Yesterday, ahead of the exhilarating Championship clash with Bournemouth, a game that produced a thrilling finish, I penned an article.
The article – supporters-views-on-refereeing-standards – was related to, as the title suggests, officiating being in decline. I ended the article with the words:
“All we can hope, in the short term, is that we don’t get any dubious or confrontational decisions in our game against Bournemouth this afternoon, is that too much to ask for?”
Well, it appears it was too much to ask for!
With the Hatters leading 1-0, courtesy of an own goal from Kelly, the ground erupted when Cameron Jerome, after a goalmouth melee, prodded the ball home from close range.
It appeared that the Hatters, against top-of-the-table Bournemouth had made it 2-0 with the referee pointing back to the centre-circle.
However, in the kerfuffle that ensued, some 90 seconds later, after a consultation with his assistant, the flag went up for offside.
To me, watching a replay of the incident, it very much appeared that the Bournemouth bench, with a particularly vociferous protest, may have swayed the opinion of the officials.
Naturally, the reversing of the decision prompted some comments on social media:
Yeah it was offside but you can’t overturn the decision just because they’ve had a bit of a cry about it 😂 how could Parker or anyone even see who it came off last from their view?
— SooperE123 (@SooperE123) January 15, 2022
That’s is a shambles
— Jevon gradley (@Jevon_gradley) January 15, 2022
Yes, it was a shambles and the correct decision may have been made, but, in my opinion, it enhanced my views that officiating, in general, in this country, is in decline!
We can only ponder what lies around the corner in years to come!
COYH’s
Reading v Luton Town?
Reading to Win!
Luton Town to Win!
A Draw!
Previous article by Mad Hatter
Luton – It Was Our Pleasure Folks
not just football where the officials are doing crazy things. look at formula one, seems to be happening everywere. it is spoiling it for the fans. we don’t watch the officials in sport, we want to watch the sport, not be interupted by whingeing to officials. saying that, i would hate to have there job, they can’t win.would two ref’s be the answer, or would that make it twice as bad.??? COYH.
don’t mention F1, Lewis was robbed.
Watching on TV, I can’t deny that the ref got all the big decisions right in the end… But, I felt he was awful for the entire match with our lads grabbed, pulled, tugged, barged and kicked continually without even a thought of blowing whilst awarding free kicks to Bournemouth every time we got close to them.
Felt it broke up our play and focus at times.
Parker had been whining we were physical before the game and I wonder if he didn’t have a little cry to the officials before the match as well to complete his hat trick of crying over the offside and then watching NJ sliding around like a kid in an ice cream factory.
COYH
The tug on Cameron Jerome was the most blatant and right in front of the assistant referee, who did nothing!
Morning MH have just watched the game again what a disgrace the officials were. The referee had given a goal with no flag from linesman. It was only when Bournemouth bench appealed ( who could not possibly have seen the incident) that the referee went to the linesman and told him to raise his flag for offside. This same linesman failed to see a Luton player pulled to the ground by his shirt. Also unable to flag when the ball went out of play in the Bournemouth half. The other linesman failed to flag when Bradley was hauled to the ground which should have been a penalty. . However justice was done when my man of the match Naismith scored a winner to be remembered for years to come.
COYH
It wasn’t just the Referee who gave the Officials a bad name yesterday. The Linesman who ran the Line at the Kenilworth Road end also missed some blatant fouls on Luton Players in the box. It isn’t a biased view, it’s just how it was. And the Offside decision; having now seen it on TV it may have ultimately been the correct one, but allowing the defending Team or Manager to alter the Referee or Linesman’s decision can never be supported.
I remember the rightful criticism that Man U and fergy got for harassing officials, if the officials are now going to change decisions based on player and manager protests then it will open the floodgates!
The ref was happy to give the goal and the linesman definitely did not think it was offside until the moaning players and staff bullied them into changing their mind. Never seen the like at the Kenny during my forty plus years of going