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.