Yesterday's referee, some 40-something who still calls himself Bobby, not only contributed to the tying goal, he CAUSED it, by body-checking Westwood near the centre dot, and then ignoring an obvious foul on Kevin Long in the penalty area, and allowing the tying goal by Southampton. I'm ready to put on a gorilla suit and appearing on "It's Not the 9 O'Clock News". This goes way beyond coincidence and into active conspiracy theory. I hate playing against 12 men every week.

There is no conspiracy theory, these things are part of the game, can't be helped.

Im more dissapointed our lads weren't more ruthless..would have been better to defend their attack regardless how it started then argue the toss after the final whistle with a 1-0 scruffy win and 3 pts

Agree with Ontario
Am tired of always playing 12 - playing against 11 is hard enough.
How many penalties have we won this season?? its none

I'm actually surprised that they allowed Barnes's goal. After all, he did brush the keeper after the ball was already in the goal.

And "can't be helped"? When did you ever see any of the Big 6 undergo these circumstances?

It's just another example of the bad luck we seem to experiencing this year.

ontario claret wrote:I'm actually surprised that they allowed Barnes's goal. After all, he did brush the keeper after the ball was already in the goal.

ontario claret wrote:And "can't be helped"? When did you ever see any of the Big 6 undergo these circumstances?

He actually put the ball into the net with his hand, albeit not deliberately.

I do Rate the Ref before seeing any footage back, but when I did, the only decision he got wrong was the goalkeeper coming out of the box handling the ball. But he couldn't see it from the angle he had so couldn't give it.

He's a poor referee, in my view, but nothing wrong with his performance at all.

Interestingly, Martin Atkinson did exactly the same today, blocking a player, in the Man U v Chelsea game. It prompted the commentator to mention Madley & Burnley. It's happened for years, it's not anyone's fault.

Some Burnley fans wouldn't look out of place on Arsenal TV or Infowars with their loony conspiracy theories.

Westwood should have decked their player and taken the card.

Can't do anything about the ref getting in the way - it's part of it sometimes and that's one we were unlucky with.

We can say something about the quick free kick we took in the first half though that was called back - because when Man City did that to us, it was allowed to carry on and they directly scored from it

Dark Cloud wrote:Westwood should have decked their player and taken the card.

Should have decked the player and may not have got a card, as it was restoring the balance! Ha!

ClaretTony wrote:He actually put the ball into the net with his hand, albeit not deliberately.

I do Rate the Ref before seeing any footage back, but when I did, the only decision he got wrong was the goalkeeper coming out of the box handling the ball. But he couldn't see it from the angle he had so couldn't give it.

He's a poor referee, in my view, but nothing wrong with his performance at all.

Interestingly, Martin Atkinson did exactly the same today, blocking a player, in the Man U v Chelsea game. It prompted the commentator to mention Madley & Burnley. It's happened for years, it's not anyone's fault.

If you look at the refs position he was on a direct line with the penalty area and had a good view of the goalkeepers hand ball. Also the linesman was on the right side to help him. In my view he bottled it

With all due respect, Tony, isn't the correct call for direct referee interference, inadvertent or not, causing direct change in outcome in a game, a dropped ball? Maybe The_Referee can answer this.

IanMcL wrote:Should have decked the player and may not have got a card, as it was restoring the balance! Ha!

You might be right there! Madley might have felt bad and let him off. And I couldn't help thinking Joey B wouldn't have hesitated!! He'd have taken out Madley AND their player

The ref is part of the field of play. It’s just tough luck.

As I've said on other threads if we played keep ball from our corner on about 87 mins none of the above would have happened..

claret57 wrote:If you look at the refs position he was on a direct line with the penalty area and had a good view of the goalkeepers hand ball. Also the linesman was on the right side to help him. In my view he bottled it

I saw it on the Sky programme. He has a clear view but the ball isn’t visible so he can’t give anything. The lino at that end is on the other side of the pitch.

It’s not even that easy to see from the best camera angle at slow motion.

Belial wrote:Can't do anything about the ref getting in the way - it's part of it sometimes and that's one we were unlucky with.

We can say something about the quick free kick we took in the first half though that was called back - because when Man City did that to us, it was allowed to carry on and they directly scored from it

Taking it 15 yards from where it was given while it was still moving may have been the problem. Says something about our players sometimes that even second time around when we weren't trying to take it quickly, we still couldn't be arsed to stop the ball first. So we needed a 3rd go. You have to wonder what they have for brains sometimes.

dushanbe wrote:The ref is part of the field of play. It’s just tough luck.

It's bad refereeing too. The referee's job is to get out of the way and in that he failed.

He failed as badly as a referee can do in this instance as he directly contributed in favour of one side.

It's as poor a refereeing you'll see without witnessing a blatantly wrong decision or deliberate mistake.

Those who say it's just "part of the game" are akin to those saying players who mess up are just "doing their best".

It's a mistake. An error. A f&*k up.

He needs to be marked down for it.

SussexDon1inIreland wrote:Agree with Ontario
Am tired of always playing 12 - playing against 11 is hard enough.
How many penalties have we won this season?? its none

I admired his honesty of staying on his feet and letting the game flow.makes a Change from all that diving! Pity about the goal though.

I don’t think Madley made enough of an attempt to get out of the way.

scouseclaret wrote:I don’t think Madley made enough of an attempt to get out of the way.

If he'd dived they wouldn't have scored.but your damned if you dive and damned if you don't!

The thing that perhaps Westwood got wrong,Was not the taking one for the team, but he should have carried on into Madley and shoved him over. If he was too knackered or not nimble enough to get his flabby ar5e out of the way that's his look out, and it would have halted play

Talking about the hand ball by the keeper, the Lino on the JH side was right up to the half way line and was clearly looking (imo) at the incident. With our players protesting to Madley all he had to do was ask the Lino on the head phones if he saw it. I think we're clutching at straws trying to blame Maley for the collision, he couldn't get out of the way.

Dark Cloud wrote:You might be right there! Madley might have felt bad and let him off. And I couldn't help thinking Joey B wouldn't have hesitated!! He'd have taken out Madley AND their player

On the podcast he did with Dyche, Barton made reference to the last game he played for us against Man Utd where he should have taken out their player in the build up to their goal but didn't.

I thought Long's rather feeble, inexperienced attempt at challenging Gabbiadini was the main cause of the goal.
Still, onwards and upwards, eh ?

I made the suggestion on Saturday that he not only didn’t get out of the way but that it LOOKED as if he was deliberately obstructing him. This drew hoots of derision from Fidel Castrol who saw signs of paranoia creeping in. It was just that the referee seemed determined to stand his ground.

dermotdermot wrote:I made the suggestion on Saturday that he not only didn’t get out of the way but that it LOOKED as if he was deliberately obstructing him. This drew hoots of derision from Fidel Castrol who saw signs of paranoia creeping in. It was just that the referee seemed determined to stand his ground.

What did you expect him to do? Dance a jig?

I expect referees to get out of the way.

I've nearly calmed down about this incident.

But not quite.

My god, you seem to be stalking me. Is it lunch time or something? You really must be part of a “plan”.

Me?

I'm having my lunch, yes.

I promise you're not at all important to me.

Not you, Rowls. Fidel Castrol.

dermotdermot wrote:My god, you seem to be stalking me. Is it lunch time or something? You really must be part of a “plan”.

No. I'm just responding to your daft comment where you mentioned me.

Rowls - Get over it. It happens. How does a ref know that trying to get out of the way won't make matters worse? Standing his ground is about all he can do.

fidelcastro wrote:No. I'm just responding to your daft comment where you mentioned me.

Rowls - Get over it. It happens. How does a ref know that trying to get out of the way won't make matters worse? Standing his ground is about all he can do.

I don't see any of Madley's defenders applying the same argument to our player - get over it! What else can Westwood do? Long can't be expected to put in a better challenge!

Madley should have done better.

He was in the way.

You get over it.

The only time I wished Clattenburg was back reffing in a Burnley match. He would've slithered out of the way like a snake no problem.

I am still livid at the **** poor tactics.
Wingers on wrong wings and no substitutions.
Kevin Long was never fouled.
Once again we have defended a cross badly in injury time and been punished.

As for subs, I am actually glad he didn't take Hendrick off, as it would certainly been the biggest cheer of the game, and wrecked what little confidence he retains.

Rowls wrote:I don't see any of Madley's defenders applying the same argument to our player - get over it! What else can Westwood do? Long can't be expected to put in a better challenge!

Madley should have done better.

He was in the way.

You get over it.

The ref is part of the field of play, so get over it!

As for Long, he needed to be stronger when the ball finally arrived in the area, several seconds after the 'collision' between the ref and Westwood.

Stop looking for excuses and accept that we didn't kill the game off when we had the chance.

Unless it's a different view entirely on your laptop?

Being reported that a large selection of the Premier League refs run a prediction competition between themselves worth a lot of money. Seems we were picked for bottom 3 by a lot of them and the report suggests its the reason why certain clubs like Burnley get refs doing their upmost to see that we lose.

Apparently Madley is up at the top and Burnley and Southampton are two of his picks that are doing the worst so looks like the body check may have been deliberate after all

Slow day Devils_Advocate?

Devils_Advocate wrote:Being reported that a large selection of the Premier League refs run a prediction competition between themselves worth a lot of money. Seems we were picked for bottom 3 by a lot of them and the report suggests its the reason why certain clubs like Burnley get refs doing their upmost to see that we lose.

Apparently Madley is up at the top and Burnley and Southampton are two of his picks that are doing the worst so looks like the body check may have been deliberate after all

Even for you that's pathetic.

Rowls wrote:Slow day Devils_Advocate?

Seems its always a slow day in that head of yours Rowls

1. Westwood should have taken their player out as soon as they broke.
2. We should have defended the attack better.
3. It wasn't a foul on Long. Never been a foul. SD is wrong saying they get given every week. There was no contact, that's why it wasn't given.
4. Everyone is clutching at straws.
5. We were poor and didn't deserve to win the match.
6. These things happen. Move on.

fidelcastro wrote:Even for you that's pathetic.

To be fair to me though its not even close to being the most silliest far fetched post on this thread

Devils_Advocate wrote:To be fair to me though its not even close to being the most silliest far fetched post on this thread

On balance, I reckon it is.

Where are these reports of a 'Ref's Club' where they try and influence League standings then?

Barmy.

Keeper handled ball outside of penalty area FACT
Westwood was taken out by the Ref FACT
Longs defending for goal was awful FACT
Game was draw FACT
We did not deserve to win.

FCBurnley wrote:Keeper handled ball outside of penalty area FACT
Westwood was taken out by the Ref FACT
Longs defending for goal was awful FACT
Game was draw FACT
We did not deserve to win.

Keeper handled ball outside of penalty area FACT --this can't be FACT because the referee saw no offence.

Devils_Advocate wrote:Seems its always a slow day in that head of yours Rowls

Some days slower than others but so far today I've done my shopping, fixed a sign for the pub, fixed and re-fitted a pair of wooden shutters and also fixed a faulty fire door.

All before actually starting my shift so I'm feeling productive today.

Still found time to post a remark in reply to your post above too. In truth, it was a poor effort on your behalf. You're normally more subtle than that.

Anyway, I'm back off to work in a minute or two - what a trooper I am.