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 "
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