FA CUP WEEKEND DECISIONS

The weekend that has just passed was all about the 5th Round of this years FA Cup. A competition that the FA over the years have tried to destroy, with its changing of the format. I have even been reading this week in the media, that the powers to be, are now looking to switch the games to midweek and have no replays. I am not so sure about this decision and once again it has all the hallmarks of the big Premier League clubs involvement. Do the FA not realise, how this competition is viewed around the world by your genuine football fan, and not your prawn sandwich brigade as Roy Keane once famously called them. It gives the fans of the smaller clubs an opportunity to have a few great days out if they get a cup run going. The new proposals could ruin all that, as your average fan may not be able to attend an away fixture in midweek due to time and work constraints. If anybody from the FA gets to read this article, please think long and hard before making a decision to change the games to midweek. I am not really bothered if there are no replays, but moving to midweek would be a major blow to the fans and the competition in my opinion needs the support of the fans.

Having said all of that, where did I focus my attention this weekend for the boys at Pitch Talk. I decided to have a look at how Mike Dean handled the Arsenal v Hull City game at the Emirates. It was an interesting appointment, as the followers of this regular blog will know, I had huge problems with Mike,s handling of his last Arsenal game when they played Chelsea. It was the day that Gabriel and Costa clashed in the game played at Stamford Bridge and the Arsenal defender was sent off. I was not very happy with Mike,s handling of that incident earlier in the season and was very interested to see what approach he would take to handle the game at the weekend. I can only say in a word what I thought of his performance this weekend " Awful ". The game itself was not a tough game to handle and only had two big talking points, which I am afraid to say Mike got terribly wrong and yes they were decisions that could have seen a different outcome than a nil all draw. How Mike did not give Arsenal a penalty when Alex Bruce clearly handled Mohamed Elneny,s shot in the first half, is not even debatable. Bruce clearly moved his arm in the direction of the ball and that to me is a cast iron reason to give a penalty. Mike been Mike,he just waved play on, sometimes he shows a bit of arrogance when officiating, which is something I hate in a referee. One other incident from the game I can not let pass without comment is the fact that Mike failed to send off Arsenal defender Koscielny for a second bookable offence when he dived in and brought Hull City,s David Meyler down. It was a yellow card all day long and Mr. Dean should have produced it, instead he decided to talk to the Arsenal defender, bad refereeing in my opinion. Everybody in the ground knew the player had been booked earlier in the game and should have seen red, but I am wondering after all the fall out from his last time refereeing Arsenal did he decide to just bottle it, so as not to cause himself further issues as the season is coming to a close, surely not.

I can not finish up this week without mentioning the coin throwing incident at Reading involving West Bromwich player Chris Brunt. This in my opinion was a disgusting action by a West Bromwich fan towards one of his own players. It has no place in the game and I know the lads at Pitch Talk will back my views and condemn the action of that particular fan, as these guys are real fans. In all my days following football I have never come across anything like it. No matter how bad a teams performance is, there is no place in football for that sort of behaviour. I hope the authorities find this guy and ban him from ever going to a game again. So as I write, every week before I sign off, I do hope you enjoy your football in the coming week and I can only keep my fingers crossed that a referee does not upset you, with a bad decision. But be assured if any errors happen I will be all over it for the boys at Pitch Talk, until next week CIAO.

Valentine Day Referees Disaster

It was a Sunday when everyone should have felt the love. The Barclays Premier League fixture list had pitted the top four against each other in what a certain TV station was calling its usual Super Sunday. But this my friends was no ordinary Super Sunday, this had all the ingredients of an extra Special Sunday in my opinion. Not alone had we got the top four clubs in the country meeting but the games were to be refereed by the top two officials in my opinion as well. I have always pointed out for the boys at Pitch Talk in my regular blog, that top games should get top referees. In the case of these two huge games, the match appointments were spot on. Martin Atkinson was given the Arsenal v Leicester game and Mark Clattenburg was to take charge of the Manchester City v Tottenham clash. I have been pointing out for weeks now, that the last thing we needed in this season of some poor refereeing decisions, was for a referee to make a mistake that would hand someone the title. So on Sunday I sat back and relaxed as I knew Martin and Mark would put both of these games to bed without any issues. Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear how wrong could I have been. Both of my favourite officials had big calls to make and I am not convinced they got them right. Read on below to see were I thought it went a bit off track for me.

In the game at the Emirates their were three main talking points. The cases of two penalties and one red card. Leicester manager Claudio Ranieri, was reported to be fuming with the referees handling of the game. His main gripe was the red card shown to his defender Danny Simpson. Well I am sorry Mr.Ranieri, but the referee called this one perfect in my opinion. Simpson was already on a caution from earlier in the game when he decided to pull back Arsenal,s Olivier Giroud in the second half. In my opinion the action of Simpson deserved a yellow card, because it was a tactic employed by Leicester once they had gone one nil up. Their sole mission on Sunday was to not let Arsenal back into the game and it was stop the Gunners at all costs, Martin Atkinson got this decision correct, but that was the only good point of Martin,s game. The other incidents in the game that have me critical of the referee is two big penalty calls. The penalty that Leicester got in the first half was at very least questionable. Jamie Vardy might have come from the lower leagues to the top of the goal scoring charts this season, but he has in a very short space of time learned the art of winning penalties for his side. Now for those of you who read my regular blog for the boys at Pitch Talk, you will all know I hate players who cheat to gain penalties. On Sunday when Vardy attacked at the corner of the area it was to his pleasure that Monreal stuck out a leg to challenge. The Leicester player threw his leg out towards the Arsenal defender and, well you know the rest. He conned the referee in my opinion and unfortunately Martin Atkinson fell for it. A lot of people have been discussing recently what can be deemed hand ball, especially in the penalty area. Well on Sunday at the Emirates, Leicester City,s player Kante should have been penalised by the awarding of a penalty kick against his team for deliberate hand ball. No if,s but,s or maybe,s, he clearly made a movement with his hand towards the ball and contact was made. I could not believe that the referee or his assistant did not see it. This is the criteria for giving a handball and I fail to understand how a penalty was not given. I am sure for those of you who would like to see it, I would imagine it is on some network somewhere to view. It was the clearest of penalties and was just another error by the referee on a day when I expected very little.

Martin Clattenburg took control of the City v Spurs game and although he did not have as much to do deal with as his colleague in the Emirates, he made, what was in my opinion a game changing decision by awarding a penalty to Tottenham. A Danny Rose attempted cross was blocked by Sterling and to my utter disbelief the referee awarded a penalty, as he deemed that Sterling had handled the ball. It was a very poor call by Mark and I am sure when he looked at it later in the privacy of the dressing room he would have been honest with himself and recognised his error. The ball clearly struck Sterling on the ribs then deflected onto his hand, this in my opinion could never be seen as a penalty. It was a game changer, as it gave Spurs the opportunity to take the lead from the resulting penalty. It was only one mistake in a huge game but not acceptable in my view. Only last week I was praising Mark,s refereeing and backing him to go and have a good tournament in France this summer. I have no doubt he will but this is one error he could have done without.

So there you have it, another weekend over in the Barclay,s Premier League. It has been a very disappointing one for me, as my two favourite referees had bad weekends. I believe it will be a long time before the two lads have bad performances again. Top referees are top referees, because they make the least errors on a regular basis, that is what makes them tops. As we face into the final run in now, over the next couple of weeks, I really do hope I am not reporting for the boys at Pitch Talk about more errors from the officials. Until next week I do hope you enjoy your football and the referee does not cause your team to be going home without points they should have been. Ciao !

One out of Two is not Bad

A week hasn't gone by this season that we have not had our fair share of controversy in the Barclays Premier League, FA Cup and the Capital One Cup. It has been an incredible journey along the rocky road of match officials making mistakes on a weekly basis. For those of you who read my regular column for the boys at Pitch Talk you will know exactly what I am talking about. In my last blog I spoke about the point of the season we are at now, with titles and cups up for grabs and I hoped that refereeing errors would not result in clubs losing games. I had only finished the blog, low and behold, we have huge controversy in the second leg of the Carling Cup game between Manchester City and Everton. The match officials got it so wrong it was depressing to watch, once again bad judgement costing clubs big time. I am talking about the ball out of play of course when City scored, read on below to see what I thought of the whole shambles. One other issue I want to look at this week, is how Michael Oliver performed in the FA Cup tie between Colchester United and Tottenham Hotspur and as you pick yourself up off the ground I actually thought he had an excellent game, made much more difficult when he had an awful injury to deal within the first two minutes.

As the fallout continues from what can only be called an horrendous officiating decision at the Ethiad last week, let me shed some light on who the blame should be pointed at. In my opinion the assistant referee Scott Ledger has to take full responsibility for not seeing the ball go out of play. As an assistant, the two basic requirements to assist the referee is to catch any offside and indicate when the ball has gone out of play. It requires full attention to the game at all times and I feel Scott took his eye of the game for a split second the other evening. In that moment when he went to sleep, the play go to far away from him and he was unable to catch up, as we all know the lad Sterling is a flyer. But one thing people seem to be missing on this issue, is the fact in my opinion, although he was a good seven yards behind the ball, he was probably at the best angle to see the ball had left the field of play and therefore should have put his flag up. Everton manager Roberto Martinez was right to be annoyed and the decision had a huge impact on the result of the game. Bad officiating should never have an influence over the outcome of a game, but in this case it certainly did. The day after the game, I heard on local radio people calling for video evidence to be introduced in our beautiful game, well I totally disagree, if the assistant referee had just been focussed and done his job we would not have had a problem. Not only did Scott let himself down, but he dropped Martin Atkinson right into brown stuff as they say. I do hope he has been on the phone apologising to his team mate this week.

Those of you who follow my regular blog for the boys at Pitch Talk know only to well, that when a referee makes a blunder in a match I am all over it and like to give my opinion. This has to be a two way street as far as I am concerned and I have to give praise where praise is due. So let me just say that in my opinion the performance by Michael Oliver on Saturday at Colchester was top quality. His performance was top notch from the moment he blew for a clash of heads between Colchester defenders Alex Wynter and Tom Eastman. The referee was alert to get immediate attention for both players as he knew how bad the situation was. It happened so early in the game that it could have affected everyone involved in the game. When injuries occur in a game it is very often that the referee is the first on the scene, sometimes the injuries can be bad, like leg breaks and situations that have a lot of blood around. It is the referees job to keep everyone calm and what sometimes is missed in these situations is the fact the referee needs to keep himself controlled and calm. Michael was the ultimate professional and although he had witnessed at close hand the injury to Wynter, he did not let it have any impact on his game, he kept his focus and concentration to deliver a polished performance. I have seen some officials struggle after dealing with a bad injury and I am glad it was not the case on this occasion.

Well there you have it, another week over in the big world of football and still more issues to address. I am sure as the final run in now starts to the end of the season we will be discussing plenty more over the coming weeks. I just hope we are not discussing refereeing decisions that have cost your team vital points. But do not be in any doubt if the boys with the whistle make mistakes over the coming weeks, I will let the whole of the Pitch Talk family have my views on everything refereeing. Until next week, " Ciao "