When our manager starts doing his job properly, I'll be more inclined to start blaming defeats on the standard of the match officials. 

 

FFS…read the opening post.  Who is blaming defeat on the referee? Arrgggghhhhh

35 minutes ago, Barry Sheene said:

Two pages in and not one word about James Lillington he is the worst referee by a country mile.  

He’s the next one on my list behind Ward and Eltringham.  He’s bloody awful too.

 

[Northern Red]

1 hour ago, Bar BS3 said:

When our manager starts doing his job properly, I'll be more inclined to start blaming defeats on the standard of the match officials. 

 

Do you have comprehension issues or are you doing this deliberately?

[Red-Robbo]

1 hour ago, Barry Sheene said:

Two pages in and not one word about James Lillington he is the worst referee by a country mile.  

 

You got there before me.

Lillington seems to actively hate us. Eltringham just didn't know what he was doing and should've added about 8 minutes of extra time, had he adhered to the guidelines refs have been using in the World Cup. 

[Super]

So last week the ref was good this week awful. Aren't they always good when we win and bad when we lose?!

[Lew-T]

16 hours ago, Davefevs said:

Geoff Eltringham is the joint worst ref in the Champ along with Gavin Ward.  Don’t bring Keith Stroud into the conversation, they aren’t fit to lace his boots.

Not using him as the excuse today, two poor goals conceded cost us 3 points, but he loses control of games so easily.  You can see why he’d been demoted to lg1/2 this season.  You start seeing bad tackles go in because he frustrates both sets of players.

 

Honestly it’s comical. He booked the wrong Stoke player for time wasting. It was their outfield player that did the time wasting, that said player then passed it to the keeper, then the ref booked the keeper.

The standard of officiating one league below the Premier League is embarrassing.

[Northern Red]

3 minutes ago, Super said:

So last week the ref was good this week awful. Aren't they always good when we win and bad when we lose?!

No.

[Davefevs]

4 minutes ago, Super said:

So last week the ref was good this week awful. Aren't they always good when we win and bad when we lose?!

No

[Dr Balls]

12 hours ago, Steve Watts said:

Although it's true that we only have ourselves to blame for not getting anything from today, the ref did play a part in their winner, not to mention the customary mannequin with a flag. We had possession in the corner and there was what looked like a clear foul on Wells, from which they broke and scored. Of course we had plenty of opportunities to stop them scoring after the foul, but the fact still remains that we probably should've had a free kick instead.

I'd say my biggest bugbear with referees at the moment though is that they aren't protecting players who are jumping for a ball and being clattered in mid air with the only intention being to play the man. It's so dangerous, but I've noticed this repeatedly over the last few games for us. 

Was saying the same yesterday to my friend. In rugby, taking someone out in the air is considered dangerous play and a red card offence. In football, certainly  at Championship level, it often doesn’t even get given as a foul - unless of course it’s a goalkeeper, who can’t be touched at all it seems. Certainly seems to be double standards and one of the areas where I think the game could do a lot better, safer and more consistent.

[italian dave]

15 hours ago, Always Believesham said:

 

There had been a bit of injury exaggeration creeping in until that point but it got a lot worse from there. Credit to him for forcing the Stoke player off when he wasted enough time to call for the physio, I thought he was going to book the player that dived infront of Semenyo and then claimed cramp - but it looked like he picked something up that came from the crowd (which could come back to bite us).

 

I don’t blame Eltrigham for this, needs a rule change, but shortly after that another Stoke player went down clutching his head, so play was stopped (when we were in possession) and another 30 seconds wasted - but because the player insisted he didn’t need the physio he was allowed to get up and continue.

If a player goes down with a head injury and/or it’s serious enough to stop play then the physio should come on automatically. 

[Midred]

1 minute ago, italian dave said:

I don’t blame Eltrigham for this, needs a rule change, but shortly after that another Stoke player went down clutching his head, so play was stopped (when we were in possession) and another 30 seconds wasted - but because the player insisted he didn’t need the physio he was allowed to get up and continue.

If a player goes down with a head injury and/or it’s serious enough to stop play then the physio should come on automatically. 

And he needs to go off the pitch for 10 minutes - at least!

[italian dave]

Just now, Midred said:

And he needs to go off the pitch for 10 minutes - at least!

Except when he’s a Bristol City player, because we don’t cheat!

[italian dave]

17 hours ago, joe jordans teeth said:

And yet he is a lot better than some of the refs that appeared at the World Cup,we should be thankful in this country that some of our rubbish refs are better than a lot of other countries best referees 

Must admit, I thought the exact opposite! And I posted something to that effect on the World Cup thread at one point. I felt that for the most part they highlighted just how poor a lot of Championship refereeing is. 

Not just individual decisions , where World Cup refs are under a massive amount more scrutiny too - some of the throw in decisions yesterday would never have passed the Japan game scrutiny! 

But also, probably more so, the air of authority that they had over games and players: talking to players, being clear when and why decisions are given, not giving players the opportunity or the reason to get frustrated to the point where it ends up (as we did yesterday) with players taking the law into their own hands and a brawl erupting.