Players Reactions Tell a Story

Last weekend in the Barclay's premier league there were a few decisions made by referees, that if the referee's in question were to watch the players reactions then they could have got themselves out of a whole lot of trouble. In the next couple of paragraphs i'm going to cover the decisions made in the game at Stamford Bridge featuring Chelsea v West Bromwich game and also the game at the liberty stadium played between Swansea and Stoke. 

The game at Stamford Bridge was refereed by 2013 FA Cup final referee Andre Marriner and to say he made a huge error in awarding a penalty late in the game, is an understatement. Ramirez could clearly be seen going to ground before any challenge was made by the Albion player. When actual contact happened he was almost half way down to the ground. As Andre blew for the penalty the reaction from the West Brom players should have set off alarm bells in his head. My immediate reaction when I saw it was that was never a penalty. Maybe Andre should have gone to his assistant to have a briefing just to gain 100% clarification that he had made the right call. Because the reaction of the West Brom players should have told him he got it wrong. 

Meanwhile down at the Liberty Stadium in what was a super game between Swansea and Stoke we saw more controversy. As the game was entering into its last few moments and seemingly a Swansea win, referee Robert Madley gave Stoke a penalty which Stoke duly scored. The amazing thing was Mr.Madley seemed to be the only person in the ground that actually saw a foul. A hand ball by Wayne Routledge was the call by the official. Now in this instance players reactions should have given the referee an idea he had got it horribly wrong. The only player claiming anything was Peter Crouch, and he was looking for a corner. As I watched this decision on TV on Sunday night straight away I felt the referee had made a huge error. In a nutshell he was whistle happy and landed himself right in the middle of the "Brown Stuff",a place no referee ever wants to go.

To say the least those two decision left a bad stain on what was a good day of football. Referee's really do need to start using a bit f common sense and their assistance in order to make these tough calls, both penalties could have been prevented.