Last night was supposed to be about quality, watching two decent teams plying their wares in a hostile cauldron, thats right, I was at home looking forward to the Champions League game with Liverpool at Besiktas. I’d done enough driving this week already and couldn’t be bothered to do another 100+ mile round trip. In the end though, the lad watched his beloved Pool get turned over by the Turks, me and missus zin watched the second series of Heroes that i’d “acquired” (12 episodes ahead of the current UK showing).
All the while though, I was wondering how the real “heroes” were doing. Turns out, that for the second game in a row, the referees performance left a bit to be desired (unless you were an Ossett fan). We had a lad sent off after 3 minutes for lashing out after a coming together, rightly deserved said one commentator. The same observer said that we played really really well, but the ref was dishing out cards like a WSOP dealer. We took the lead just before half time with the ever impressive Neil Towler bagging it. Poor old Neil was to meet his fate with the grim reaper in black during the second half, when he received two bookings in a short space of time for “being busy up front.” So for a period of the second half we had 9 peeps on the field, and it was no surprise that OA equalised late on.
I sometimes wonder if the officials ever look at their decisions and reflect what it must be like for the players and fans alike to understand the rationale behind some of it. Players put huge amounts of effort into every game and fans plenty of money (thats how it all ticks along isn’t it ?) but the officials ? I do wonder sometimes, and this is not being malicious or personal to them. It isn’t the easiest of jobs or the most pleasant, they are on a hiding to nothing sometimes, but some of the officials (at this and NCEL level) could do with bringing their sense of humour onto the pitch with them, than leaving it in the dressing room before the game.
some other blogs that i found out there which talk about refs :
Prem fans’ view of refs on leftback.info
South Africa 2010 referees blog
I hate the word soccer – I will vent in the not too distant
