Magical Atkinson

This is the time of the year when the big issues are starting to be settled in the football world. As we head into February and March titles and cups are up for grabs and top games need top referees. As you know from my previous blogs for the boys on Pitch Talk I do like to follow what is going on in the refereeing world and blog on all the big decisions. The first major semi final of the season was during the week between Liverpool and Chelsea. As we all know there is a lot of history between these two clubs and over recent seasons there has been plenty of controversy, the ghost goal and the Suarez bite, just to name two. So it was with great intrigue that I sat down to watch the game on Tuesday night at Anfield. I was delighted to see that Martin Atkinson had been awarded the game, in my opinion is one of the top two referees in England at the moment. The other shall remain my secret for the moment. So let me below try and give you a report from a referee’s viewpoint as to how Mr.Atkinson did on the night. 

The first thing that Martin did to help the game flow was not to be afraid to apply the advantage rule and this worked for him, giving us the public a rip roaring cup tie to enjoy. Sometimes referee’s blow to much and this can stifle a game, but not Martin he was prepared to let the game flow if the players wanted it. You are probably wondering on that statement, but there have been games recently where referees have tried to let the game open out only for players to ruin it by stepping across the line and fouling on a regular basis. Overall I thought Martin was superb and had only got three big issues to deal with. The Chelsea penalty was a 100% correct as the Liverpool defender put in a very clumsy challenge inside the box and left the referee with no option but to point to the spot. Players sometimes can give away the softest of penalties by lunging in or worse still going in to a challenge in the box when their body is not set up to make a challenge. The other two big talking points in the game were the dive by Costa in the second half and Courtois handling outside the box. 

Now let us put the handball incident to bed very quickly, yes it was handball outside the box but there was no way the referee could have picked it up, not in a million years. In fact the only way that everyone else saw it was because of Skys numerous amount of cameras placed around the ground. The Costa dive was really a non event in my mind, the player went to ground after passing by the defender and Martin was correct to do nothing at all but just play on. So throughout the game I was delighted with the officials match performance on the night. There in itself is also and issue in a two legged tie, if the referee in the first game has problems it can lead to the referee of the second leg to have a certain mind set going into it. I am glad to say that whoever gets the second leg need not worry as Martin Atkinson left a very tidy tie lined up to referee. I just hope that next week I am not reporting on a referee who has made a right mess of the game. On that note I will bid you farewell for this week and if your out and about at a match do have a good time and stay safe.

Trouble again at Elland Road

For the past year I have been blogging for the boys from Pitch Talk. If you are a regular reader of my blogs you will know that I mostly get involved in all things refereeing and try and give my views on decisions that have happened in matches.Over that period of time I have had a lot of people ask me do I follow any team myself. Now let me get it out there in this blog and yes I do support a team, the team in question is my beloved Leeds United. I have been following this great club for at least forty years now and on many ocassions I have been to Elland Road over the years. It saddens me to think how this great club has gone from the top, right down to the bottom over the years. Both on and off the field over the past couple of years things have gone so pear shaped you could write many a book about it. From financial melt down to points deduction I like many others have had to grim and bear it with a heavy heart.

It would be magnificent if Leeds United could just get things right on and off the park. In my opinion under the leadership of Ken Bates and manager Simon Grayson things seemed to be going in the right direction but when that relationship hit the wall it seems the club seems to have been on a very slippery slope. I know an awful lot of people will not agree with me but I really thought Ken Bates was a brilliant owner. I am not so sure if Ken had the finances to push the club to the next level,but he always had the ambition of the club and the fans close to his heart. I met Ken on a number of occasions over the years and I have to admit you knew where you stood with the man. When Ken decided to move on he sold the club to GFH as we all know. To say that was a disaster for all involved at Elland Road would be the understatement of the century. They were an absolute joke, promises made, promises broken and the club going backwards once again. I actually remember saying to a close colleague of mine when they took over was, what would this crowd know about running a club, they are a bloody bank after all. How true were my thoughts, in fact the only thing they seemed to do correctly was get out of a business they know nothing about.

The arrival of Massimo Cellino as the new owner was hailed by a lot of the fans as the opening of a brand new dawn in the club's history. But I am not so sure about an owner who sticks his nose into team affairs and from what I am hearing he does have a big say. In fact if you look at his appointment of Dave Hockaday as Head Coach at the start of the season it should have given us a big idea into the Italian owners mind set as we set off into a season. Dave Hockaday was a very lucky man to even get in the door at Elland Road never mind being the boss. Could anyone in there right mind believe that he wasn't Cellino's puppet and if the owner was calling the shots on team selection he would have the balls to stand up and be counted on his team selection. As it stands tonight, the owner is fighting for his right to stay as owner of the club after failing the proper person test to own the club. Neil Redfearn is trying his best to get things moving but I don't think he has the knowledge or experience to get us out of trouble. It is probably to late in the season to make a change now so we can only hope and pray Neil can get it right. One thing that won't help the cause is the refusal of the owner to sign Becchio back from Norwich especially after been requested to do so by Redfearn. The sale of Stephen Warnock to Derby was stupid, after all he has been arguably our best player this season.

So as we move on into the final months of the season this could be the biggest period in our club history. If relegated I worry for a club that has had so much trouble over the years. The need to get ourselves on a run and get to safety has to be paramount in every ones thoughts. Through all this mess I think back to the days when I was a lad and Leeds United were the best team in English Football and the players were household names, Giles, Bremner, Gray, Lorimer to name just a few. The man who ran the show was a certain Don Revie and I feel after what has gone on over the years since Don left must have the man turning in his grave.

No Change

We have come to the end of another calendar year and as we go into 2015 nothing much has changed with managers still moaning and groaning about the men in the middle with the whistles. Week in and week out they are turning their attentions to ranting and raving to the press about so called decisions they have not got during games. Imaginary penalties they have looked for and not received or when their players are sent off bemoaning that the referee got it wrong. So just as 2014 was coming to a close, it was beyond belief that the so-called special one was claiming once again that there was a refereeing campaign against his team. Yes I am writing about Jose Mourinho, the best man of the mind games this beautiful game of ours has ever come across. Below I will clear up a few facts for Mr Mourinho and once and for all bury this guy’s behavior.

As I sat watching Mr Mourinho go into melt during the week, over the penalty claim turned down in the Southampton game my mind began to wander about his career in football and his clashes with referees over the years. More so his teams antics during the ninety minutes of games, no matter what club he has been at. When we first came across him he was manager of Porto and his teams antics in two games, which spring to mind, were against Manchester United and Glasgow Celtic. Both Sir Alex Ferguson and Martin O Neill came out heavily in their criticism of his teams’ gamesmanship behavior. Player’s time wasting and diving yes diving to win at all costs. It was a cancer coming into our game that was not needed.

On his arrival at Stamford Bridge I am not sure what he was putting into his players tea but it seemed to affect their ability to stay on their feet once tackled. Even that big man Didier Drogba was kissing the grass on a regular basis. It seems as if things have come full circle with Mr Mourinho back in the English Premier League after spells with Inter and Real to which I am sure his tactics were the same. When I watched Chelsea v Hull recently I actually thought that his Chelsea players had hit a new low for diving. In fact it was not just the Hull came but they have been at it all season. Against Hull Costa Willian and especially Cahill were seen to produce dives that Tom Daley would have been proud of. So when the referee turned down Fabregas penalty claim in the recent Southampton game and the player received a yellow card for simulation I applauded his decision and I finally thought, at long last Mourinhos tactics have come back to bite him in the backside. Now he can claim all he likes that there is a campaign out there against his side but he has to have a look at himself because his teams have had a history of this behavior over the years.

Let me put another angle on this before I close out. Every week since the season started pundits and fans have been tipping Chelsea for the title and in fairness they managed to open up a sizable gap between themselves and their nearest rivals Manchester City. In fact some local bookies have actually paid out on Chelsea already, but guess what? City is still there and are now right on top of Chelsea in the race. So when Jose was ranting the other day, their was a possibility his team could have been level at the top with City if the Manchester men had not blown a two nil lead. The pressure is on Mourinho because he has won nothing recently but as per usual he steps below the belt and blames the referees. Does anybody remember what he did to Anders Frisk ?

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

Come on Ref

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

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

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

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

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

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

Handball Ref

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

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

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

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

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

Loads of Fun

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

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

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

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

Super Sunday You’re Having a Laugh

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

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

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

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