FA Cup Weekend

The weekend that has just gone is the best of the whole football season in my opinion. It is the few days when we all either go and see live or watch on our television screens what unfolds in the 3rd round of the FA Cup. It is at this stage of the competition when the lower league clubs get a chance to have a battle with the boys from the Barclays Premier League. It is also a time when referees meet up with a new challenges as they take charge of games involving some players they may not know. These games can sometimes destroy a good referee as he tries to handle the games without any controversy. As per usual the weekend did not fail to have plenty of talking points and the two referees that have to seriously look at their performances are Bobby Madley and Ian Williamson.

Their is no doubt the top game of the weekend was the match between Tottenham Hotspur and Leicester City, two teams who are flying in the Barclays Premier League. Two sides that would have to be fancied for a cup run. Unfortunately only one could go through to the fourth round and the man picked to control the high profile game of the weekend was non other than my old friend Bobby Madley, who has fallen under my microscope for the boys at PitchTalk before. If you look at his game overall it was fairly well controlled until he decided to hit the self destruct button and award a penalty to Spurs, as penalties go it was a terrible decision. As Danny Rose attempted to enter the Leicester penalty area in the dying moments he was challenged by Nathan Dyer, as he used a blocking movement to prevent the Spurs player advancing, the ball struck his hand. In no way in my opinion did he deliberately handled the ball. If you manage to have a look at it again on some network just watch to see how the Leicester player was not even looking in the direction of the ball. When the referee blew for the penalty I was totally astonished. It is at times like this you want to roar at the TV " ah man what are you doing ". The fallout from the game has been huge and I would like to think the referees bosses will have a look at the decision and advise Bobby as to where he went wrong. I wonder will they take the step of giving him a weekend off to let his mind focus on the error. The one thing that has to be considered as well is that Bobby Madley is a FIFA referee and these sorts of mistakes should not happen in my opinion.

Like most people who follow our beautiful game I like to see the underdog have a good day and get a bit of a run in the FA Cup. This years underdog for me is Eastleigh and they had a big game against Championship side Bolton. All the ingredients were in place for a cup shock, Bolton a team under severe pressure and in bad form and the non league team with their up and at them attitude and then throw in a bog of a pitch and it had, shock written all over it. If I am to be perfectly honest in my opinion of how the referee did in this one, I have to say Ian Williamson performed very well and allowed the game to flow, considering the conditions. He let tackles go and it created a great end to end match, one I was lucky to see on live TV. But the major blunder he let develop in the second half when a spectator ran onto the pitch and chase the play all the way into the Bolton area is beyond belief. Although, it is at the referees discretion to stop the game if he deems he needs to.

This lunatic of a fan had no business been on the pitch and the moment he appeared the referee should have stopped the game. I can not believe the referee did not see him as he was wearing a hoodie and unless I am mistaken nobody has this style of kit. Ian was a very very lucky man that when the ball had ended up in the penalty area it did not get put in the back of the net by this guy. As a referee learning the rules of association football we are all thought about an outside agent, as this guy was on Saturday. Once an outside agent comes on the pitch, the referee has the discretion to stop the game and have the person removed from the playing area, or in my opinion removed from the stadium, the game would then resume with a drop ball. The referees actions on Saturday could have caused mayhem and as I said earlier Ian was a very lucky man but I do feel his assessor would have ripped into him after the game. Discretion on this occasion was taken a little bit far in my opinion.

So once again we had plenty to discuss after our weekend of the beautiful game and I am sure I will be doing the same next week. Until then enjoy your football and I do hope I am not blogging about a mistake by a referee in a game your team is involved in. Until then " Good Luck " .