We are only two weeks into a new season, and
already, the mistakes are still being made by match officials. They are making
easy decisions look very hard and it is affecting the outcome of the games. I
have always believed that a good referee is rarely seen during the game and
does not bring problems on himself. A lot of the referees I have worked
alongside over the years, always told me to never go looking for trouble, as it
will always find you if you do. I am not a lover of the showman referee and
never will be, as it is a trait in a referee that I hate.
Like many other supporters I sat down to watch
all the live football over the past weekend and in fairness I really enjoyed
the games. I cast my eye all over the games to pick topics for my usual weekly
blog for the boys at Pitch Talk and I was not to be disappointed. I have picked
out two referees and two big decisions to discuss and try and unravel where I
see it was called wrong.
The two men involved in the decision making were
Craig Pawson and Mr.Showman himself Mike Dean. What you have to remember with
these two, is the fact that they’ve been around along time now and should not
be making these mistakes.
I will start off by having a look at the
ultimate showman of referees; Mike Dean, and his performance in the Stoke City
v Manchester City game. Well not so much his overall performance but one
utterly unbelievable decision he gave when awarding Stoke City a second half
penalty when Sterling was adjudged to have fouled Ryan Shawcross. Now I know
there is a directive to players this season about holding players in the
penalty box. Referees have been instructed that if this happens they are to
award a penalty and it is something that is long overdue. The pulling and
pushing has been going on now for a few seasons and it is about time it is cut
out. But on Saturday Mike Dean got it totally wrong and awarded a penalty when
in fact it should have been a free kick out. At no time in my opinion did
Sterling foul Shawcross, it was clearly the Stoke player who was the aggressor
and the referee called it totally wrong.
You can always tell from players reactions and
in this case, the reaction was utter astonishment showing on their faces. As I
said earlier, as a referee you should not going looking for trouble but on
Saturday Mike Dean brought his problems all on himself by trying to be center
stage on the penalty decision, totally bad refereeing in my opinion.
Craig Pawson is another official who has come
under the microscope before and on Sunday in the West Ham United v Bournemouth
game he had a big call, that I feel he got totally wrong. Sam Byram in my
opinion should have been sent off for two yellow cards in quick succession.
Byram was guilty of first barging his opponent to the ground and within seconds
took down another Bournemouth player, the first foul was a yellow card and so
was the second. Referee Pawson only blew on the second foul as he was trying to
play an advantage, but in my opinion he should have shown Byram two yellow
cards. If he was going to book the player for the second challenge there is no
way he could close his eyes to the first challenge. Trying to play an advantage
was ludicrous as it was always going to get him into trouble, he should have
just blown on the first foul and no one would have had anything derogatory to
say or write about. Whilst reading this you have to remember Craig is a FIFA
referee, and in my opinion this was a decision that he should have got right.
Well there we have it, only two weeks into a new
season and the bad decision making continues. It is really now imperative that
the powers to be take the referees aside and have a strong word with them as
bad decision making costs games. It is a real worry that it is guys who should
no better are making such ridiculous decisions. We may have to look for divine
intervention this season so that things are put right, but please do not hold
your breath. It is going to be a long season and I am looking forward to
enjoying every game as we roll along. What we do not need to see is bad
refereeing on a regular basis, which causes controversy. It would be great if
one weekend we are talking about great refereeing and not the total opposite.
So until I blog again for the boys at Pitch Talk
enjoy your football and let us hope next week I am not blogging about a bad
refereeing decision made against your team. Until then " Ciao "
