Come on Ref

I like to think that in the big scheme of things I will always give the referee the benefit of the doubt when it comes to the big decisions in the game. I was as you know, once the man with the whistle calling the decisions that would define the outcome of a match. But I feel this week that a couple of decisions over the weekend made by referees in the English Premier League were poor. It wasn't the fact that the referees in question made the wrong calls but in fact it was easier get them right.The two men I am talking about are

Kevin Friend and Mike Jones.The games I am looking at are Sunderland v Chelsea and Southampton v Manchester City.So if you read on below let me try and explain how they got the two big decisions in both games horribly wrong. So let us rewind back to Saturday night and the game that took place at The Stadium of Light. Nearly all the pundits were predicting a Chelsea win and in fairness I thought the same myself. It was going to take a monumental effort by The Black Cats to get anything out of the game. The one way to play against Chelsea is to get in there face and sure enough that was the tactic used.Chelsea,s player of the moment Diego Costa is a liability in this sort of game. 

I thought John O'Shea played the Spaniard brilliantly and got stuck into him and sure enough Diego snapped just before half time when O'Shea fouled him near the touch line.Costa could be clearly seen to kick out at the Irishman and I was astonished that Kevin Friend did not send him off.I have looked at it a couple of times now and the only excuse that I can allow Kevin to put forward is possibly that he did not actually see the kick. But with all the technology available now to the officials, I would have thought the assistant referee would have had a word in his ear. But no that didn't happen so Costa was allowed to stay on the pitch.

Then in the second half matters got worse for Mr.Friend when he had to deal with another incident involving the Chelsea player. He rose to challenge for a ball and was clearly seen to leave his arm out in which Wes Brown crashed into. Now I am not saying it was an elbow into the face, but in my opinion he deliberately left his arm out to cause damage and there was definitely a swinging movement. I actually thought afterwards that maybe he thought it was O'Shea coming in to challenge him and he fancied a chance to put one into O'Shea after the Sunderland,s player challenge in the first half. How Kevin Friend didn't send him off is beyond belief. The referee saw it and in fact produced a yellow card but I have no doubt it should have been red. It wasn't long after he was carded by the referee that Jose Mourinho took him off as he probably thought he wouldn't last the ninety minutes. One astonishing follow on from this was the pundits on Match Of The Day on Saturday evening when the three stooges Lineker,Murphy and Ince thought he was unlucky to be shown yellow.What a joke,these guys have not got a clue, to make matters worse the kids who tune into watch them, listen to there every word and now see it the norm for a player to throw out an arm to cause harm to his opponent. Funnily enough all the other football programmes over the weekend did agree with my views and hey also thought he should have been sent off.Maybe the BBC panel need to read up on

Now let me just briefly touch on the incident in the Southampton v Manchester City game were referee Mike Jones booked Aguero for diving to win a penalty. How Mike came to that conclusion I just do not know. It was a stone wall penalty without a doubt in my opinion and it was harder not to give it. No sooner had he shown the City forward the card that I got about 25 texts quizzing his decision.I genuinely have no answer as to how the referee got it so wrong. What we have to be aware of here is that all players don't go down in the box to win penalties.Sometimes in fact they are fouled and when this happens the referee has to have the balls to blow his whistle and point to the spot.I will be very interested to see if either of the two referees get a game next weekend. I feel they should be rested and hopefully when they return they will be the better for it.Until next time I hope you enjoy your football and the referees do not upset you to much cheers!

On that note i'd just like to say thanks for reading and feel free to share any of your comments! If you'd like to speak with me further you can catch me on Twitter: @meiercy

Handball Ref

Another weekend has passed and more refereeing controversies have arisen. This week the big talking points have been all about hand ball in the two big televised live matches on Saturday at Anfield and Loftus Road. I watched both games as I knew there would be entertainment and plenty to talk about afterwards. Little did I know there would be three hand balls that could have had a huge bearing on the outcome of where the Premier League title will go this season.

 Let me take you back to Anfield first and discuss not one but two hand balls. Yes I can't believe it myself, I am blogging about two hand balls by Chelsea’s Gary Cahill. On both occasions referee Anthony Taylor waved away the Liverpool appeals for penalties which I thought were awful calls by the official. Cahill was clearly seen to move his body towards the ball in both incidents and they were the easiest of penalties in my opinion to give. This sort of decision is fact based and the fact was he handled the ball. It is not like a referee getting a red card decision wrong due to wrong interpretation of the law, these handballs were clear to see by everybody. Player’s reaction can also give the referee a clue and on the first one, Cahill was seen clearly on TV to hold his head as if he knew he could be in trouble. Funnily enough I thought the second penalty claim by Liverpool was even easier to give as it was a clearer cut movement of the arm towards the ball. In front of a packed screaming Kop I was astonished to see the referee wave away Steven Gerard’s appeal. As we all know the easiest thing would have been to blow for the penalty in front of the passionate Liverpool fans who sit in the famous Kop. I will be interested to see if Mr Taylor gets a game the next time we have Premiership football but as they say in the high places of power "Watch this Space ".

 Before I discuss the hand ball in the game at Loftus Road can I just say Mike Dean got the Joe Hart incident completely correct? The kick had not been taken legally so therefore the free kick was to be retaken. Anywhere else on the pitch and QPR would have been awarded a free kick. The reason behind City getting to take the kick again was because the ball had not come out of the box legally due to Joe’s double touch. The speed in which he made his mind up to have the kick retaken was impressive, the sign of a man focused and tuned in. Having said that all his good work was dramatically undone when Sergio Aguero handled the ball before he scored his first goal. There is no doubt in my mind it was hand ball and the reason Mike missed it was due to bad positioning and absolutely no help from his assistant. In fact if Mike was unable to get wide enough to see the handball his assistant should have given him a shout in his ear.

 What is more worrying about the incidents that I have discussed this week is the fact these referees are not rookies. These guys are around quite a while now and should be getting these decisions correct. In particular the hand balls at Anfield were the more disappointing as the outcome of that game could have been all so different if in my opinion the referee had awarded penalties for two of the easiest claims I have seen in a long time. Next week is an international break and if you get a chance have a look at the refereeing performances of the guys who come in from around different parts of Europe to take charge of the home nations. Take note of how less fussy they are and give decisions without been surrounded by players. Anyway until next time, keep well and enjoy your football.

On that note i'd just like to say thanks for reading and feel free to share any of your comments! If you'd like to speak with me further you can catch me on Twitter: @meiercy

Loads of Fun

We are only ten games into a new season and the fun is well and truly underway for the men in the middle with the whistle. There have been quite a few decisions that have been discussed in pubs the length and breadth of the UK and Ireland not to mention the rest of the world. One such discussion has been focused around players holding their opponents at the taking of corners during the game. I would like to explain why Phil Dowd in the Manchester United v Chelsea game was correct not to award a penalty for Chelsea after the so called foul on Ivanovic.

When corners are been taken players will always jostle for position and before the ball is played into the box a lot of pushing and shoving can go on. There is actually nothing wrong with this as I have always felt it was part and parcel of the game. What I have noticed though in recent times is attackers are just running straight into their markers and this in turn is leading to all sorts of holding/Pushing/Shoving etc. Let us remember it is not an offence to stand your ground and your natural reaction as a defender is to hold your ground. If you can get your hand on a recording of the United match I would ask you to have a look at the particular incident again and don't look at Ivanovic but focus your eyes on John Terry. As the corner comes in JT runs at Chris Smalling and both are holding but in my opinion Terry was the aggressor and a free kick should have been given to United. If this had happened we would not have been talking about an incident involving the Chelsea defender Ivanovic. The point I am trying to make is the fact at what players are up to now to try and win penalties. I spoke recently with a referee in the UK and he informed me that at a pre season meeting with managers and referees that the managers had no issues with players holding in the penalty areas. The view was that it seemed to be part and parcel of the game. If the truth be known it was probably that on the  law of averages they would get a penalty sooner or later.

One other item that caught my eye was the treatment of in my opinion the best referee in the UK at present. Mark Clattenburg is top class and controls a game so well. He goes about his business on a football field with very little fuss and very rarely has a bad game. I was utterly astonished to hear recently that Mark had been dropped from the panel of referees for a weekend after he went to an Ed Sheeran concert and was involved in speaking to Neil Warnock on the phone. Mark can have no excuse after his dash to the Sheeran concert. Really he should have sorted out travel arrangements to that gig long before his match in which he got caught up in the controversy. I am sure he will have learned a lesson on that issue. The Warnock phone call to me is more of a worry though. As a referee you should never be getting phone calls from managers, it is a really really dangerous road to go down. I would love to know how Warnock got a hold of a private phone number for Mark. That would be a question I certainly would ask. Mark missed out on a couple of big games due to those blunders and they were not even related to things that happened on the park. I hope he has learned his lesson and the next time I write about him it's on him having a great performance once again in a game. Mind you I will be watching to see when he gets a game involving Crystal Palace again. Watch this space. 

On that note i'd just like to say thanks for reading and feel free to share any of your comments! If you'd like to speak with me further you can catch me on Twitter: @meiercy

Super Sunday You’re Having a Laugh

Like most football fans I normally sit down on a Sunday to watch all things premiership live on TV. We all know that the station push it as Super Sunday, well most weeks it really is poor and we have to watch boring games, not this weekend it has been excellent and to top it all off plenty of controversial decisions. I would like to have a look below at the performances of two referees, Mark Clattenburg and Mike Dean. Mark was in charge at Leicester and Mike took charge of the big game of the weekend between City and Chelsea. Both men left a few questions to be asked about their performances on the day.

Let me have a look at the Leicester v Man United game first. It is amazing how sometimes a refereeing decision can turn a game or cost teams points. Let us be honest, at three one up, United had the game in the bag. They were cruising and all things were happy in Louis Van Gaal,s world. So when referee Mark Clattenburg gave the home side a penalty it was to be the start of a collapse that would cost United dearly. In my opinion it was never a penalty in fact it should have been a free kick from outside the box as I in my opinion Vardy uphended Rafael in the first place to get control under control. But ok, fair enough Mark missed it the phase of play moved on into the penalty area where he blew for what only can be described as a very, very soft penalty. The Leicester player clearly made a move towards Rafael to get himself a penalty and Mark bought it. Awful decision and I am not alone in saying that. It let Leicester back into a game in which they had no right to be still involved in if Manchester United had taken their chances and the referee had been on his game.

So with one game over and a cup of tea made I sat to watch the so called biggie of the weekend at the Ethiad stadium. These games between the top sides decide the destination of the title even at this early stage of the season. A referee who gets these games has to be strong and exude authority. Mike Dean normally would fall into this category in my opinion but on Sunday he was awful. He strangled the game to death and had far too many yellow cards in the first half. Having dished out so many cards in the first half for silly free kicks he was on a hiding to nothing in the second half and was always going to have a reveal the red at some point. I actually don't think there was one bad tackle in the game and in my opinion I thought Mike was afraid to let the game loose or  develop, I repeat he strangled it to death. Zabaletta,s second yellow was correct but his first booking was questionable. I thought Mike,s performance was poor and it ruined what could have been a super game.

It will be interesting to see if both of these guys get a Premier league game this coming weekend. If they do I hope they learn from their mistakes and improve as for I one do not want to be writing about refereeing decisions deciding games every weekend, but if it is to happen I will be all over it. Until the next time enjoy your football guys.  

Seasons Preview From The Ref

This weekend kicks off The Football League and The Premiership won't be to far behind it. What spills and thrills can we expect I wonder, who will win what ? Most of all, what refereeing controversies can we expect because without a doubt, over a long season their will be plenty of them. So before all the mayhem kicks off, let us take a few moments to have a look at the runners and riders for this 2014/15 season.

I can't see to much change at the top of the Premier League and the usual suspects will be lining up for the title and the top four positions. It will be a very interesting season for both Liverpool and Chelsea. 

Both clubs have invested a lot of money in their squads and will want to be up there challenging for the top prize.Jose Mourinho has had two trophy less seasons now. In his last season with Real Madrid he won nothing and then to carry that into his first season back at the Bridge was probably a huge surprise to the so called special one. If results go wrong for Jose I wouldn't think it will be to long before Roman gives him his P45 again. A lot of the time last season some people were saying that the only reason Liverpool were playing so well was due to the fact that they were not playing in Europe.Well with Liverpool in the Champions League this season, it will show us how good last seasons campaign was.Brendan Rodgers has bought well but I feel they will fall short once again.

The signing of the summer has been off the park.In fact not so much off the park but in a managers office. Louis Van Gaal's appointment at Old Trafford has been a great bit of business by the club.David Moyes never got time and the appointment of Van Gaal will certainly see a turn around in United,s fortunes. This guy takes no messing and will route out any problem makers at Old Trafford and ditch them.I am really looking forward to seeing his first testing press conference. I have been sounding out friends in the Netherlands and they have been telling me that when this guys temper goes he makes Fergie look like a pussycat. As I put this article together Van Gaal has not really dug into the transfer market as he was waiting for the tournament in America to finish. He has looked at his squad now and I expect the cheque book to be out soon.One other thing that United have going for them this season is the fact they don't play in Europe. If Van Gaal can get his team playing well and picking up points, they too could have a season like Liverpool had last season.

This season I feel could be a good one for the men from North London. When Arsenal won last seasons FA Cup it really did lift a huge burden from Arsene Wenger's shoulders. They are spending money and the capture of Sanchez from Barcelona should give them the spark that has been missing since Van Persie headed north. At the moment their is a lot of talk linking Khedira to the Gunners and maybe this could be Wenger's last piece in his final jigsaw. The manager got a lot of stick from the fans last season and came out victorious in the end. I for one would love to see him succeed and if he brings back the glory days to the Emirates he will have done a brilliant job.

So all in all let us hope it is a cracking season and one to remember for a long long time.Let the games begin.

Great World Cup

Now that we are down to the last eight of this years World Cup Finals, let me try and reflect on what has gone on so far. It has been an amazing tournament and has had all the spills and thrills that were so lacking in South Africa 2010. I could type all night and not do the tournament justice, so I am just going to focus in on two areas of this brilliant tournament.

Firstly I will bring my opinions on the refereeing,then I must reflect on how England got on, as these two subjects are in my opinion huge.

The refereeing in this tournament has been a breath of fresh air for me. It is as if the referees have been instructed to let the games flow and keep yellow cards to a minimum, unless really necessary. Best refereeing performance for me was Howard Webb in the Brazil v Mexico game. I thought Howard was superb on the night. He let a few challenges go,early in the game and it seemed to work for him. It was a game were he could have been crucified. The host nation need to go far and if he was to have made an error which would have put them out, there would have been murder. The best decision of the game was the handball call on Hulk. To disallow the goal for hand ball was refereeing out of the top drawer and in my opinion has elevated Howard now to possibly the best referee in Europe. It was a performance that could possibly have got him the final,but as we know he was the man in the middle for the 2010 final.

There was one other stand out refereeing performance for me and it came from an unfamiliar referee to me. The referee in charge for the Chile v Holland game was a guy called Bakary Gassama from Gambia. Now I know very little about Gambian football and when I saw this appointment I worried for the guy. But he was superb,he controlled the game excellently and was not fooled by an awful lot of gamesmanship by both sides,so hats off to that man as well.

I will now try and make sense of what I can only call an abysmal performance at these finals by England. The build up to the finals was low key for a side who seemed to go into the finals expecting not to be going anywhere fast. Roy Hodgson decided to pick a young squad to bring with him to Rio,but it did not work. I thought his tactics were awful and can't believe the press have not hammered into him, since the team has returned home. Against Italy his tactics let Pirlo run the show and if he had put someone to sit on the Italian playmaker things could have been oh so different.

Against Uruguay he allowed his players to stay so far off Suarez,that I thought the Uruguay player had an exclusion zone placed around him. As we all know that Luis had a knee operation before the finals and if I had have been boss, I would have employed tactics to test out the knee instead of looking at the little man scoring the two goals to virtually knock the one time World Cup Winners out. The most bizarre decision he made throughout the whole tournament was when he took on Costa Rica. Gerrard and Lampard cannot play together we have been hearing for years, yet Hodgson had the two of them on the park in the final game. Most managers of the big nations who failed in this tournament,resigned after their sides exit but not Roy he is going on. He failed at Euro 12 and now has a double up, by failing at World Cup 2014.

So as I said earlier I am amazed that the press have not gone after him, but maybe they to are fed up with England under performing on the big stage and can't be arsed to write about it.

A Season in Review

Now as the dust settles on what was possibly the best ever Barclays Premier League campaign. Let us try and have a look back over the past nine months and see where trophies landed and who got them. The Premier league was brilliant, like a horse race going down to the line. In my opinion Manchester City were deserved winners and have so much to offer next season. When it came to the crunch of the run in they held there nerve and moved away from second place Liverpool. If we are to be totally honest the Liverpool train could just not get the job done. A superb run from Christmas to the last week of the league, has to be commended, but they just could not see it over the line. Chelsea put the spanner in the works by defeating the Reds at Anfield and the Liverpool balloon went down completely with that three all draw at Crystal Palace. I for the life of me can not understand why they did not just shut up shop when three up and get the job done. Those extra points would have kept the pressure on City for their last couple of games. It probably was the fact that it has been years since Liverpool had any chance of winning the top league and as they say inexperience can cause issues. I have to praise a Dublin lad who was tipping Liverpool since Christmas to go on and win it, but unfortunately Billy and Liverpool fell just short. Having won the league in 2012, when it came to the final hurdle, Manchester City had that winning mentality and managed to see it over the line. It has to be said that manager Manuel Pellegrini was superb throughout the whole season and did not get involved in any of the nonsense a certain manager in London was trying to draw him into. We must not forget that this was Pellegrini’s first campaign in English football and to take away the League and League Cup was a brilliant achievement. In my opinion City are building something quite extraordinary at the moment and more trophies will follow

over the next few seasons.

As you all know, there is a third team on every pitch and that team is my one, the officials. It has been quite a good season for the referees no matter what the TV panels have been saying. Ok there have been a few incidents but over all the games in all the leagues, officials have done well. The one outstanding incident we all will remember is the handball by Oxlade Chamberlain in the Arsenal game against Chelsea at the Bridge. How Andre Marriner thought that it was Kieran Gibbs who handled the ball is still a mystery. I said at the time that I felt the fourth official might have given him a shout on the headset as he was in direct line with the incident.I actually don't think Andre saw the handball and that is where it started to go wrong.Sure we will never know but as I said earlier it has been a good season for the referees. If I may just pick out my referee of the year it has to be Mark Clattenburg. This season Mark has been brilliant and I don't think he has put a foot wrong. He has been refereeing with a smile and it has worked for him.All the hard work Mark put in, culminated in a superb performance in the Europa League semi final second leg between Juventus and Benfica. For that ninety minutes he got everything right, no question. It is disappointing for Mark that he won't be going to the World Cup Finals after such a season but Howard Webb is the chosen one. But I am sure his time will come and the European Championships in 2016 will be his stage.

Before I finish, let us not forget that the greatest show on earth starts next month and I for one can't wait. It will be round the clock football for everyone who loves the beautiful game and excitement will be massive. I have been getting questions from all over the networks as to who I think can win it ,but I am waiting to see we're my old Dublin pal Billy is laying his ten euro before I decide, because as I said earlier his Liverpool shout was an excellent one, so stand by your beds as we wait for Billy’s choice. Oh yes and in case you’re missing it already the English Premier League season for 2014/15 season kicks off again on the 16th of August, not to long to wait now.

Throw the Book at Them

I sat down last weekend to watch the Chelsea v Sunderland game on live TV over here in Dublin. Before the game all the odds were on a home win and another three points in the race for the title for the Chelsea. Unbeaten at home in the premier league under Mourinho, surely they had enough to beat Sunderland. How wrong can you be and I wonder how many people had taken a bet on the Mackems getting anything at the Bridge. What was to unfold has had so much fall out this week I just had to get my fingers tapping and try and put a calm perspective on the whole thing. Let me take you through the main talking points below.

As I see it there was four real talking points in the game. Firstly I do feel that Adam Johnson was a lucky boy not to be sent off by referee Mike Dean for a challenge on a Chelsea player in the first half. It was high and reckless and verging on dangerous,Dean yellow carded him but with all the criteria laid out for a red card I felt he should have received one. Then we have the incident of Ramires lashing out with an elbow into Larsson's face. I do not see how Mike Dean did not see it,but he didn't and these things happen. More to the point is the fact that Ramires has only returned from a ban after been sent off for an horrific challenge on an Aston Villa player quite recently. This guy is becoming a liability to his team with such rash behaviour. Then we have the penalty incident,now I can buy into people saying some penalties are harsh but the one Mike Dean awarded to Sunderland last weekend was 100% correct and in my opinion was a penalty every day of the week,I really can't see what the Chelsea complaints were all about. Maybe it's the fact that they had known they had blown the title and in a game they would have expected to win. So that,s all the on field issues sorted. Let me take you to the technical area and the meltdown of Mourinho's assistant manager Faria. He was so out of order it's incredible. He had to be forcefully removed from the area, and in my opinion if he had not been things could have got a hell of a lot worse. How can players behave on the pitch when you see that sort of carry on from the management team, he ought to be ashamed of himself.

So Sunderland had pulled off a wonderful result to give them a real chance of premiership survival and just as I was settling down after all the madness,I get word from a contact at Chelsea that Mourinho has had an amazing after match interview with the BBC. In it he applauded Mike Dean for his performance and he applauded referee chief Mike Reilly for his performance this season, sarcastic to the core again Jose. Well he has gone to far this time and in my opinion he is fast becoming a pain in the backside,in fact sometimes he talks out of it. I was delighted to see the FA hit Ramires, Faria and Mourinho with charges this week and I for one hope they throw the book at them. I also think the club should have been hit with a charge as well,because these guys need to be reigned in and told to control themselves. It is bad for football to see this thuggery and this is not a once off,there at it all the time. So let us see what punishment is handed out and then we will see if the FA have the balls to take on the big boys.

The Glazers Bottled It

This time last year Manchester United were crowned Premier League champions once again. The difference with this winning campaign to all the rest was that it was to be Sir Alex Ferguson,s last, as in a shock announcement,one of the greatest managers ever in the English game had decided to call time on a glittering career and decided to step down. Family reasons were given by Fergie as his reason to step down as he wanted to spend more time with his beloved wife Cathy after the death of her sister. Also

leaving the Manchester United boardroom was chief executive David Gill. David was off to take up a big job in Europe. How could such a big club manage with two retirements at such a level in the club and where would the future of the this club end up. Step forward David Moyes to the managers job and Ed Woodward into the boardroom. The appointment of Moyes was the perfect step forward for United and at the time most fans and media did agree. In fact I don't seem to remember many dissenting voices to his appointment. Moyes was heralded into Old Trafford by a rousing speech by Fergie on his last home game,he left the fans in no doubt that they were to back the new manager and give him all the support he needed to succeed. What was to follow over the coming months was a story of no board support for Moyes and eventually ending up with him losing his job at Old Trafford last Tuesday.

As the season kicked off United claimed another prize by bagging the Charity Shield and David's first trophy. But all was not well behind the scenes. Moyes had targeted a few players to bolster his squad and as the transfer window slowly closed he was let down on a few targets eventually only bringing in Fellani from his old club Everton. New chief executive Ed Woodward had failed at his first big test. In my opinion the team Fergie left behind needed a few players to replace the old guard. Two centre halves, a ball winner in midfield, a left back, and another striker were the simple requirements. On his first step into this huge job, Moyes was now heading for trouble. Home defeats became more frequent and we all know the basis off any title challenge has to be good home form. It was obvious from October onwards that United would not be challenging for the title this season and in fact top four could be looking dodgy as well. In my opinion the signing of Mata in the January window was a last throw of the dice and a risky one at that. Having a player of Mata's quality and not been able to play him in every game did not help Moyes' cause. On top of all that, Fellani had not settled well after his huge move to such a big club and his performances had been awful.

Earlier this season I wrote an article saying the Glazers should give the new manager time and let him build his own team from top to bottom. On reflection if David did anything wrong the one thing I will say is, he possibly should have kept Mike Phelan and work with him to keep the winning continuity in the dressing room. Alas it is always great to see things in hindsight,but one thing I did not see was professional players throwing in the towel and just giving up. Last weekends performance by the players at Goodison Park was despicable and they finally shoved the knife into the managers back and twisted it. It has become a way in the game over the past few years, that players just down tools and give up. It happened at Chelsea twice with AVB and big Phil Scolari and if that is the way football is going well I think the fans should think twice before adoring these overpaid ego maniacs.

I for one was saddened to hear all the rumors going around last Monday that Moyes was to be sacked. For such a great club to be leaking such information to the media is below contempt and as it stands this morning, there reputation is in the gutter. There is no doubt in my mind David will come back from this a much stronger manager and for those of you who are old enough to remember, the Leeds United team of the seventies once shafted Brian Clough and he went on to win championships and two European Cups. So as the dust starts to settle at Old Trafford I wish the club all the best for the future but my main thoughts are for David Moyes and his family. I have no doubt he will be back in management in the not to distant future and I for one hope he is successful, after all David Moyes is one of the nice guys of football and on top of all that a gentleman.

Tighten it up Ref

Last week I blogged about my views on who I thought could win this seasons Barclays Premier League. I also stated, that I hoped a bad refereeing decision would not decide this years champions. So I must admit I was left fuming last weekend with the performance of Anthony Taylor; followed up by the performance by Mark Clattenburg who just  put the cherry on the cake. It is quite ironic that the decisions have fallen in favour for Liverpool and that now makes the men from Anfield championship favourites. It is just not acceptable that when it has come down to the last few games,referees decisions have been called wrong. Let me below talk about the decisions that I have seen, that have changed the destiny of the Barclays Premier League this season.

Firstly let me take you back to last Sunday week and the game between West Ham and Liverpool at Upton Park. It was a pretty normal game for a referee of the top standard to handle until Anthony shot himself in the foot by allowing a Demel goal to stand, when you could clearly see that Andy Carroll had fouled the keeper on the cross. Not just a push,but a clear slap at the keepers head. Now the referee missed it,but to then make a complete and utter mess of the whole thing he failed to listen to advice given to him by his assistant, who was trying to help the referee sort out the mess. In fact what it showed to me was that the referee did not trust his assistant,and this is why he failed to accept the advice given. Then to really make matters worse, he gives a dodgy penalty to Liverpool, in my opinion it was never a penalty and the goalkeeper clearly played the ball. So Mr.Taylor had an awful day and he got all the big decisions wrong. A referee should always get the big decisions right and this defines his game.So no gold medal for Anthony on his game, in fact I thought he was very poor.

Fast forward to one week later and the big one at Anfield between Liverpool and Manchester City. For the best games you need the best referees, and it was given to Mark Clattenburg. Personally I think it was to soon after his performance in the Manchester United and Liverpool game to have him take charge of this one. My feelings were proved correct as not only did Mark make one big game changing mistake,he in fact made three blunders which in fact had a direct bearing on the result of the game. The first mistake he made was not sending off Suarez for a clear dive in the second half. The Liverpool player had been booked early in the game and his dive should have warranted a second yellow. It would have been so easy but I feel Mark bottled it. The second mistake was he did not award Man.City a penalty when Dzeko was taken down by Sakho if this had happened outside of the penalty area I have no doubt a free kick would have been awarded.Then right at the very end both Mark and his assistant missed a clear hand ball by Liverpool defender Skirtel. There is no question it was a hand ball and it should have been a penalty. But I suppose if you were to give a penalty in front of the Kop so late in the game with the home team leading, you would need balls of steel,unfortunately Mark obviously had not. Overall I am very disappointed with the two referees, as I would prefer not to be discussing poor decisions but ones that are of the excellent variety. Until next week enjoy your football and hopefully your team wins,without a bad decision by the man in the middle.

The heat is on!

Last weekend there was not an awful lot of controversy around the game for me to report on, so if I may as be so bold this week, as to try and predict where the Barclays Premier League title is going. It is as if the runners are coming around the bend and entering the home straight. In my opinion their are only three runners left now that can win it. Liverpool, Chelsea and Manchester City, all the rest have slipped away and are going out the back door as the other three stretch away. So let me try and unfold the run in, below.

Both Liverpool and Chelsea have to play six games and City have eight left.City and Chelsea have to go to Anfield and this is where I think the Liverpool machine may falter. They are going along at such a rate of knots at the moment it will be a shock to them if they don't take all the points from those two games. A good friend of mine from Galway city Gerry McDermott has been saying Liverpool will win the league since January, but I feel in the end, the pressure will just be too much.When it comes down to the business end of a season it tends to be the teams that have been through it all before that end up champions. In my opinion it will be City,s title.They have two games left on Merseyside at Anfield and Goodison and if they bag the points in those two games well then Vincent Kompany will lift the trophy.When Chelsea visit Anfield, my old mate Jose Mourinho will have his team set up in such a way that Chelsea won't lose.One other fixture on the horizon that my friend Gerry should also be worried about is Liverpool's trip to Selhurst Park.Tony Pulis in my opinion should be manager of the year for the job he has done at Palace. So all in all that is three tough games for Liverpool on the run in.It is quite amazing that City also have to play Palace and the Eagles will have a big say in the race for the championship.

No matter what way the cookies fall it has been a great season with plenty of excitement and debate.That to me is what the beautiful game should be all about. It has been a great season for debate on social networks every weekend,some discussions even got heated between friends.With us now into the final run in, I am sure the debates will go on and on.But when all is said and done and the final whistle blows at the end of the season, in my opinion Manchester City will get the gold medal. The Premier League is looking good and let us just hope next season gets even better and we could be looking at a six horse race for the title. I really really do hope so,So over the next few weeks enjoy the games and hopefully whoever wins they will do it without and refereeing controversy.Can I just finish off by praising Gerry for his prediction and if the Pool do win the league, can you send me next weeks winning lotto numbers Ger. Until next week enjoy your football and stay safe.

A Refereeing Nightmare

I like most football fans sat down to watch the English Premier league match of the weekend, Saturday lunch time saw Chelsea play host’s to London rivals Arsenal and this game had all the ingredients for a superb afternoon of football. It was Arsene Wenger’s 1000th game as Arsenal Manager and his side needed to win to keep the pressure on their rivals who are at the top of the table. The man in charge of the teams was referee Andre Mariner. Little we're we all to know at kick off what was to unfold over the next ninety minutes. A refereeing decision that I have never seen and hope never to see again, threw the whole game into turmoil after fifteen minutes. Let me below try and shed some light on the whole situation and maybe suggest a way forward so as to never have to witness a refereeing blunder of this magnitude again.

When Alex Oxlade Chamberlain handled the ball, in my opinion the referee did not actually see it. I feel someone whispered in his ear to let him know. I am thinking it was the fourth official or the assistant referee on the dug outs side, as both of them would have been looking in from an angle that would have had the best view. A lot of people said that the Arsenal player did not stop an obvious goal scoring opportunity and therefore should not have received a red card. Well that argument is total nonsense as Chamberlain did not know where he was standing, and with his dive, he was obviously trying to stop a goal been scored. In my opinion the officials got the penalty 100% correct and yes also the red card. What happened next was just mental. How Andre could single out Gibbs and send him off, beggars belief. When Andre sent off Gibbs, it enforced in my mind that the referee was been prompted by a second party as to what to do, and the second party got it totally wrong.

So where do we go from here to make sure it never happens again. Well in my opinion it is time for the premier league to introduce officials behind the goal. This would have been a perfect solution on Saturday as the guy behind the goal would have been nearest to the incident and I am sure he would have given the referee the correct information to send off the right player. I do not want to see TV technology introduced as this could be a disaster further down the road. I actually heard Henry Winter on radio today at lunchtime saying it was time to embrace technology, but this road is not one I would like to go down. I also heard this evening that Andre Mariner will be refereeing this week in the premier league, which strengthens my case that it was not him that made the error in sending off Gibbs but the official who was in his ear. All in all it was a disaster and no referee should ever have to go through that again. I really do feel from the start of next season the extra officials should be used. It would save an awful lot of heartache for players, managers and especially referees. Until next week enjoy your football.  

Players are out of Order

Last weekend there was a lot of controversy around the country in the beautiful game. So many talking points I was thinking about doing an incident of the week, like they do for goal of the week. But if I was to write about every incident that I witnessed last weekend I would still be writing this blog on Christmas Eve. So what I have decided to do is pick two and concentrate my opinions on those two.The decisions I want to talk to you about are two of the worse things I have seen on a football pitch in many a long day. George Boyd and Chelsea's Ramires get my undivided attention for the next few hundred words.

First up is the issue that occurred during the Hull City v Man.City game. It all stems around a dive by Hull City player George Boyd in the penalty area. As the ball was played through and Joe Hart came out to block any scoring chance by Boyd, the Hull player anticipated a tackle from Hart which did not come and he was made look a fool by taking a dive. All hell was to break loose and Hart and Boyd squared up to each other, the England goalkeeper was fuming that Boyd had tried to con, yes con the referee into giving a penalty. What was to happen next, was unbelievable. Boyd was seen clearly aim a spit at Joe Hart. This in my opinion is a disgusting low life thing to do in any walk of life never mind a football field.Joe Hart showed great strength not to retaliate, as if that was to happen on any street up and down the country, Boyd in my opinion would have been chinned. I do hope the FA throw the book at him and give him a lengthy ban. There is no place in our beautiful game for scumbag behavior like that on a football field.

Let me now move on to Villa Park and talk about the horrific tackle by Ramires on El Ahmadi. Oh sorry before I start can I just congratulate Villa on a tremendous win on Saturday evening.Villa Park was rocking. The controversy that followed the Ramires tackle took centre stage and Villa's great victory was lost in the fall out. Let me just say that the Chelsea players tackle was the worst seen on a football field in England for a long long time.How the Villa player did not suffer a leg break is a miracle. Luckily enough he will be ok and will return to the field soon. Now this is where my blood pressure rocketed after the game, Jose Mourinho got himself centre stage once again by entering the field of play to talk to Chris Foy. In fact what the self promotional Mourinho was up to was deflect the attention away from an horrific tackle and bring all the attention on himself. There are times I wonder was Mourinho a spoilt child as he was growing up because he always loves to bring the attention on to himself. He called himself the special one once but I didn't buy it then and I don't buy it now. He nor Chelsea have apologized for the incident, instead they are pointing the finger at referee Chris Foy. In my opinion the FA should ban Ramires for at least four games and ban Mourinho and also hit him with a huge fine. This Mourinho guy needs to be reeled in and thought a lesson but I just wonder have the FA got the balls to do it. Until next week, enjoy your football and stay safe.

Fair Play for the Underdog

When the draw is made for a cup match and the lower league teams draw a big fish, the excitement level that engulfs the underdog and its town becomes fever pitch. They partake in these games with the hope of causing a big cup shock and hitting the headlines all around the world. It brings huge interest in their club and town. I for one, love a cup upset and all the excitement it brings. Just a few things need to be in place on the day and anything can happen. What is required by the underdog is for them to turn up and give 110% and maybe just catch the favourites on a bad day. One other ingredient is, the big decisions in the game on the day need to go in favour of the lesser side.

Last Sunday I just happened to tune into Glasgow Rangers v Albion Rovers in the Scottish Cup. I have to admit it was not a game I planned to watch, but when Rovers took a shock lead after thirteen minutes from a Ciaran Donnelly shot, I have to admit I decided to stick with it. The ingredients were in the pot & a major cup shock was on the cards. Ally McCoist was surely rattled and tried everything tactically to turn it around. Rovers defended so well for the rest of the game as they truly believed they were going to cause a huge shock. Then with thirteen minutes left, a speculative long high ball in to the Albion box caused me to jump from my seat in disgust at what I had witnessed. Bilel Mohani challenged the Albion Rovers goalkeeper for a high ball and totally bundled the keeper over the line. Surely a foul I thought and looked to the referee for a free kick. Unbelievably referee John Beaton pointed to the half way line for a goal. It was an awful decision by the official. The goalkeeper had been clearly fouled and the referee got it totally wrong. Now I know keepers over the past few years have been over protected by referees but this decision was incredible. I was glad in the end that Rovers kept their heads and held out for a draw because they could have reacted to the referee’s howler and lost concentration. 

So in the big scheme of things it was a great result for the underdog. They will get to play the Ibrox outfit again and as I said earlier it takes everything to fall into place for the minnow to progress in these big competitions. But most of all it requires the referees to get the big decisions correct on the day. John Beaton got it horribly wrong on Sunday and in the end took that glorious moment of triumph from a Rovers side, who in my opinion deserved to win. They took the early lead and defended tremendously up until the point when Rangers equalised.

How many times over the years have we seen the underdog score early and then hang on, when doing more than is required for all the bits to fall into place in a cup shock?

Never a Hand Ball

The big talking point over the past weekend in the football world was all about the Alan Pardew head butt in the game between Hull City and Newcastle United. Now I will say I thought I had seen everything in football but this was just fall off the chair stuff. Incredible scenes and when the FA deal with it I hope a long ban is on its way to Mr Pardew, because issues like this should not get anywhere near a football pitch. In fact it is like talking about chucking out time at the local boozer on a Saturday night. In a lot of those cases,the judges hand down huge fines and even sometimes lead to prison sentences. So well done Alan for dragging the beautiful game through the mud over the past few days.

Whilst all the nonsense was going on at Hull, one huge decision that could have a direct effect on who is going to win this years premier league was unfolding. As we all know Arsenal always seem to struggle when they visit the Brittania stadium and this game was no different. Whatever the reason the Gunners always seem to struggle playing against an up and at them team like Stoke. But when referee Mike Jones gave a penalty for the home side I could not believe my eyes. He gave the penalty for hand ball and I have to say it was one of the worst decisions I have seen in a long time. The reason I am saying this is that to give a decision either inside or outside the box for hand ball,the player must handle the ball deliberately and in my opinion the Arsenal player did not deliberately handle the ball in fact he was falling backwards when contact was made with the ball on a high bounce. Absolutely awful decision by the official cost Arsenal the points and in turn could have cost them a real shout for this years premier league.

Another incident in this game also saw Charlie Adam stamp on Giroud, the Stoke player should have seen red for this challenge as I feel Adam knew exactly what he was doing. So all in all it was a bad day for Arsenal but and even worse day for referee Mike Jones. Now as you all know I will defend a referee all day long if he gets most things right,but when it comes to big decisions which may cost teams matches and possible championships I have to say my piece.

The incident at Hull overshadowed what happened at Stoke. I feel the FA must take action over the Charlie Adam stamp and I also feel Mr Jones should have next weekend off for his awful display in that match. It is the only way we can get referees up to the highest standard possible and if they do wrong on big game changing calls they should have a week off to understand where they went wrong,so,as it hopefully will not happen again. Until the next time keep enjoying the games.

Dam It's the FA Cup

In 1976, a wee little Southampton player called Bobby Stokes was played through by a Jim McCalliog pass that split the Manchester United defence and Stokes shot past Alex Stepney to win the FA Cup for the Saints.

Bobby Stokes - Fa Cup Finalist & Winner 1976

Fans all over the country jumped out of there seats to celebrate a shock win for the team led by Lawrie McMenemy. It truly was a memorable day whether you supported the Saints or not. Celebrations went on for days in the seaside town with fans and players involved. Bobby is no longer with us having passed from this earth at a very young age of 44 in 1995.

Over the weekend just gone, I sat down to watch the 5th round of this great competition and to say I was disappointed would be an understatement. In fact I reckon little Bobby would have been turning in his grave when the team sheets were handed in at the Stadium Of Light in the game between his beloved Southampton and hosts Sunderland. Let me try and explain over the next few chapters what I am getting at.  

So as the team and fans headed north on Saturday, it would have been with the feeling that maybe this could be their time again. Going to face a Sunderland side should have held no fears for Mauricio Pochettino and his side, after all they were unbeaten in eight matches. So the shock that must have reverberated around the Saints fans when they saw the team that their manager had put out must have been deflating. Now whether he was trying to second guess Gus Poyet’s team or not I for one find it incredible he didn't put out his best eleven to give his team a chance to get to the quarter finals.The old argument was put forward that players needed to be rested and the team, rotated. In my opinion that is a load of crap and in turn put two fingers up to the FA Cup and the Saints fans. It is something that fans have to put up with these days but I for one disagree.You ask any player would he rather sit on a bench or play in a huge game of this magnitude and I guarantee they will all answer, play. In fact if you can get your team on a roll and winning games it builds confidence and who knows, they could have gone all the way. But the bigger prize these days is staying in the Premiership and the FA Cup comes along way back, second. As we know Saints were beaten on Saturday and in my opinion got what they deserved for their total lack of respect for the greatest cup competition in the world. Other clubs who took to resting players over the weekend were Cardiff and Swansea and yes you have guessed it they both lost. Now if I can for a moment play devils advocate, I will put it this way. When you are in or around the relegation area getting a winning mentality into your team can only help with your run in to the end of the league. But with changes like we saw over the weekend that the three teams made you can not get that winning feeling if you are chopping and changing. But the biggest disappointment for those Saints fans has to be the fact that they are nowhere near relegation and surely their manager should have started his best eleven and really gone for it and tried to get that quarter final place.

As I started off by mentioning the 1976 Cup Final I must finish off by giving you what a feeling it was in the 70,s on Cup Final day.Tv,s were turned on to the coverage at around 9am and did not switch off again till tea time, no matter who was playing.If you were a football fan in those days, Cup Final day was like Christmas Day. The greatest day of the year for football fans.But over the years it has become less and less important to a lot of Premier league clubs,their Cup Final these days is more money orientated and staying in the Premier league. Bobby Stokes unfortunately died at a very young age and is sorely missed in the football world,but I can only imagine that Bobby would have been very upset at the way his beloved Southampton threw the towel in before the game had even started,and left the fans with nothing more to look forward to this season than fulfilling upcoming fixtures,after all they for one will not be relegated.

The Mind Games Of Mourinho

Over the years I have tended to stay away from all  the stories about the self appointed special one Jose Mourinho. But today I feel I have to open up on all things that I find infuriating about the Chelsea manager. There have been times when I despair over his antics and over the next few hundred words let me just put my opinion forward to you and whether you agree or disagree I think you will find my views quite interesting.

Jose "master of mind games" or "just a big bully"

As we all know Mourinho breezed into Chelsea many years back and in his first interview proclaimed himself to be the self anointed ‘Special One’. We should have understood from that statement that the man is a self publicist. Jose’s aim is to promote himself all the time in the media, a feat which he has certainly done over the years. I just don't get it, I feel that the man has brought the game into disrepute so many times it has been unbelievable. How the authorities have not dealt with him harder over the years amazes me. If I can take you back to the Barcelona v Chelsea champions league game a few years back he claimed to have seen Barca manager Frank Rijkaard enter the referees dressing room at half time. This set up all sorts of accusations towards referee Anders Frisk after the game and caused all sorts of problems for the official and his family. He actually retired shortly after the game as the pressure from the whole furore had got to him and his family. Later it was proven that in fact the Barca manager had not  entered the referee’s dressing room. To be perfectly blunt about this, if the Barca manager had tried to gain entry to the dressing room of one of the top referees in the world at the time, he would have been sent packing by the official. But look it didn't matter Mourinho had got what is little plan had set out to do and deflect from a defeat on the pitch and blame issues off the pitch. Taking the eyes away from his tactical mistakes in the game.

Another issue that springs to mind is when he poked his finger in the eye of the Barcelona assistant manager at the end of a game in Spain.To my utter astonishment he came up behind the guy and reached out and poked him in the eye. A real cowards way of attacking a person is always from behind.Like in the day of the cowboy, if you shot somebody in the back you were a gutter snipe.

So can I just fast forward all this to the season 2013/14. Back at Chelsea this season after he more or less begged to come back to the Bridge after United showed no interest, every chance he has got he has been sniping at Manuel Pellegrini in the press, he’s at it all the time.The man uses the press to have a go and journalists been journalists will fill pages with his antics.Yesterday when it was announced that the FA were to take no action against Yaya Toure over his kick out at Norwich, Jose was in like a rat up a drain pipe to claim it was wrong. Whether right or wrong, the point I am making is that Jose is trying again to cause issues where he has no business to stick his nose in. If Chelsea don't win the league he will look back at this issue and point to it as been a turning point in the season.For fun, I would love to see Toure over the next three games play out of his skin and bag a few goals as well.

With all that I have said over this article, I feel the FA should deal with his mind games and the next time he has a go in the written media, slap a disrepute charge on him. He should just do his talking on the pitch by winning games and stop all these antics, as I said before he appointed himself the special one when he arrived in England, in my opinion he is far from being a special one, more so a man who can not do without the self publicity.

Leeds United in Meltdown

Over the past couple of months I have been blogging about everything refereeing for this fabulous Pitch Talk website.This week I want to put all the refereeing issues aside and write about a club who are very close to my heart. Leeds United is a team I have supported since been a nipper. Over the years I have followed this once great club and although they have dropped down the leagues, I am always tuned into there matches on a match day.A few seasons ago I was lucky to be invited onto the committee of the Leeds United Dublin members club, working alongside Chairman Noel Rice. Of the many events we attended the most memorable, was an afternoon in the company of then owner Ken Bates at a lunch to honour the late Lord Harewood. I know a lot of fans never liked Uncle Ken but what happened over the past couple of days would certainly never have happened under the watchful eye of Mr.Bates. Let me try and unravel the total mess the club has got it itself in over the past few days.

As we know the owners GFH have been trying to offload the club in recent times. A few deals were on the table and had fallen through for whatever reason. On Friday,GFH seem to strike a deal with Cagliari owner a certain Italian called Mr.Cellino As the news broke,fans of the club were up in arms and didn't  want the Italian anywhere near the club. The Italian has a record of sacking coaches at the drop of a hat.What was needed at the club was stability and not more uncertainty something the new owner would bring. Right on cue with his previous escapades Cellino sacked Leeds manager Brian McDermott late on Friday evening.Uproar was to follow and fans headed to Elland Road to vent there anger over the Italians decision to sack the popular McDermott. Problems had been brewing for the two men during the week as Mr.Cellino spent time looking around his proposed new club. It culminated in Leeds manager Brian McDermott refusing to let Cellino,s man Gianluca Festa sit on the bench for Tuesday nights game against Ipswich.I would have thought the writing was on the wall for McDermott,and his days were numbered at Elland Road.

What developed on Saturday was something you would only see in a soap opera.With only hours to kick off for a home game against Huddersfield,fans anger was been vented on the streets,Facebook,Twitter and all other social networks. During what turned out to be a super performance by Leeds on the pitch in which they stuffed there local rivals five one, news was breaking that indeed Brian McDermott had not been sacked and the new owner wanted to reinstate him after all the fans unrest about his original decision to release the manager from his contract. The phone apparent phonecall to McDermott was from Cellino's solicitor and not the owner himself. GFH claimed they knew nothing about the sacking at all. Therefore the deal had not been rubber stamped by the Football league as the new owner would have had to pass the proper persons test to allow new owners to take over the club. I can only imagine that McDermott's sacking was illegal, leading to the you turn on Saturday.

Now if I can play devils advocate for a while and pass on my views over the whole situation. I personally have not been happy with the teams performance over the period that Brian was in charge. An awful run of defeats was topped off by a six nil drubbing away at Sheffield Wednesday. I thought Brian should have been sacked after that defeat but feel GFH either had not got the money or the balls to remove such a popular figure with the fans. What the team did to Huddersfield on Saturday was incredible and great credit should be handed out to every Leeds player on the pitch. Let us not forget these are the same players that Brian had sent into battle over the previous weeks without getting any victories.

This morning Brian returned to Thorp Arch to take training after looking for assurances from the owners his job was safe. I don't see this love affair lasting very long and if results don't pick up dramatically,he could be on his way out again very shortly.The other thing that has to be looked at here is,the Italian Mr.Cellino is a very wealthy man and has said he wants to invest in the team.Now when was the last time Leeds United fans heard those words spoken around the offices of Leeds United. On Friday when I heard the deal was struck to bring in the Italian, I for one was of the opinion to let him have a go.Especially if he wanted to bring in players.Whether Brian and him can work together after this farce is for another day,but I feel the Italian deserves a chance to take this great club back to where it belongs,the top league in the country. As I finish off this article I do feel this saga is not over and could run and run.In my opinion it needs to be sorted and sorted fast as we don't want to lose another season in Leeds second home,the court chambers. One thing I do know for sure this would not have happened under Ken Bates ownership.