A Year of Poor Decisions

It has been a crazy year for decisions made by referees all around the British Isles. Those of you who follow my regular blog for the boys at Pitch Talk, will know only to well there has been plenty to blog about. If you read my columns closely, you will know I have said most of the year that the best two referees in the country have been Mark Clattenburg and Martin Atkinson, a point not missed out by their bosses at UEFA as both have been picked to referee at next years European Championship Finals. So it was to my astonishment to see the two lads get a few things wrong in the games they had on Bank Holiday Monday, they must have had to much Christmas Turkey as the decisions they got wrong were in my opinion poor ones.

Let me first have a look at two big decisions in the Manchester United v Chelsea game that changed the outcome of the match. As I always say, if a refereeing decision changes the result of the game that to me is a cardinal sin. How Martin Atkinson did not give a penalty when Willian handled the ball within his own penalty area is a mystery to me. It was a clear hand ball seen by everyone and by the letter of the law the referee should have pointed to the spot. The Chelsea player actually moved his hand to the ball and that was the point when the referee should have blown. The assistant referee was in a good spot to see it and maybe give the referee a shout, on those famous earpieces but not even he was able to help out his colleague. It is game changing decisions like these that can sometimes cost managers their jobs and we all know that the Manchester United manager Louis Van Gaal needs victories and with that type of decision not been given, does not help his cause. The other big talking point in the game was an awful challenge by England captain Wayne Rooney on Chelsea midfielder Oscar. He could have broke his opponents leg and how the referee only gave him a yellow and did not send him off beggars belief. In fact Wayne knew he had done wrong and his reaction to the challenge in my opinion was one of a guilty man.

Mark Clattenburg took charge of what surely will go down as a Barclays Premier League Classic game between Everton and Stoke at Goodison Park, and if he had not given an outrageous penalty in the dying moments, the game would have ended up all square. Their is not doubt in my mind Everton defender John Stones clearly won the ball on his initial challenge and the fact his trailing leg came into contact with Antanouci should not have made a blind bit of difference. The referee appeared to wave play on and then changed his mind, maybe he got a whisper in his ear from his assistant, but if he did it was incredible. The referee was well positioned to make the call and needed no outside interference. A very very poor decision in the end cost Everton the game and I was not surprised to hear after the game, Roberto Martinez complain, with some justification in my opinion.

As we head into the year 2016 I am sure that their will be plenty to blog about for the boys at Pitch Talk and in this strangest of seasons god only knows what will happen. This could be a season when we have a surprise winner of the title but I really do hope it is not a bad refereeing decision that decides this seasons champions. As I finish off this blog may I take the opportunity to wish each and every one of you a very very Happy New Year, Enjoy your Football, Ciao

The Worldwide Game

The game of Association Football is played all around the globe, from as far North as the Faroe Islands, to the hot South of Australia. The English Premier League is beamed into many homes on this great global planet every weekend and big decisions are discussed in so many different languages when they happen. That is the beauty of our game, everyone has an opinion and a view on so much involved in and around the games. Their is so much football on TV these days, that the weekends are now special for us football fans. Controversy is never to far away and again this weekend we had our fair share of it. I want to this week focus on the game at the Eithiad Stadium and in particular, a refereeing performance from Roger East.

I have watched Roger on many ocassions over the past year and he has the making of a very good referee. But to be perfectly honest I was disappointed with his performance on Saturday. It was not that he had a particularly poor performance, but it was more the way he went about his business on the day and I can not let the Sean Davis handball go without a mention. In my opinion I thought Roger,s application of the advantage rule was wrong on the day, something I have not seen him do before. He seemed to be letting a long time lapse between the tackle and the awarding of a free kick. On a couple of occasions he tended to hold before blowing and then a second challenge came in, before he blew, for the original free kick. This is so dangerous, as it can lead to all sorts of problems and it causes players to react to you as if the first free kick had been missed. As I said earlier I have not seen Roger take this approach before and I just hope his coach is not putting it into his head to do this. His big call in the game was a handball by Southampton,s Steven Davis on the goal line which went out for a corner. It was in my opinion a100% red card and a penalty. How the referee did not see it was amazing, even the movement by the Southampton player should have told him it was a handball. But if I can, may I take this a bit further. An official behind the goal would have seen the incident and in my opinion would have been in the best position to do so. This is something that maybe the FA should have a look at and take the European route. The extra official behind the goal does work and will not cost the millions that the introduction of goal line technology has.

Before I end this week, I can not sign off without giving Craig Pawson a mention. I pulled Craig up in last weeks blog for not carding players for diving and quite a few of my blog readers were in touch to let me know they were in total agreement with my views. They say a week is a very longtime in football, and I have to totally agree with that, so let me this week, heap praise on Mr. Pawson for not blowing for a free kick, when it was so much easier to do. In fact, if he had blown, history in the Barclay,s Premier League may never have happened. I am talking about the incident in the Leicester v Manchester United match, when Blind tried to stop Kasper Schmichel clearing a ball upfield by sticking his leg up, a free kick all day every day. But the referee on this occasion used his head and saw their was a break on for the home side, a break in fact which led to Jamie Vardy creating history by scoring eleven goals in eleven games in a row. Amazingly none of the so called TV pundits gave this decision any sort of mention over the weekend. Typical of people who get paid big money but have not got a clue about application of the rules laid down by FIFA. It was a great decision to play on by Craig and fair play to him.

Ok that's me for this week, I do hope you enjoy your football during the week and if your side is taking to the field, I do hope all the refereeing decisions are correct for your team, I know this sometimes never happens but sure isn't that why we love this beautiful game. 

Until next week enjoy.

Ref That's a Card

As we all know the Premier League had a break last week to allow for International football. Going into the break things were going along with the usual amount of refereeing mistakes and calamities of an average Premier League season. What happened on Friday the 13th in Paris puts everything in life into perspective. Forget about offsides, penalties, red or yellow cards as the world took a very sinister turn on the night .The terrorists who carried out the atrocity struck at the heart of the people's leisure time at the concert hall and the attempted bombing at the France v Germany game. The loss of so many young lives is heartbreaking and my thoughts and prayers go out to their families and friends. 

At all Premier league games this weekend the French national anthems was sang and showed support for the French. More importantly it showed the need to go on, in the face of threats from people who in my opinion are cowards. So on its return. what did the games in the Premier league produce this weekend and were was the controversial incidents ? . Their were a few so let me below have a look and shed some light on where things went horribly wrong for the men with the whistle.

Like the majority of fans who are unable to attend live matches. I sat down on Saturday afternoon and tuned into the Chelsea v Norwich match shown on live TV in Dublin. The man in charge for the game was Craig Pawson a referee I have to admit I don't know a lot about. If you look at his game overall you have to be disappointed, as he got the big game changing call totally wrong and failed to back up his decision making by not cautioning two players for simulation, a word that covers up the fact that it is blatant cheating. Clubs like Norwich need to get the rub of the green when they play the so called big clubs. So when Willian blocked Norwich,s Robbie Brady I expected to see the referee point to the spot for a penalty and I was amazed when he waved away the Norwich appeals. It was a clear cut penalty for me and I was quite pleased to hear Pat Nevin say the same on TV. These decisions are game changers in my opinion, the way Chelsea have been playing lately who knows what way the game could have gone if the Canaries had scored from the spot. Their we're two other issues in the game that were a disappointment from a refereeing point of view. On two separate occasions Mr.Pawson waved away two penalty appeals by Chelsea when Costa and Pedro went tumbling in the area. I saw them as dives and having not awarded the penalties I have no doubt he should have cautioned both players. These decisions to me are easy ones, if the referee deemed a player has dived to gain a penalty just caution him, simple as that, nothing else is good enough.

Football can be a great leveller and it was fantastic to see all the players this week stand arm in arm as the French national anthem was belted out all around the country. We can not let these terrorists win and been strong together sends out a great message. 

Until next week enjoy your football and for the fallen people in Paris, may they all rest in peace. Au Revoir.

Bring in The European Referees

Regular readers to my blog for the boys at Pitch Talk will know that week in and week out I have had plenty of refereeing decisions to discuss this season. This weekend has been a breath of fresh air with nothing to report for the guys. Now before everyone falls off their chair in the belief that the Barclay's Premier League referees have cleaned up their act and become mistake free, relax the only reason we are not discussing more errors is the fact we have had an international break this weekend. With this in mind, I would like to this week have a look at an issue that comes up on a regular basis when the referees in the Barclay's Premier League screw up. The issue I am talking about is the call for European referees to be introduced into the English game to alleviate all the mistakes. Let me below give you the reasons in my opinion that it would not work.

The likes of Nicolai Rizolli, Jonas Ericksson and Felix Brych are three names that spring to mind when I think about the top elite referees in Europe. These guys are performing at the top level week in and week out throughout the season and very rarely drop any clangers. We would see these guys on a regular basis in Champions League action International games, they always seem to get their big calls correct. I have heard fans saying these guys should be brought in and used in the Barclays Premier League, well in my opinion it just would not work. The English game is played at a greater pace than these guys would be used to. Also the criteria laid down in Europe towards miss behaving teams can lead to huge fines if players get out of hand. It is a totally different world refereeing in Europe and I reckon that if you were to give the elite referees a run out in the Barclay's Premier League they too could eventually get themselves into bother.

You have often read my blogs for the boys at Pitch Talk where I have heaped praise on both Martin Atkinson and Mark Clattenburg, two of the best referees in my opinion in Europe. The reason these two lads are so good and so consistent in Europe is the fact that they are stepping down in pace when they go to Europe. I have often watched the pair perform in games and feel sometimes they could sit back in an armchair and have a cigar when refereeing in Europe. I am not so sure I could say the same about Rizolli, Ericksson and Brych if they were to ply their trade in the Barclays Premier League. So as we continue in this 2015/16 season let us stick with the referees we are using as they are doing a difficult job in tough circumstances. I just hope when we return to the action next weekend I am not blogging on a referee who has upset your team by giving a bad decision against your team. 

Until next time enjoy your football.

They Have Not Got a Clue

It was once again an incredible weekend in the Barclays Premier League. This season in my opinion is turning into possibly one of the most exciting in years. Controversy has not been to far away from the games this season, if you follow my regular column for the boys at Pitch Talk. One very important aspect of the televised coverage is the roll of the co commentator and the comments they can invariably make. After all, unless you have refereed or played the game, you need these guys to guide you. Let us just say for argument sake,you have arrived from the planet Pluto and you have never seen a game of association football before, these are the guys to educate and tell you what is going on. Well let me tell you these boys have not got a clue and in some cases are going along with a certain criteria the TV station is pushing. This weekend saw the meeting of Stoke and Chelsea and on the mic was Niall Quinn, now Quinner like myself is from Dublin and a very nice lad and anytime I have met him when he is home he comes across as a very nice person, but for a lad who has played the game at the highest level his co commentary skills are in my opinion non league standard. By the way that is no disrespect to the non league guys it is just making a point about Niall. Let me below have a look at two incidents in the game that Niall gave his opinion on and let me tell you why in my opinion he was talking out of his backside.

So don't forget you have arrived from the planet Pluto and you are now settling down to watch your first ever live soccer match on TV. Well if you are looking for proper input from the pundits you may as well just switch off the TV, as ex players very rarely knew the rules when they played and now that they have finished playing they even know less. The other evening Niall was going on about John Walters been in an offside position in the build up to the winning Stoke goal. Absolute garbage, under the rules for offside John would have never been flagged, not even last season. The Stoke player was not, I repeat not offside. It was also very interesting to hear Niall,s opinion on the incident involving the Stoke keeper and Remy. Niall praised the Chelsea player for staying on his feet and not diving to try and gain a penalty. Well in my opinion if he had let the keeper hit him I am sure referee Anthony Taylor would have awarded a cast iron penalty. It says something when a co commentator is praising a player for not diving, which in my opinion is a cancer in the game, I am sure Mr.Mourinho was screaming at his TV when he saw what Remy tried to do. Now I know this seems like I am picking out Niall for criticism but in fact my angle on this issue is that pundits are misleading fans with there views. A lot of the ex players struggle to understand the laws, let alone the interpretation to apply them by the top referees in the country.

These guys get paid a lot of money for their views and in some cases they call it totally wrong. To try and explain these big refereeing decisions for the boys at PitchTalk it helps that you have had to be on many occasions been involved in the middle of a game with a white hot atmosphere and called them correctly. Ex Players should really stick to talking tactics and stay away from the world of refereeing, which in my opinion is something they know nothing about. Until next week if you are out and about at a game, enjoy yourself and as I always say, I do hope I am not blogging about a bad decision against your team in my next blog. Bye for now.

Master Class by Clatts

This season the Barclays Premier League is the competition that keeps on giving. Every week now we are looking at incidents that are deciding the outcome of games. It has become a battle of wits between clubs and officials. The man holding the whistle has to be right on his game because managers are just waiting to point the finger elsewhere if their teams lose. I have always been of the opinion that the top referees should get the top games and rightly so. High profile games need to be refereed with as little fuss as possible and more importantly, when the game is over a referee has put it to bed with as little fuss as possible. One such game this weekend was Saturday,s match between Chelsea and Liverpool at The Bridge. The outcome of this game had so much riding on it that the last thing we needed was any controversy. So when I got the list of officials for the weekend I knew the appointment of Mark Clattenburg to this game was the correct one. Like many others I tuned in on Saturday lunchtime to watch, if rumours were to be believed Jose's last game in charge at Chelsea if his side suffered another defeat, I was not to be disappointed. What unfolded was a a superb match and a brilliant refereeing performance by Mark Clattenburg. Mind you with an up there is always a down and Anthony Taylor had a few problems at The Hawthorns. Let me below take you through how the day unfolded for both men.

From the moment Mark Clattenburg blew the first whistle on Saturday lunchtime, he was in total control from start to finish. All his big calls were perfect. Of course I am presuming Mark saw everything on the day. He seem to just let Skrtel and Costa have a battle and let them get on with it. This was not a bad thing to do, as he seemed to have control of the pair of them. In the incident were Costa kicked out at the Liverpool player, Mark seemed to react as if he had seen it and was prepared to let it go. This was excellent refereeing in my opinion as both players just seemed to be up for a good old battle. The one main talking point that seemed to annoy Chelsea was when Lucas was not shown a second yellow for a challenge on Ramires. In my opinion I feel the referee got this one correct, because I do not agree that every foul has to be a yellow card. The challenge in no way warranted a yellow and I was glad to see none was given. The reaction of the Chelsea players whilst Mark was making his mind up on the incident in my opinion was disgraceful, they actually surrounded the official and tried to pressurise Mark into producing a card. The usual suspects in the gang were Terry, Costa and Mikel, and if I was to be critical of the referee I feel he should have at least shown one of them a card. Players surrounding referees pleading for their fellow professionals to be sent off is disgusting in my book. Overall the officials on the day had a superb game and I know their bosses at the FA will be happy, but you very rarely get problems when Mark Clattenburg is in charge.

At The Hawthorns, West Bromwich Albion manager Tony Pulis was left fuming with referee Anthony Taylor after his sides game against Leicester. The referee missed two clear penalty calls for the home side according to Tony. In my opinion he actually only called the one wrong. The challenge by Huth into the back of Fletcher was a penalty all day long, how the referee did not give it is beyond me. The claim by the West Brom manager that Johnny Evans should have had a penalty in my opinion was wrong, to me I thought the referee got that one right. Holding shirts in the penalty area is going on now quite a while and it just seems referees are not giving penalties for this type of infringement. It just seems that is the way at the moment, but yes it should be a penalty if the law was applied properly. I did not think Anthony covered himself in glory over the weekend and will need a good game next week to keep his bosses happy.

So there we have it, another weekend of big decisions involving match officials. They got some correct they got some horribly wrong, I just hope if your out and about watching your team this week that you are not going to suffer because of a bad refereeing call. Until next time enjoy your football.

Explosive Football Weekend

The season is well and truly underway a few weeks now but this past couple of days have been explosive. We have had refereeing issues not only in the Barclays Premier League but also in the championship. It is amazing how much is going on and I often wonder who would be a ref. Featuring this week in my regular blog for the boys at Pitch Talk are the referees and assistants who took charge of games at Ewood Park and Upton Park. The two men who took charge of these games were Keith Stroud and Jon Moss. Both of these men are small of stature but huge in confidence. Both men have also been performing well this season and have obviously been impressing their bosses as the pair got huge games at the weekend, in fact both were Derby games. Keith got the game at Ewood and Jon Moss was handed the London Derby between West Ham and Chelsea. The amount of incidents in both games need to be looked at in great detail so let me below give my opinion on the big calls for referees and assistants involved.

In the North West Derby at Ewood Park, Keith Stroud had to deal with a bit of a dog fight with both sides challenging for everything, especially around the middle of the park. One man who was involved in the big two decisions of the game was a certain Joey Barton. This guy is a bit of a Robbie Savage character and you either love him or hate him. For my part I am not to bothered either way, but referee Stroud had to keep a close eye on Joey on Saturday. In my opinion Blackburn defender Grant Hanley was lucky that the referee did not see the challenge on Barton in the penalty area as a penalty. At the time I called penalty, as I felt Hanley had caught him. What annoyed me was the fact that Hanley had another nip at Barton when the ball had cleared the penalty area, which also should have led to a penalty. With a player like Barton you need to be watching everything and on this occasion the referee failed to have a look back as he was to interested in following the ball. Funnily enough the second big call in the game also involved the busy Barton, he was involved in a challenge that saw Blackburn player Tom Lawrence go down in the Burnley penalty area claiming a spot kick but the referee was only yards away and said no, great refereeing. In these Derby games the matches are won by fine margins and the last thing a referee needs is to put in a poor performance. We are only talking here about two incidents during the ninety minutes and overall Mr Stroud had a good game. I wonder if his performance will put him in the shop window for a game in the Premier League.

Let me next take you to the Boleyn Ground, the home of the Happy Hammers. Jon Moss was given the task to look after this game, with the Chelsea circus in town. The game itself did not let us down or did the incidents. Jon and his team of officials had six big big calls to make during the afternoon and they called everyone correct. That is an amazing hit rate and for this I am awarding them performance of the season so far. The incidents I am talking about involved, Zouma, Matic, Mourinho, Fabregas and the member of the Chelsea coaching staff called Louro. Now as we all know, football is about opinions and the referee in my and a few more pundits eyes got all the big calls correct. Let us have a look, Zoumas header did not cross the line, both cards given to Matic were 100% correct, Fabregas was marginally offside for his goal, Louro been sent to the stand was correct as no coach is allowed to enter the field of play and throw abuse around like a mad man. This leads me on now to an incident at half time when manager Jose Mourinho was also sent to the stands for abusing the referee and his colleagues in their dressing room at half time. Over the ninety minutes Chelsea picked up five yellow cards and one red, discipline is at an time low at that club but is it any wonder when they have a manager who carries on like a two year old child as he throws his toys out of his pram on a regular basis. I really feel the the owners of Chelsea need to get a grip of him and explain that there is no conspiracy going on against his club. As I said earlier Jon Moss was superb on the day and got all his big calls correct.

I am sure as we go on this season, there will be loads to blog about, and for the boys at Pitch Talk to chat about. I just hope when you are out and about supporting your team that the talk on the tube on the way home is not all about the referee. Until next week enjoy your football, see Ya.

The Controversial BPL is Back

The Barclays Premier League returned over the past few days after a break for international football. It has been hugely controversial this season with a lot of refereeing decisions coming under the microscope. I was hoping that over the short period off, the referees could get together and sort out a few of the issues that have cropped up in the opening games of the season. The boys in the middle needed to take time out and evaluate their season so far. So on Saturday I put my feet up to enjoy a list of games that had potential for problems and needed to be refereed by the top men, after all they are the elite officials in the country. This season every Saturday has had it,s fair share of controversy and as sure as night follows day this one was to be no different. As soon as final whistles were been blown all over the country there was news coming to me of problems at Palace and West Bromwich. Alan Pardew and Sam Allardyce were complaining about decisions in their games that had affected the result. As a referee the last thing you need is your decisions to be affecting results. Let me below explain why I think both Pardew and Big Sam were talking out of their backsides to try and shift blame for their tactical errors on the day.

The man in charge of the Palace v West Ham game was Mark Clattenburg, so when I heard he had supposedly ruined a good game by sending off Dwight Gayle I was astonished. As I have said it on many occasion, in my opinion Mark is the best referee in the country. I made sure I had a look at the incident that got the Palace player his marching orders and yes as I thought Alan Pardew was talking nonsense. The two cards the player received within eleven minutes of each other were 100% correct. As the rule book states you can not dive in like he did and expect to get away without a caution. What I actually thought was total stupidity by the Palace player was to dive in to a tackle after already picking up a yellow card for a similar challenge. The total nonsense Pardew spoke after the game was beyond belief. I do not mind a manager having a go when warranted, but the Crystal Palace manager was totally out of order with his comments. On this occasion the referee was a correct in his carrying out the laws of the game and applied them correctly.

Meanwhile Big Sam is back in football and already complaining about refereeing decisions. The man who puts out fires at clubs in trouble, tried to claim his keeper had been fouled for the winning goal by West Bromwich Albion,s Berahino. To be perfectly honest I feel he was clutching at straws. His keeper could possibly be the biggest one in the league and when he came for the cross, he failed to deal with it correctly. In my opinion as a goalkeeper you need to come and take everything when dealing with a cross, something the Sunderland player failed to do. As regards to a claim that Berahino then handled the ball, please do fe a favour Sam, the ball struck his arm not the other way around. Referee Martin Atkinson had a superb game and I saw nothing wrong with the big decision of the game.

So the referees got it right this weekend and the managers once again complained. I do wish these guys would have a good look at what's around them and if their teams lose don't try to blame referees on your poor management decisions. I will leave you this week with the knowledge that there will be more controversies over the coming months and I will be here each week to try and unravel the issues for the boys at Pitch Talk. Until next week enjoy your football and I do hope your club does fall foul of a bad refereeing decision.

When Will They Learn

As I sit down each weekend to put these blogs together, I often wonder where my material will come from over a weekend. On Friday evening the canvas is always bare and it needs incidents to get the fingers tapping. This season is fast becoming my busiest ever, having to discuss incidents on a more regular basis than an aeroplane landing in Heathrow airport. I just cannot understand how some of the elite referees and assistants are getting it so wrong, week in and week out in this beautiful game we all love. I am wondering how come we have so many talking points this season. Is it a case that the game is getting faster ? Is it a case the referees are poorer ? Is it in fact a case that players do not help situations with all the lack of gamesmanship that goes on nowadays ? 

This week I want to have a look at all the big talking points from the Chelsea v Southampton game and would also like to have a look at the performance of Martin Atkinson in the Merseyside derby. Let us first take a walk down the Old Kent Road and drop in to see how Robbie Madley got on in the game at The Bridge. Getting a Chelsea game these days is like been given a poison chalice. No matter what decision you give it will be scrutinised over and over again by Mr  Mourinho, who this season is blaming his own failures on referees. True to form Robbie had plenty to do in the game. I counted four big calls and in my opinion he got three wrong. A figure that is not acceptable and I feel his bosses may think the same. There is no doubt he should have given a penalty when Ivanovic nearly tore Van Dijk's shirt off his back whilst defending a corner. What the Chelsea player was thinking, I simply do not know and where Robbie got this one wrong was he never looked into the problem area. We are told as referees to look where problems can occur, he clearly did not do this in the situation which developed which led to him missing an easy call. The challenge in the box by Ramires on Mane was a 100% penalty, no question. It was an awful decision by the referee not to give it, as contact was made. I would actually say if the referee thought Mane dived he should have booked him for simulation. Ironically the referee did book Mane a couple of moments later for a dive when indeed he had been clipped by Ivanovic, a player in my opinion who is going down the pan faster than Lewis Hamilton on a qualifying lap. Chelsea themselves had a big shout in the second half when Falcao went down in the box. Went down is exactly what he did, he played for the penalty and was diving long before contact was made with the keeper. The referee made an excellent decision on this call even following through and cautioning Falcao for simulation. When players receive yellow cards it is always advisable to stay on your feet for the rest of the game when challenging for the ball,as if you get it wrong you run the risk of been sent off. In mine and other referees opinions, Falcao should have been shown a second yellow card when he dived in later in the game on a Southampton player,trying to win the ball. The referee got this one wrong and human nature makes you wonder did the Mourinho effect come into play in his mind. Overall Robbie struggled with the big calls and I for one hopes his mentor gets a hold of him and helps him out,as I think he has the making of a top class referee in him.

Now when it comes to top class referees,please step forward Mr Martin Atkinson. His man management of games this season so far have been superb. When I heard he was to do the Merseyside derby I knew we would have no problems. This game over the past couple of seasons has had its fair share of red cards,a fact I am sure the boys in charge had duly noted. Martin overall did very well in his game,he put out little fires going on all around the pitch and didn't let anything develop to a dangerous point,where things could have got out of hand. Calmness was the order of the day and he had it off to a perfect art. He went about his business with no fuss and the players knew who was completely in charge. Well done on an excellent performance.

Although we all thought our weekend,s football had ended after the Arsenal v United game on Sunday,the Liverpool owners had other ideas. Just as I was sitting down to a beautiful meal on Sunday tea time,news was breaking that Brendan Rodgers had been sacked at Anfield. Another one bites the dust and I for one am sorry to see him go. Brendan never moaned or blamed referees on his own failings,like some other managers in the league and hopefully he won't be out of work long. It just goes to show us how desperate owners have become for success,it is less than two years since Brendan nearly won the league with the reds. I am sure he thinks everyday,if only Stevie G had stayed on his feet,how different things could have been.

I will sign off this week with my usual comments for the boys at Pitch Talk. If you are going out to see your team playing,I do hope I am not blogging about it next week. Until then sleep well and do not have refereeing nightmares. See Ya

The Refs Need Help

The weekends are fast turning into a nightmare for a lot of referees around the world. This is the time of the week when the football fan leave there place of work and head off to see the club they support in various cities and towns around this beautiful planet of ours. These days with worldwide coverage on television with more than twenty cameras in the ground, the poor referee must wake up in pools of sweat the night before they have a game. Every decision they make will be scrutinized by most pundits and if the men with the whistle get it wrong the TV, will show it over and over again. Mind you some of those guys who are sitting on the TV panels have not got a clue about the laws of association football. I actually see lately that one of the stations has introduced Howard Webb to their panel to make a call on all the big decisions that the boys with the whistles are making. I have been a longtime admirer of how Mark Clattenburg and Martin Atkinson officiate, so on Saturday it was the centre piece of my day to sit down and watch the guys perform in the Spurs v City game and the Newcastle v Chelsea match. Let me below have a look at what I thought of there performances and ask did they get it right or drastically wrong ?.

I am a great believer that for the top games you should appoint the top referees. I was delighted to see that the powers to be got it totally correct in appointing Mark Clattenburg to the game on Saturday at White Hart Lane between Spurs and Manchester City. What I was not expecting was for his two assistants to let him down so badly. As we know there main job in the game is to assist the referee and help him out at all times. The amount of the mistakes by his two assistants was incredible. I am not talking about small little ones like giving the throw ins the wrong way, but to miss three clear offsides which led to goals is unforgivable. I can possibly allow for the City goal as it was so tight and De Bruynne just hung enough so as to give the official a real problem. Spurs equalizer was disgraceful, Walker was not a foot but a good yard off and more annoyingly directly under the assistants nose, this one should not have been missed. The repercussions of the official not giving this could have led to all sorts of problems. When Mark blew for halftime he was surrounded by the City players as they knew, even if the assistant did not, that Kyle Walker was in an offside position. This led to the City centre half Michelis picking up a yellow card for his dissent. This could have been a lot worse for the City centre half in the second period of the game if the referee had hit him with the full letter of the law and cautioned him for a bad challenge, but the referee in my opinion took a lenient view as I expect he saw the highlights of the first half in his dressing room at the break. To put the thin hat totally on the day in my view was that Harry Kane goal,no matter what season or what instruction they guys are given,this was another horrendous decision. Things need to improve and I have been saying this now for a while. On this occasion the referee was badly let down by his assistants and these two guys should be given a rest next weekend to re focus on their game.I do hope Jake Collin and Simon Beck learn from this as both are suppose to be the tops, but after that performance I would not use them in Hackney Marshes.

My focus for my next game was firmly on Saint James Park for the Newcastle v Chelsea game. As we all know mayhem was in the air at the last Chelsea game and the FA needed to appoint a strong referee to deal with any messing. The last thing the league needs right know is more hassle involving Chelsea. It was important that the game went well for the referee and who other should get the shout from the FA but Martin Atkinson. I have said many times in my blogs for the boys at Pitch Talk that I think Martin is one of the top two referees in the country. On the day he was superb and kept things very tight so as not to give the so called " Special One " anymore reasons to moan. Mind you on that, Mr Mourinho in my opinion should be renamed the " The Moaning One ". Overall in the game he made nearly every call correct which is all you can ask from a referee. One decision which he made was for a tackle by the Chelsea defender Ivanovic, I have seen red cards given in other games for such a challenge, but on Saturday, Martin was totally in control and there was no need to produce a red card. All in all he was excellent and I am sure his bosses at the FA would have been, more than happy.

It is becoming an incredibly bad season for refereeing decisions and I can not see it getting any better unless their is a huge shake up and new blood is introduced. I will sign off this week with my usual message, if you are heading out to see your team in action I do hope the officials get it right in your game and you're not fuming when you leave the ground. Until next week enjoy your football. As a footnote to all this I am now hearing the two assistants involved in the Spurs v City game have been dropped this weekend.Well done their bosses.

The Game is Crazy

The football over the weekend has been superb with plenty of incident and outrage. I always have reported that there are three teams on the pitch when it comes to association football. The home and away teams and of course the referee and his assistants. It is fast becoming this season a case of the referee has now become a ring master looking after the animals, yes animals. It is so disappointing that grown men are now cheating and trying to con the officials. I know they have been doing it for many years but this season it seems to have become even more noticeable in the beautiful game. I would like to this week have a look at two incidents involving two of the best referees in Europe. I want to have a look at Mike Dean in the big Premiership game of the weekend at Stamford Bridge and I feel I can not let this blog finish without talking about the horror challenge on Luke Shaw in the game against PSV which looks likely to have finished his season. The man in charge on the night was none other than World Cup Final referee Nicola Rizzoli, a man who I have praised on many different forums over the past season or two.

I have been saying it now for quite a while that Diego Costa is a disaster to referee. The guy is everything that is bad about professional footballers these days. With this in mind I was very interested to see how Mike Dean would handle him in the game between Chelsea and Arsenal last Saturday. To my disappointment Mr Dean was led a merry dance by the player and instead of the referee being in control, Diego ruined the match for him with his antics. Where the referee failed to stamp his authority all over the game was when Costa was fouled early on in the game and had the audacity to make the imaginary yellow card sign to the referee, Mr Dean should have stamped out any nonsense there and then and in fact should have yellow carded the Chelsea forward. Once he missed this opportunity his game was going to be an uphill struggle and eventually Costa was going to drop him right in the brown stuff. Having failed to see the Chelsea player slap out at Koncielny, matters got worse as again Mr Dean failed to take control of a situation which ended up with Arsenal defender Gabriel been sent off. I will agree the Arsenal defender was stupid to get involved but the referee let the two players walk half the length of the field abusing each other and he should have sorted it long before it needed a red card. In my opinion there was only one way this was going to end. Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho thought after the game that Diego was man of the match, well he certainly caused enough problems so as to cause havoc for the referee and yes he did win Chelsea the match by conning the referee into sending off a fellow professional. In my opinion this is exactly the sort of stuff that is ruining our game. I would like to think the FA will have a look at the whole incident early next week and hopefully slap a ban on the Chelsea player.

During the week Manchester United went away to play PSV in the Champions League. It unfortunately was a bad night all around for the Manchester club, not only did they lose but the game saw Luke Shaw pick up an awful leg break after been involved with a tackle from PSV player Moreno. I actually thought on the night that referee Rizzoli made an awful mistake by not giving a penalty and sending off the home team player. My phone was hopping on the evening with many of my contacts asking how could it not have been a red card. The only answer available to me was the referee made a huge mistake as the tackle ticked every box laid down in the rules to see a player dismissed. One thing I will say in the referee's defence is that nobody claimed the penalty or the red card and this could have swayed his mind. I spoke with two FIFA referee's the following morning and both were in agreement that the referee got it wrong but they could understand why. It just goes to show you that even the best referee in the world is human and can make a mistake.

It was an interesting week and very controversial all around. Maybe next week things will improve and controversy will be thin on the ground, but I would not hold my breath on that one. As I always say if you are out and about watching your team I do hope controversy stays far away from you. Until next week enjoy your football.

The Controversy Continues

Last weekend we returned to all things football after a short break for the international matches. A break in my opinions, which should have given everyone time to have a look at early season form and put the little things right that were going wrong. I include the referees in all of this because there has been to much controversy involved in a very short space of time since the season started. Mistakes happen, but so far this season the referees have been making them on a much regular basis in the Barclay's Premier League.

In fairness it was a breath of fresh air to see the best referees from Europe, perform in various international games around the globe as teams battled it out to qualify for the 2016 European Championships. I decided to take a lot of these games in on TV to see if the European referees were doing anything different from their British counterparts and I was not disappointed by any performance. So as we went into last weekends game I was hoping the men in the middle in the British Isles could get their act together.It was another weekend of controversy and bad decisions and surely things need to improve drastically and quick. Their we're quite a few incidents over the weekend and as per usual I want to have a look at two that jumped out at me immediately. Below I will have a look at an amazing error in the Championship and a tackle that I think, should have seen a player sent off for a tackle on Manchester City's Aguero.

First I want to dip into the Championship and have a look at the incident in the Fulham v Blackburn game where the away side had a clearly good goal not given. Their is no doubt the ball crossed the line and a goal should have been awarded.Blackburn manager Gary Bowyer was fuming after the game and I for one agree with his frustration.In my opinion an assistant referee should never miss such a simple task as seeing that a ball has crossed the line.

It is one of the most important parts of his job. Without going into how we think he missed it, let us have a look at the bigger picture and the bigger picture is Goal Line Technology, or the lack of it in the leagues below the Premier League. The clubs at those levels deserve the same playing field as the so called top clubs. I know it is a matter of finance but we can get around that by introducing the way it is done in the Champions and Europa Leagues, bring the refereeing team on the day up to six and at least it would give some sort of help to solve these problems for teams. Something needs to be done to give everyone a fair chance and I know the feeling on the ground is action must be taken and quick, to stop these sorts of blunders been ruled out so no other team suffers. I just hope Blackburn do not miss out on promotion at the end of the season by one point.

I can not sign off this week without mentioning the performance by referee Mike Jones in the Crystal Palace v Manchester City game. The game will be remembered for City bagging all three points with a excellent gritty performance for the whole ninety minutes. From a refereeing point of view the referee got it horribly wrong when he showed a yellow card to Scott Dann for in my opinion a disgraceful tackle on Sergio Aguero. The Palace defender caught the Argentinian with a tackle high to the knee when the ball was nowhere within playing distance. It was a clear red card for me and the decision to show a yellow was disappointing to me.Mind you, trouble seems to follow Mike Jones around. The tackle by Dann led to Aguero having to limp off after a while and also put him out of the City v Juventus match in midweek.Mike Jones needs to have a look at his decision and make sure he corrects the error of his ways. 

I will finish off this week by wishing everyone involved in our game, has a good upcoming weekend following your side. Let us hope next week I am not blogging for the boys at Pitch Talk about a poor decision against your club. Until then do not have nightmares, enjoy your football.

Controversy Once Again

This beautiful game of ours at times can be more controversial than a Conservative government making more cuts to an already struggling NHS. Week after week we go through the turnstiles or take an armchair view of all things to do with our beautiful game.Players, officials and the media are responsible for shaping, after all, what is the most followed game in the world. From the very first time a ball was kicked all those many years ago controversy has not been far away. The 1966 World Cup Final.the Maradona hand of god goal, Lampard scoring against Germany or not as the case was, Henry's handball in Paris are the things that pop up every now and again which fill many column inches in the papers and many hours of pundits talking waffle on TV.  A few of the pundits are better wafflers it has to be said,my favourite is Mr Marmite the former Welsh and Birmingham, Leicester, Derby and Blackburn player. So having laid that all out in front of you, let me have a look at a couple of big incidents in this week,s Barclay's Premier League. I want to focus on two refereeing performances involving in my opinion, the two best referee,s in the UK, Martin Atkinson and Mark Clattenburg.

Let me take you first to The Hawthorns in what was to be a real pressure game between West Bromwich Albion and Chelsea. The Champions needed to put on a good performance and take all three points as their start to the season has not set the world on fire. Mr Mourinho is already getting his annual "Everybody hates us Campaign going " so who better than to take charge of the game than Mark Clattenburg. Mark has so much calmness about himself when he is refereeing that you know he will rarely get anything wrong.There were two huge talking points in the game and he handled them so well.The John Terry sending off was a 100% correct decision. The defender is starting to show he is struggling for pace and even in his previous game against Manchester City he was taken off as a result of this.A decision that did not sit very well with JT.But as soon as he pulled back Rondon by the shirt their was only one outcome.A decision that once again the Chelsea manager had the temerity to question the outcome.In my opinion Jose really does need to take a trip to Specsavers sometime soon.The other talking point in the game was the running battle between Diego Costa and West Broms Yacob. Mark kept a close eye on the pairs carry on, but as it did not make the game more difficult for him to handle, he let them get on with it, an excellent man management decision in my opinion. It was in my opinion a superb performance by Mark and he will surely go on now and have an excellent season.

Saturday saw Leicester v Spurs and in the middle for this game was Martin Atkinson.As we know Leicester have had a great start to the season, so Spurs knew it would be tough. On paper it was never going to be a difficult game to referee,as long as the official did not make silly mistakes and overall within the ninety minutes there was really only one talking point. A huge penalty claim by Leicester was turned down by Martin in the first half.Jan Vertonghen and Leicester,s Mahrez clashed in the box.In my opinion Martin decided that if the two players were going to be pulling each others shirt,well play on.It is something that has crept into the game over the past couple of seasons and I think referees have just decided to let them get on with it.Overall Martin did quite well and no one really suffered by any silly mistakes. Something a referee is always happy with when he is leaving a football pitch.

These are just a few of the incidents that I saw over the weekend and as always, I wanted to bring my views to all the guys at Pitch Talk. So if you are out and about this weekend at a game I do hope your team has a result for you and a refereeing mistake has not seen you leaving the ground in disgust.Until next week enjoy your football.

The Return of the BPL!

THE BPL IS BACK!! It's finally returned to our screens. We've had what seemed like a long break from our regular football fix and finally the long spell without has come to an end. Many of us were wondering what the new season was to bring for us; what were we all going to talk about and debate. So can you imagine how astonished I was that in the first weekend of the new season, we had loads of controversy. Unfortunately the controversy was centred around referees once again. In particular I am talking about Michael Oliver and the new referee to the premier league panel, Simon Hooper. In my opinion the two referees involved were both at the opposite end of the scales in there performances. Michael with his FIFA experience was in charge at Stamford Bridge and rookie Simon got the gig at Carrow Road. Let me below give you my views on the two big talking incidents from the first weekend of the new Barclays Premier League.

Firstly let me take a look at the incident which saw Chelsea goalkeeper Courtois receive a red card for stopping a clear goal scoring opportunity. This in my opinion was not just an excellent decision but it was an example of top class communication between Michael Oliver and his team of officials. As a referee the one thing that is impossible, is to be able to be right up with play when a ball is played from defence to attack in the blink of an eye, so when Swansea broke out on Saturday and set Gomis up for a chance, teamwork by the referee and his assistant had to be spot on. From the position the referee was in it was impossible to say if Chelsea goalkeeper Courtois was in or outside the box when he committed the foul on the Swansea player. 

In these day's of modern technology I am sure his assistant had a word in his ear to confirm what decision was to be given. In my opinion the pair got it 100% correct, a red card and a penalty to follow, well done lads. So needless to say I was bemused to hear Thierry Henry disagree on TV that Saturday night, he claimed it wasn't a goal scoring opportunity. Well come off it Mr Henry you are totally wrong, I don't care how many defenders are behind a goalkeeper, once the forward goes past him there is your scoring opportunity, hence the red card on this occasion. Let us also not forget Mr Henry was right in the middle of his own controversy a few years back when he upset a whole Irish nation with is antics in Paris. I often wonder who picks these pundits to talk about incidents in games of which they have not got a clue about the rules or the interpretation of the rules. Let me just put another angle on this Courtois challenge. He was high, dangerous and out of control when he caught Gomis and anywhere else on the pitch to me it was a straight red. I was delighted that the FA rejected the frivolous Chelsea appeal. In fact once the appeal failed in my opinion the suspension should have been doubled. That last sentence is for another blog and another day, so let us park it.

I would imagine referee Simon Hooper was like a child waiting on Christmas Day to come last Friday night.Saturday was to be his first day waking to the prospect of the fact he was to referee a game in the English Barclay,s Premier League. He had been appointed to the Norwich City v Crystal Palace game and this should have been a game he would be well capable of controlling from the outset. I was lucky to see the whole game live and overall Simon did very well, but unfortunately he made a huge blunder when he disallowed a perfectly good goal by Cameron Jerome, yes it was an overhead kick, but never dangerous. But if you are lucky enough to see the incident again, you will see how the referee was anticipating the Palace defender sticking his head in to clear the ball. There in a nutshell is where it went wrong, you should never anticipate as a referee it will get you into so much trouble. I hope the referees bosses do not dump Simon over this incident as I said earlier he overall he did very well.So there you have it,week one over and controversy already. I am sure we will have loads more during the season and believe you me,I will be all over it for the boys at Pitch Talk, until next week enjoy your football.

SSE Airtricity League Round Up #11

Successful teams work hard, train well and have a spirit in there camp that is like a close knit community. These are just some of the qualities that Dundalk have and are using them to the fullest to try and build up a head of steam to retain their title. The way they have started off this season has been a real eye opener and manager Stephen Kenny must be delighted. He has obviously worked well with his team during the winter close season and his players have responded extremely well to his instructions and guidance. I often wonder why Stephen failed when he was manager of Scottish side Dunfermline, but that is for another blog. So let me below take you through all the ups and downs in this week’s SSE Airtricity League as things hot up in the race for the Premier and Division One titles.

Going into the eleventh round of games Dundalk sat proudly at the top of the Premier League six points clear of the chasing pack. As we exited the weekend of games the men from Louth still kept that gap between themselves and the chasing pack after a brilliant two nil away win in Longford. According to all reports it was a hard fought out battle and Dundalk had to dig deep to secure the points. Two second half goals from Horgan and Mountney saw them home but great credit has to be given to Longford who made a match of it. The game of the week took place in Cork, where City took on Sligo. The Cork men ran out three two winners in a pulsating game in Turners Cross. Elsewhere around the league there were victories for Bohemians, Galway United and Drogheda. The final game of the round had to be rescheduled for Monday evening after it had been called off on the previous Friday due to a waterlogged pitch, yes you heard me correct, a waterlogged pitch. You just have to love summer football don't you. The other news this week in the league is that Bray Wanderers have appointed Trevor Croly as their new manager. Trevor had a spell as Shamrock Rovers manager and takes over at the seaside club as they still struggle to get any form going. He is a very good coach and only time will tell if he can turn things around. I wish him all the best.

Division One is tipping along quite nicely and Finn Harps remain top after a three two win at home to Waterford United in front of a bumper crowd in Ballybofey. Second place Wexford Youths narrowly defeated Cobh Ramblers, but Stephen Henderson can take a lot of positives out of this defeat as his Cobh side but up a real battle. Elsewhere Athlone and UCD fought out a one all draw. As I told you in my last blog I headed to Tolka Park to see Shelbourne play Cabinteely.Shelbourne manager Kevin Doherty had been under pressure and I was very interested to see how his team would get on.Well to be perfectly honest they played Cabinteely off the park and should have won by a bagful of goals. They came out one nil winners with a goal from right back Adam O Connor,who if he was to be honest he probably would have to admit he miss hit his shot from the edge of the box,but somehow it found it’s way into the net. The hero for Shelbourne on the night was goalkeeper Greg Murray who made a world class save with only three minutes to go, his save bagged the men from Tolka all three points. This could be the turning point of their season and manager Kevin Doherty can sleep a lot better this week.

Other news this week in Division One is that former Carlisle United, Bohemians, Derry, the list is endless, manager Roddy Collins has taken over at Waterford United. Roddy is a real character in the game and I had many a run in with him when I was refereeing in the league. But his passion for the game is top notch and I expect him to get the Blues moving up the table once he gets his teeth into them. Anyway that is all for this week, if you are heading to a game anytime soon, you could do no worse than visiting a SSE Airtricity League ground and just see what is on offer.

See you all next week.

SSE Airtricity League Round Up #10

Bringing this blog to you each week, has been an absolute pleasure for me. To share with everyone on the Pitch Talk team how the SSE Airtricity League has being going, is like giving a child Christmas day every week. The amount of great games I have seen so far this season has been incredible. Like a little flower the league has been growing along each week and I am sure that when the season is over, the flower will have blossomed into a candidate for the Chelsea flower show. The clubs have gone all out to please the fans and have been helped by coverage from both written media and the lads on TV. The weekend that just finished saw something quite rare in Irish soccer, on the Bank Holiday Monday Setanta Ireland decided to show two games back to back on live TV. The games chosen were Dundalk vs Bray and the big clash of the weekend Bohemians vs Cork. The latter game was the one I attended and when I looked around the press box in Dalymount, it was full of all the top media men in Ireland. This in itself is a huge plus for the league, as the more the product is promoted, the more fans it will attract. So having said all that, let me below lay out all the action that happened in the Premier and First Divisions of the SSE Airtricity last weekend.

The only place to start with the Premier League round up this week is in Oriel Park the home of the champions and league leaders Dundalk. The team from the north east welcomed crisis club Bray to their home on Bank Holiday Monday, and they absolutely tore them apart. Dundalk played like champions and one by eight goals to one. Yes I am going to print that again, eight goals to one. An amazing result,teams in the SSE Airtricity League to not lose by that scoreline and it has sent shock waves through the league. Dundalk are right in form and are going to be very very very hard to beat and at this stage look good to retain their title, but we have a long way to go and anything is possible. Elsewhere Shamrock Rovers beat Drogheda one nil and have moved into second spot and are six points behind the leaders. Cup holders Saint Patrick’s Athletic won four one away in Galway and they to look like they are gathering momentum in the chase. The other three games in the division were all draws, Derry drew nil all away to Longford,Sligo drew one all at home to Limerick and Bohemians and Cork fought out a one all draw in Dalymount Park. Cork had led the game from the second minute when former Manchester United, Celtic, Leeds United, Sunderland and QPR midfielder Liam Miller got the ball in the centre of the pitch and ran at the Bohemians back four, who made the mistake of showing him to much respect and he slotted a beautiful pass to Mark O Sullivan who hammered home a beauty. Under the leadership of Keith Long, Bohemians have been playing some superb football this season and they kept going and got an equaliser in the eighty second minute through a magnificent goal from Adam Evans. As goals go I would be amazed if this one does not win goal of the season, Evans volleyed home a shot from the edge of the penalty area and ten goalkeepers would not have saved it. I have to admit I was delighted to be in attendance in Dalymount to witness a goal of such beauty.

In Division one Finn Harps are top by three points from Wexford Youths after a one all draw away at Cabinteely. Wexford Youths went on a short journey down the coast to Waterford and came away with all three points after securing a four one victory in the Derby. Elsewhere Cobh beat Athlone one nil and UCD won two nil away at Shelbourne. This league is fast becoming the story of two managers. Stephen Henderson has made an amazing start at Cobh since taking over a couple of weeks back, he has really used his experience to get the team playing as a unit, I actually spoke with Stephen during the week and he told me he really thinks his team has a lot more to offer and with hard work he reckons they can climb the table. Compare that to what is happening at Shelbourne and things could be not more different. At the start of this season Shelbourne appointed Kevin Doherty as manager. This great club needs to be challenging for the title and at the moment they are in a dog fight at the wrong end of the table. They are running on a tight budget and could do with a bit of investment both on and off the field,so Kevin will have to work with what he has got and hopefully he can turn it around. As we head into this weekend’s games I am looking around to see where I will go for my SSE Airtricity League fix of live football this week and I think I will head to Tolka Park to see Shelbourne take on Cabinteely,after all this is where the story could be developing this week. Anyway as I sign off this week I hope if you’re out and about you will enjoy your football as much as I do following the SSE Airtricity League.

Bye for now.

Airtricity League Round Up Week #9

Well they say that time flies when you are enjoying yourself. I can not believe that we are all ready nine games in to this seasons SSE Airtricity League. I know I keep harping on about how good the first couple of games have been,but trust me the start of the season has been superb.The weekend just past which saw everyone complete nine games, was explosive. It lit the fuse for what now will be a battle royal, till the end of the season between the top clubs. As we went into the weekend the focus of attention was on two games, one in Cork and one in Derry. So let me below tell you about everything that went on and how the games unfolded.

There is only one place to start this week and it is in Cork where the home side took on leaders Dundalk. Nearly 7000 fans turned out to see the top of the table clash. Giving that the match was live on TV in Ireland,that was a magnificent turn out by the fans. It also gave everyone a chance to see if Cork could really step up to the mark and put a real challenge together to take Dundalk's title. I for one was convinced a home win would be the outcome of the game and boy o boy did I, like many others get it so wrong. Cork took the lead after thirty two minutes with a goal from Dennehy, to the delight of the home crowd. The goal seemed to spark Dundalk into life and with strikes on forty five and forty seven minutes they stunned the home crowd. That man Richie Towell was the hero with both goals.It was what Dundalk deserved and they headed back home with all three points, and in turn put five points between themselves and Cork. The other result of note was in Derry, where Bohemians took all three points in a pulsating game. Marc Griffin who once played for Derry got the winner with twelve minutes to go. Lowry had given Derry the lead and when Bohemians equalised through Kealen Dillon their was always going to be one winner. The Premier league also had wins for Longford who put three past Drogheda in the latter's own back garden and Saint Patrick's Athletic who triumphed over Sligo. Galway United were the highest scorers of the weekend with a five nil win away in the seaside town of Bray. The only draw of the weekend was a one all draw between Limerick and Dundalk. So nine games in and Dundalk are opening a gap and the other teams really need to get there game together and try and reel them in.

In Division One,Finn Harps sit proudly at the top of the table after beating Shelbourne one nil. Wexford Youths absolutely walloped Cabinteely seven nil and Athlone made hard work of a one nil win at home to Waterford.UCD were held to a one all draw by the resurgent Cobh, who have really turned it around since new manager Stephen Henderson took over.After this round of results I feel the pressure is on manager Kevin Doherty at Shelbourne to really turn things around.He is a young manager making his way in the game and I for one hope he can succeed.I will be heading to see Shelbourne play UCD this Friday night and I am really looking forward to a good game. I will fill you in on what happens when I report back to the boys at Pitch Talk, until next I really hope you enjoy your football.

Airtricity League Round Up Week #8

We are eight games into the season and what has been on show has been fantastic. Fans are seeing a really high standard of football this season and even the critics of the league are giving out positive comments. The games are coming thick and fast and the SSE Airtricity League should be proud of what it has produced over the first eight games. I can see an incredible improvement in the skill level this season, and in the two divisions, it will be nip and tuck as to who wins the silverware. Two items that could change for me so as to make it the best start ever, would be for a bit more live coverage on our TV stations and also a few more fans getting up off their backsides on a Friday night and getting out to a live game. Let me below fill you in on all the details of the round of eight matches and bring you right up to date on everything that is SSE Airtricity League.

After round eight of games, Dundalk sit top of the league after another win, this time over Galway United by three goals to nil. Richie Towell scored a thirteen minute hat trick, to the absolute delight of his manager Stephen Kenny. I have been amazed with the defence the champions have put up at the start of this season to try and make it two titles in two seasons. Everyone should also note that Dundalk are unbeaten so far this term and can only get better as the season goes on. Cork City sit only two points behind the leaders and they had a very impressive two nil win over Longford Town in Cork. Goals from Colin Healy and Garry Buckley saw off Longford, who put up a park the bus type plan for the game. Cork's home games are going to be so important if they are to put in a challenge this season. One thing that the Cork fans are noted for is the support of their club, and the atmosphere in the ground when Cork play at home, is incredible. Elsewhere in the league Shamrock Rovers went to a resurgent Bray and won three nil. In fairness it was a really hard earned three points and manager Pat Fenlon was delighted. Rovers will not be far away when it comes to the final shake up and things are starting to happen under the management of Fenlon. So that is your top three in the Premier League and they are only separated by four points,from third to first. In other games Derry won two nil away at Limerick, which sees Limerick rooted to the bottom of the league. Title favourites before a ball was kicked this season were Sligo and their problems continue as they were held nil all at home to Bohemians. In the one remaining game, we saw a superb two all draw between Saint Patrick's Athletic and Drogheda United.

In Division one the team who are now racing ahead at the top of the league are Finn Harps. The men from the north west, traveled to second place Wexford Youths and came away with all three points after winning one nil. That now puts a whopping five points between the two. Third place Athlone could only manage to draw, two all at home to Cabinteely, who in fairness must have been delighted with their point.The other two games in the league saw UCD win at home, three nil against Waterford. Cobh Ramblers beat Shelbourne one nil and poured more stress on new Shelbourne manager Kevin Doherty.Big things were expected from Shelbourne this season and so far they have been a big let down. I wonder if the new manager will survive for much longer,if the results do not improve. A lot of eyebrows were raised when Kevin was given the job and I know he is on a tight budget at the club. I for one would love to see him succeed as he is one of the nice guys of Irish football.

So as we go into this weekend,s games all eyes will turn to Turners Cross where Cork will take on leaders Dundalk. This will give everyone a better idea of how far Cork have to go if they want to win this years title. This game is been shown live on national television in Ireland and it will give the armchair fan an idea of what they are missing. I myself have a choice of two games to go to and I am so looking forward to the next couple of days. I will be reporting everything back to all you guys on next Monday's Pitch Talk, so tune in and catch up on everything that is SSE Airtricity League. Until next week enjoy your football and I hope your team gets you the result you want.

Airtricity League Round Up Week #5

Unlike across the water in England where titles are won around the Easter time, in the SSE Airtricity League the first tables are forming after the first six games. It is when the shape of both leagues really starts to bed itself in and we can see who will be up for the challenge. So as we went into the weekend’s games I was focusing on whether Dundalk could keep their marvellous start going, could Cork keep up the challenge and what response were we going to get from all the other clubs who have failed to ignite their season just yet. It is also a time when clubs realise that managers may not be able to cut the mustard and rather than let it drag on into problems later on, they change the man at the top. We have had two managerial changes already with one in each league and I will cover that later in this blog in greater detail. So stick with me and let me below unravel all the ups and downs of week 5 in this seasons SSE Airtricity League.

Dundalk travelled to Limerick and having started so extremely well this season, were expecting to take all three points. It was a game Stephen Kenny’s men controlled from the start and looked odds on to take all three points until the 89th minute when Limericks Paul O Connor scored an equaliser. It truly was a disappointment for the many travelling Dundalk fans. The result ended Dundalk’s 100% start to the season and they also conceded their first goal. Limerick were delighted with the result and they hope it can kick start their season. 

The shock of the weekend or any weekend came at the showground, the home of Sligo Rovers. The home side were hammered by Bray Wanderers who if you can remember lost their manager Alan Matthews last week, after himself and his whole coaching staff resigned. It really left Bray in the lurch and their response was amazing. A hat trick from club captain David Cassidy saw off a home side, who were shocked by a defeat that nobody saw coming. This game had to be a coupon buster last weekend, it has now given Bray Wanderers something to build on and the only way for them is up. In other games in this division, Cork kept up the challenge and won three nil at home to Derry City. Bohemians had a great win away to Drogheda United and that puts them back in the race as well. 

Shamrock Rovers won three nil at home to Galway United and yes the President of the Republic of Ireland was in attendance once again to watch his beloved Galway. He was to return to the Presidential Palace an unhappy man though as goals from Drennan ( 2 ),and Miele saw off the away side. Elsewhere Longford Town and Saint Patricks Athletic drew two all and I have been hearing reports that overall it was a fair result.



In Division One there was also a managerial change over the weekend and I have to say I was delighted to hear the news that Cobh Ramblers had appointed Stephen Henderson as their new manager after Martin Cambridge resigned. Stephen is one of the nice guys of our football over here and I know if he reads this he will get my meaning. I want to wish him the best and I feel Cobh will be in safe hands with him at the helm. On the field Shelbourne travelled the long windy road to Waterford and came away with a two all draw, a result manager Kevin Doherty had to have been happy with. 

The Waterford trip over the years has seen many teams fail but on the night Shels deserved the point. Elsewhere there were wins for Cobh and Wexford Youths, in Belfield in Dublin UCD and Finn Harps shared the points in a two all draw. So in this league results are also shaping a league table which I have added below. This Friday night I shall be heading to Tolka Park to see Shels play Wexford Youths and it is a game I am looking forward to so much. I shall be back on the airwaves next Monday night with the boys from Pitch Talk so tune in and listen to my weekend report. See you there.

Airtricity League Round Up Week #4

It is amazing to think we are four weeks into the SSE Airtricity League already. It really is now starting to take shape in both the Premier and First Divisions. Over the past week we have had two rounds of games in the Premier League. These games have helped make some shape on the league table and we are really starting to find out the teams who are in Championship form. As we know Division One is a smaller league so it only had one round of games but these also turned out to be very interesting as results came in over the couple of days when the games were played. The results over the period has had supporters from all over the country talking on social media about everything and anything that is SSE Airtricity League. The buzz is all around the league and things can only be on the up. Below, I will lay out who were the winners and losers of week four.

In the Premier League, the first round of games were played midweek and I have to admit it was great to get out and see a game. I packed my laptop and headed to Dalymount Park for the clash of the night between Bohemians and champions Dundalk. It was the meeting of the two unbeaten sides in the league and something had to give. It was a chance for me to run the eye over the reigning champions as they came to Dublin to play Bohemians. I was tuned into listening to a lot of Bohemians fans as I walked up towards the ground and was intrigued to listen to their optimism for the game ahead, after all they were playing the champions. What was to unfold over the ninety minutes was incredible. Dundalk, came they saw and they blew the Bohemians team away with a three nil win. Goals from McMillan,Kelly and Meenan won the game for the team from Louth.After this result it was clear for everyone to see Dundalk are not going to give up their title to easy. Elsewhere their were wins for Saint Pats,Shamrock Rovers, Longford Town and Cork City. The only draw of the night was in Drogheda, between the hosts and Limerick.

So as we headed into the weekends fixtures, all eyes were turning to Oriel Park, the home of champions Dundalk. They welcomed Sligo Rovers to their home, a game that was to be televised live across the country. It was a game that did not fail to show us, that if you want Dundalk's title, you are going to have to have a good plan to beat them. In fairness Sligo never stood a chance they were hammered three nil. They were outplayed all over the park by Stephen Kenny's men. Dundalk have now played five games and have not conceded a goal and scored eleven, this has been an amazing start to the defence of their title. Elsewhere around the league there were wins for Derry City over Drogheda, Longford away to Galway, Cork City away to Bray and Saint Patricks Athletic away at Limerick. The table is taking shape and next week I will publish the full table so as to give you an idea.


In Division One the game of the week was between Shelbourne and Athlone Town in Tolka Park. I like most people were expecting a tight game but the away side took all three points by winning three goals to one. It brought an end to Shelbourne's unbeaten start to the season and over all Athlone deserved their victory.Other results over the weekend in Division One were Cabinteely's win over Waterford, Finn Harps win over Cobh Ramblers and Wexford Youths one nil victory over UCD. I feel this league is going be topsy turvy and like the Premier I will put a table up in my round up next week.

One bit of news I have to bring to you, which only broke yesterday was that in the Premier League, Bray Wanderers manager Alan Matthews and his coaching staff all stood down after what can only be described as an horrific start to the season. The management team released a statement claiming they have had a huge difference of opinion with the board and lately have gone unpaid. I myself am unsure as to their motives, the words rats leaving a ship come to mind.Anyway I better head off now to check out this weekends fixtures and decide where I am heading too. So if your out and about this weekend watching a game,enjoy yourself. I will be back next week to bring you more SSE Airtricity League news for the lads at Pitch Talk.Until then Cheers.

Who Next I Wonder ?

Like most football fans I remember growing up and looking forward with great anticipation to every weekend when the football season was on. The week would build slowly and by Thursday the real run in to your clubs game would be well under way. Team news would be coming out, and managers would be giving their weekly press conferences, I would read every paragraph of the newspapers and would always hope my club Leeds United would be mentioned. As I grew up I became a successful referee and had a career that brought me such satisfaction and I made so many good friends. I became over the years a member of the third team on the park and what fun times we had. As you all know from my previous blogs I am very outspoken when it comes to all things refereeing, and this season I have seen things go from bad to worse. I have got to the point now, where every week I am taking phone calls and texts from people who always want my views. Refereeing decisions in the Barclays Premier League this season have been horrendous, and I am now getting to the point at the weekend where I am behind the couch, having a sly look out at the TV to see who is going to mess up next and there has been no shortage of takers. It has got so bad, I am struggling to comprehend how these mistakes are been made. The spotlight this week falls on Neil Swarbrick and Keith Stroud. When looking back just before the international break both referees put on horror shows no matter how they try and look at it.

Neil Swarbrick was only one minute into his game between Manchester City and West Bromwich Albion and his disaster struck. Craig Dawson took down Bony and he was adjudged by the referee to have stopped a clear goal scoring opportunity. Well the easiest thing in the world to do was to dismiss the West Brom player and he did, but unfortunately he made a complete hash of things and sent off the wrong player. He dismissed Gareth McAuley who must have been as shocked to receive it as I was to see him getting it. I cannot figure out what he was even thinking. I have to also say I agree with former Leeds United player Danny Mills that it was 50/50 whether or not it was actually red. I thought he would have got away with just giving the free and a possible yellow, a lot of pundits were calling for technology again to be introduced again to help solve these issues, but in my opinion this is basic refereeing and these things should not happen. Neil should be given a few weeks off to reflect and when he returns hopefully it will be as a better referee.

The incident which I have just written about happened in the second live televised match of the weekend. The next incident I want to look at is the one that happened in the Wolves v Derby game which was shown live on TV on Friday night. Actually that is a point not missed on me when a good friend of mine in Dublin Bill Brady, posted on Facebook on Saturday morning that we were only two games in to the weekend and already there had been monumental errors. If I may return to the incident in the Wolves game which had a normally very laid back Steve McClaren up in arms. In what was an obvious goal scoring opportunity referee Stroud blew for a free kick when a Wolves player took out Darren Bent of Derby, but what beggars belief, is the fact he did not send off the Wolves defender. Clear goal scoring chance, not nearly clear but 100% clear. I have to say he totally bottled the big decision and in an indirect way effected the result of the game, something a referee should never do once he applies the letter of the law.

So before I go this week let me assure you that there are referees up and down the country who are doing a terrific job but unfortunately it is the boys on the main stage who are making a mess of things. So as we enter the final few games of the season I do hope none of these bad refereeing decisions will affect your team, but I cannot promise anything. Until next time enjoy your football.

Airtricity League Round Up Week #3

We are three weeks in now, and things are starting to shape up in the Airtricity League. After another weekend of matches we are getting a clearer picture of who will be in the shake up for the honours come the end of the season. One or two sides have surprised me with their performances so far, and on the other hand it has not been the start some clubs would have wanted. The team who have most impressed me during these early stages of the league has to be the Bohemians and the team who are the biggest disappointment so far are Saint Patricks Athletic. Both clubs are from Dublin and have an amazing history behind them. But I won’t dwell on this being that it’s early days yet.

So what went on in week three, well let me try and fill in the gaps over the next two paragraphs.

On Friday night all roads led to the Tallaght stadium for the clash between two of the fancied sides for this year’s title. Shamrock Rovers were at home to Cork City and expectations were high for a cracking game. Included in both sides were former international stars, Liam Miller, Stephen McPhail, Keith Fahey, Alan Bennett and Colin Healy. But a game that promised so much was in fairness a let-down. It ended in a nil all draw and both sides cancelled each other out, but this result only showed to me that these two will be up there or thereabouts when the medals are given out at the end of the season. The surprise of the night was in Oriel Park, where Champions Dundalk hosted FAI Cup holders Saint Patricks Athletic. It was not the fact that Dundalk won by three goals to nil, but it was the ill-disciplined performance by Saint Pat,s. They had Conor McCormack and Killian Brennan sent off in a bad tempered match. These are the games the Dublin side need to win if they want to go on and challenge this season and already they have lost to Dundalk and Shamrock Rovers. Hopefully they can rectify there discipline problems and put a string of results together to get back on track, long way to go though in fairness. Elsewhere in the Premier League there were wins for Galway who overcame Drogheda United one nil. Bohemians had a super one nil win away at seaside club Bray. Meanwhile Limerick drew two all with Longford Town and the points were also shared in Sligo as the hosts drew one all with Derry City. It is bubbling along quite nicely now and this week we have two rounds of Premier League games to wet the appetite. Game of the week will be Bohemians taking on Champions Dundalk in Dublin and I for one will be very interested to see how the Dublin side do. I will be bring you all the news from that game next week, and anything else that happens in the league.

In Division One things are hotting up and the usual suspects have stared so well. Athlone Town won two one away at UCD, Finn Harps won two nil away in Waterford and Shelbourne won one nil away at Cabinteely. To top it all off Wexford Youths battered Cobh away by four goals to one, it is most unusual for all teams playing away in a division to win, but over the weekend this is exactly what happened. It tells me, it will be tight for promotion out of this league this season. There is only one round of matches in this league this week unlike the premier but the game of the week will be in Tolka Park between Shelbourne and Athlone Town.I for one shall be heading to that match and I am expecting a battle for the points.

One huge game I have to mention before I go this week is the meeting between the Republic of Ireland and Poland in the qualifiers for the European Championship 2016. I feel it is a must win for Martin O'Neill and the boys in green. The Poles will not be an easy side to beat but if the Irish can do it, they really have a great chance of qualification knowing the way things are set out for qualification this time. It will most likely be a full house in the Aviva Stadium on Sunday night and I for one will be in attendance. I know also it is been shown live on TV around Europe so if you get a chance tune in and have a look at it. So as you can see it is all go at the moment in Irish Football and long may it last, I hope you enjoy your week as I plan to do and I will see you next week, Cheers.

Airtricity League Round Up Week #2

If the first week in this seasons Airtricity League was fairly quiet, this week it exploded into action in both the Premier and First Division. Goals galore and splendid action saw supporters returning home with great memories of there night out. One such spectator was the President of the Republic of Ireland Mr Micheal D Higgins who had come out to see his beloved Galway play Bohemians in the home of football in Dalymount Park. The president is a great supporter of the Airtricity League and will always try and get to see his club play if his busy schedule allows. There are not to many leagues in the world where a president attends matches on a regular basis. The fans on the night on both sides gave the man a standing ovation as we stood for the countries national anthem. Alas he was to go home a defeated man as Bohemians came out two nil winners. Two goals from centre half Anto Murphy saw the Dublin side continue on an undefeated run, in fairness they played some splendid one touch football and also at a very high pace. Things are going well for manager Keith Long and he is getting the results by all the hard work put in by himself and his players. They will be well worth watching over the coming weeks to see if they can sustain this early form.

Elsewhere around the country in the Premier League there were wins for, Shamrock Rovers away at Longford, Dundalk did a real smash and grab by winning one nil in Derry, Saint Patrick's Athletic steamed rolled over Bray running out easy three nil winners. Cork City thrashed Limerick five nil and as I said last week they will go very close to winning the league this season. Match of the week though was in Drogheda were the home team came from been twice behind to beat Sligo Rovers three two.Goalscorers on the night for the Drogs were,Kavanagh,Brady and Yadolani.So at this early stage of the season a lot of teams are putting down their marker and it all is set up for a great season.In fairness it is what the league requires this season,a few teams chasing for the title in a tight race.

In Division One, there were wins for Finn Harps,Waterford, Athlone and Shelbourne.The Shelbourne side were the most impressive with their victory away to UCD.A goal from Sean Heaney on 76 minutes sealed the points and what is more satisfying is the fact that they managed to beat one of their rivals for promotion. It is to early to start looking at league tables at the moment but when we are five games in we will look at it then. Results this early in the season can build confidence and help you build momentum.

There are some exciting games coming up this weekend and I for one will be in attendance in the Tallaght stadium where Cork are the visitors to play Shamrock Rovers in what will be the game of the week. If this weekend is half as good as last week we are in for a post Saint Patricks Day festival of football. So let the games begin and may the better team get the result they deserved.Until next week,Good Luck