Standard of officiating

[Carl Sagan]

In a very uncharitable, non-Christmassy mood, I'm consistently appalled by the standard of of officiating in the Championship. Today (away at Sheffield United) Marriott was twice through on goal in the centre of the pitch and wrongly given offside. At 0-0 when that first goal makes all the difference...

Then, every single person in the ground and on the pitch, bar the referee, saw Billy Sharp touch the ball back to Carson yet he gives a backpass, and books Carson and Nugent as a result. One of many occasions when the referee lost control of the game. 

Five yellow cards, Tomori for being elbowed in the face by Sharp, Keogh for trying to get on with the game, Carson and Nugent for the backpass that wasn't and then Harry Wilson. 

Last match a stonewall penalty not given early in on against the gumps for the kick high into Lawrence's chest. 

It's clear we need VAR and quickly. But we don't half seem to have utterly dreadful officials.

[Key clubber]

I’ve thought exactly the same for last few games, but doesn’t detract from the fact we’ve been poor.  Thought ref missed a penalty today on Marriott when he was thrown to the ground second half , there guy nearly caught the ball that won us the free kick which was a clear booking . 

Thought the ref lost control a few times today , free kicks we had to wait until the Sheffield players decided to move 10 yards for free kicks, all basic stuff that refs seem to let go unpunished , obligatory kicking the ball away when fouls were given etc.

[Fraser_23]

Honestly shocking today. Worst I’ve seen in a long time. Even my mum agreed and she hates football!!!!!

[Mr Tibbs]

Didn’t Marriott play on and miss both chances? From Sky’s angles they weren’t as daylight as we’d like to make out. 

The back pass was a calamity. Not sure how they missed that. And the penalty for SU. 

Biggest thing for me is consistency. Stevens pulls back Jos to stop an attack 5 mins in = no yellow. Wilson does the exact same thing 15 mins later = yellow. That’s infuriating. 

[rammieib]

Sky angles - both offside correct.

Bookings for dissent - can't argue with that.

Did he mess the backpass up - sure. 

Did we potentially get away with one with Tomori - probably. (If you're going to claim Marriotts as a penalty you have to be consistent and say Tomori pulled back McGoldrick).

Wilson definite booking.

So to be fair, I don't think the officials got too much wrong. One big decision went for us, one went against us.

Players need to just get on with it - we wasted time which was needed to try and get goals back. Same with when we scored - quick celebration and back in place. By the time the celebration is over, the ball will be back anyway.

 

[Andicis]

Just now, rammieib said:

Sky angles - both offside correct.

Don't agree. Marriott looked onside from the Sky angles as far as I could see. 

[rammieib]

1 minute ago, Andicis said:

Don't agree. Marriott looked onside from the Sky angles as far as I could see. 

Leaning forward for me put him offside. View not perfect but I wouldn't argue against them. (We have far bigger problems lol).

As a referee in two other sports, I just find constant criticism of referees unnecessary especially from biased perspectives.

[Andicis]

1 minute ago, rammieib said:

Leaning forward for me put him offside. View not perfect but I wouldn't argue against them. (We have far bigger problems lol).

As a referee in two other sports, I just find constant criticism of referees unnecessary especially from biased perspectives.

I think it's a really tight one, but as far as I'm aware, the officials are supposed to give the attacker benefit of the doubt? The officials definitely aren't the reason we lost that game, but don't think anybody is trying to use that as an excuse. I don't think officials in England are good in general though.

[WestKentRam]

Hard not to feel hard done by and a touch paranoid after the last few games. The two clear Marriott chances today incorrectly given offside in the first half would make him play further back and influence our game and attacking threat. Sheff Utd had an attack that was offside but not flagged and led to a spell of increased pressure.

Against Bristol City it felt like if we were through and fouled then the ref blew and gave us a free kick and didn't play the clear advantage, but if in a poor attacking position he played an advantage that obviously wasn't there so the attack petered out. Each decision to play a supposed advantage or not seemed to be the wrong way round.

When matches are decided by fine margins these things do matter. No sign of VAR coming in the Championship that seems bizarre given how much we are told of the status of the league. Feels like we need to be much better than the opposition and create and put away many more clear chances as we're not going to get these decisions.

[ilkleyram]

32 minutes ago, Carl Sagan said:

In a very uncharitable, non-Christmassy mood, I'm consistently appalled by the standard of of officiating in the Championship. Today (away at Sheffield United) Marriott was twice through on goal in the centre of the pitch and wrongly given offside. At 0-0 when that first goal makes all the difference...

Then, every single person in the ground and on the pitch, bar the referee, saw Billy Sharp touch the ball back to Carson yet he gives a backpass, and books Carson and Nugent as a result. One of many occasions when the referee lost control of the game. 

Five yellow cards, Tomori for being elbowed in the face by Sharp, Keogh for trying to get on with the game, Carson and Nugent for the backpass that wasn't and then Harry Wilson. 

Last match a stonewall penalty not given early in on against the gumps for the kick high into Lawrence's chest. 

It's clear we need VAR and quickly. But we don't half seem to have utterly dreadful officials.

After any defeat, particularly when we didn't play well like today, any criticism of the ref is easy to reinterpret as making excuses for a poor performance and players' lack of self control, but the referee today lost control of the match on several occasions, made a number of important but incorrect decisions, doled out yellow cards uneccessarily and ignored blatant time wasting by Sheffield Utd and their ball boys (as they were ahead) on many occasions. His performance was poor pure and simple, no matter how hard his job may be and just another one in an increasing list which the referees' 'professional body' will probably largely ignore.

VAR will have no impact whatsoever. None of the decisions he made today would be VAR referrable under the current rules. And he was such a numpty that he probably wouldn't have referred them anyway. It is odd that at a time when we have professional referees, supposedly trained within inches of their lives, with more qualified referees in the stadium than you can shake a stick at, all able to talk to each other instantly, that the overall quality of officialdom feels to be bad and getting worse.  It is very rare these days that win, lose or draw, you walk away from a ground saying 'that ref had a good game'

[Millenniumram]

Officials are rank awful in the championship and have been for a while now... sooner we get VAR the better cause incorrect officiating calls can make huge huge differences in a high stakes league like this 

[Anon]

I'm not sure how the little porker ever passed his fitness tests. I'm not surprised he allowed the game to descend into farce on several occasions as he was probably glad to have a few minutes rest.

No excuses here. Officials weren't the reason we lost, but that doesn't mean we can't point out that they were embarrassingly bad at their jobs.

[ilkleyram]

8 minutes ago, Millenniumram said:

Officials are rank awful in the championship and have been for a while now... sooner we get VAR the better cause incorrect officiating calls can make huge huge differences in a high stakes league like this 

What will VAR really solve, Millennium? It wouldn't have stopped Jack Marriott being flagged offside - rammieib thinks he was, Andicis and WestKent think he wasn't, so there's three sensible people with two opposite views of the same incident having watched replays on TV.

VAR is only useful when dealing with matters of fact (when the ball is in/out or over the line; hits a hand or not).  It's not useful solving matters of interpretation and opinion and, unlike other sports, football doesn't often give breaks in passages of play that allow teams to benefit subsequently from a mistake by the officials proven by TV.  You only have to listen to the rabbiting of pundits to know that any incident often attracts several different opinions.

[Andicis]

3 minutes ago, ilkleyram said:

What will VAR really solve, Millennium? It wouldn't have stopped Jack Marriott being flagged offside - rammieib thinks he was, Andicis and WestKent think he wasn't, so there's three sensible people with two opposite views of the same incident having watched replays on TV.

VAR is only useful when dealing with matters of fact (when the ball is in/out or over the line; hits a hand or not).  It's not useful solving matters of interpretation and opinion and, unlike other sports, football doesn't often give breaks in passages of play that allow teams to benefit subsequently from a mistake by the officials proven by TV.  You only have to listen to the rabbiting of pundits to know that any incident often attracts several different opinions.

I agree with the first part, VAR isn't perfect and in the end, football is still a game of opinions, but not just because of this game, but I feel the Championship would greatly benefit from VAR because some decisions missed are genuinely woeful and with the aid of VAR it would help make more decisions correct, it won't be perfect, but it's a nice step in the right direction.

[Steve How Hard?]

Thought the ref got another big decision wrong too. Can't remember which Sheff Utd player but he was on a booking already and quite clearly kicked the ball away. Ref bottled it and did nothing when it should have been a second booking and an early shower. However he wasn't the sole reason we lost. 

[Woodley Ram]

6 hours ago, rammieib said:

Sky angles - both offside correct.

Bookings for dissent - can't argue with that.

Did he mess the backpass up - sure. 

Did we potentially get away with one with Tomori - probably. (If you're going to claim Marriotts as a penalty you have to be consistent and say Tomori pulled back McGoldrick).

Wilson definite booking.

So to be fair, I don't think the officials got too much wrong. One big decision went for us, one went against us.

Players need to just get on with it - we wasted time which was needed to try and get goals back. Same with when we scored - quick celebration and back in place. By the time the celebration is over, the ball will be back anyway.

 

Ref could have given the SU pen, not much contact but seen them given

both offsides were onside sky cameras showed that but don’t blame the officials as they were difficult 

Keogh was an idiot and deserved to get booked 

we lost our heads after the love in for the ball after the goal

the ref should have consulted someone about the ‘back pass’ thank god they didn’t score from it 

SU deserved their victory 

saw some good signs in the first half, the best we have played for a while. 

Lamps please play Waghorn 

get behind the team as we are going places never never give up COYRs 

[Tamworthram]

7 hours ago, Andicis said:

I think it's a really tight one, but as far as I'm aware, the officials are supposed to give the attacker benefit of the doubt? The officials definitely aren't the reason we lost that game, but don't think anybody is trying to use that as an excuse. I don't think officials in England are good in general though.

Surely benefit of doubt only applies if the officials aren't sure not just because it was very tight. I'm sure the assistant referee would agree it was tight but, in his opinion, he was just offside. 

[Jimbo Ram]

Thought the officials got most things right other than not giving them a pen and sending off Tomori and the free kick for the back pass......certainly had nothing to do with the defeat and Sheffield Utd deserving the 3 points.

[AndyinLiverpool]

I wonder if anyone knows the law relating to goalkeepers picking up the ball. It's Law 12 if you are interested. Page 103 of the current set of Laws.

[DRBee]

10 hours ago, rammieib said:

Sky angles - both offside correct.

Bookings for dissent - can't argue with that.

Did he mess the backpass up - sure. 

Did we potentially get away with one with Tomori - probably. (If you're going to claim Marriotts as a penalty you have to be consistent and say Tomori pulled back McGoldrick).

Wilson definite booking.

So to be fair, I don't think the officials got too much wrong. One big decision went for us, one went against us.

Players need to just get on with it - we wasted time which was needed to try and get goals back. Same with when we scored - quick celebration and back in place. By the time the celebration is over, the ball will be back anyway.

 

We were poor , no doubt so no excuse for loss, but 'officials didn't get too much wrong' is way off.

We could easily have conceded from the free kick awarded from the 'back pass'. Why didn't the lino see it, as it was in his half? These days linos seem to wait to see what the ref says first before showing their decision.

Keith Stroud was worse in match against Forest, again getting some big decisions wrong but also totally inconsistent throughout the match.

'Players just need to get on with it' is what a fussy school teacher might say , but if the players are bothered they will react and complain, always have and always will . No problem with them complaining about the back pass as they had clearly seen the Utd player touch the ball and knew the decision was wrong.