Just  watching an FA Cup tie on the Big Match from the early eighties.

Stoke had 2 men sent off for 'gobbing off' , Manager Alan Durban blamed the referee saying he was 'sh1t' and one of his players got sent off for just being sarcastic.

Take aways for me:

Pitch looked like the Somme, referee looked very feminine, Clarets fans chanting 'B@stard, B@stard' when players sent off, Adrian Heath wearing shorts made for a 4 year old boy and Stoke goalkeeper Fox having a huge afro.

Anyone here go to that match?

Referee was Kevin McNally. He was probably the best referee in the league if you were playing at home and the worst if you were the away team.

If I remember Stoke were substituting Denis Smith but he told them he was ok to stay on. McNally didn’t like that having stopped the game so he sent him off. I think the other didsmissal was arguing over a bad decision that went our way.

Disgrace of a referee.

It’s on youtube but you can’t watch it until Tuesday.

I went.

And I went to our youth cup match on the Turf 3 days later which he also refereed and he got a round of applause from the Bob Lord as he walked on!

CharlieinNewMexico wrote: ↑

Sat May 01, 2021 12:17 am

I went.

And I went to our youth cup match on the Turf 3 days later which he also refereed and he got a round of applause from the Bob Lord as he walked on!

Was it after that game or was if after he’d sent off two Sheffield United players on the Turf two years earlier?

ClaretTony wrote: ↑

Sat May 01, 2021 12:21 am

Was it after that game or was if after he’d sent off two Sheffield United players on the Turf two years earlier?

Oooooooo you might be right. Not sure.

harpers_perm wrote: ↑

Fri Apr 30, 2021 10:34 pm

Just  watching an FA Cup tie on the Big Match from the early eighties.

Stoke had 2 men sent off for 'gobbing off' , Manager Alan Durban blamed the referee saying he was 'sh1t' and one of his players got sent off for just being sarcastic.

Take aways for me:

Pitch looked like the Somme, referee looked very feminine, Clarets fans chanting 'B@stard, B@stard' when players sent off, Adrian Heath wearing shorts made for a 4 year old boy and Stoke goalkeeper Fox having a huge afro.

Anyone here go to that match?

Pitch looked like the Somme, referee looked very feminine,
Referee was beyond feminine.....he's Hollywood blvd material!
Hard to believe.

Was he also the Ref.earlier in the season when we recorded our first league win against Cambridge who also had 2 men sent off? I know as the season went on if decisions and things were not going our way the chant from the Long side was "We want McNally"

I was there... My only recollection was of Crooks getting treated to a lot of banana skins as he ran along the Longside touchline... Not really any big deal at that time tbh...de rigeur almost.

I've not watched the video yet but presume those bits have been sanitised out.

That was a brilliant watch...we have come along way since those days.
Football was much simpler in those days no Joey foreigners screaming in agony at the slightest touch,I wonder if Garth Crooks would ever get into a team of the week on that performance,getting sent off for " Heavy sarcasm" did the Stoke sub only have one leg the linesman only checked one leg and then got fed up,Wilsons beer advertised on the Longside did we really used to drink that pish,and did anyone notice how much Billy Hamilton favoured Bobby Ball.

That was painful

Glad I didn’t have to watch that week in week out