RATE THE REF - Kevin Friend v Norwich City

[PhiladelphiaChris]

This about 2 minutes extra has me confused. It showed we played 4 minutes extra over here.

[MDWat]

We had 2 season’s in a row at home against Arsenal with 2 minutes injury time and I think they scored in both (later than the 2 minutes in both)

[MDWat]

This about 2 minutes extra has me confused. It showed we played 4 minutes extra over here.

Brownhill was down injured for the first 90 secs or so of injury time. 2 was announced, 4 was played

[Hibsclaret]

You could pretty much guarantee that we would not win that game today after his first 10 minutes of decisions. As biased a performance as you are likely to see. I reckon we win the game with a different referee and that should never be the case.

[PhiladelphiaChris]

Brownhill was down injured for the first 90 secs or so of injury time. 2 was announced, 4 was played

I get you now, i thought they were saying only 2 was played.

[Darnhill Claret]

I thought Wood and Brownhill might have got more than a yellow, but I was 75 yards away.

[claretburns]

A. 2
B. 15 (You have to say his bad decisions were consistent)
C. 15
D. 5

Worst refereeing performance I have seen for a long time!

[Stayingup]

I am in a generous mood so:
5
5
5
5
This was the worst refereeing performance i have seen in 64 years of watching Burnley games and thousands of other games. A referee who cannot even time a game is no good. The record of 3 fouls given against Norwich in 96 minutes is totally laughable and incomprehensible. Seriously, was this referee bribed/leant on and if so by whom ?

Delia. Probably promised him.10 years supply of pies.

[Vegas Claret]

I thought Wood and Brownhill might have got more than a yellow, but I was 75 yards away.

Wood was lucky, caught him way above the ankle, Brownhill slipped and it ended up being a bit of a nothing challenge. Friend couldn't wait to get his card out. Truly an abysmal ref and the tit in the VAR was just as bad

[martin_p]

Brownhill was down injured for the first 90 secs or so of injury time. 2 was announced, 4 was played

Nope, I have my watch stopwatch on and he actually blew a couple of seconds before it hit 47 minutes.

[bfccrazy]

179BFAFF-1FC0-4F2D-B3E7-4134E44458E9.gif (1.63 MiB) Viewed 4828 times

I still don’t understand how this isn’t a penalty.

The way Vydras body drops had me worried - he’s one hard …….. to just sit up from that.

[Rileybobs]

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I still don’t understand how this isn’t a penalty.

The way Vydras body drops had me worried - he’s one hard …….. to just sit up from that.

The weird thing is I was having a conversation with my brother just before this, as Pope had very recently come out to punch the ball. He remarked that Pope did well to take the ball and not collide with a Norwich player and I made the point that it wouldn’t matter as keepers seems to have the divine right to attack the ball with their fists and clear out anything in the way. Within a couple of minutes this happened.

One day, there will be a very serious injury caused by this kind of reckless goalkeeping, and only then will referees start to punish it. This is worse than being punched whilst standing as he’s in mid air, and if knocked unconscious he could easily have landed on his neck.

Still completely staggered that a penalty and red card wasn’t awarded.

[Rowls]

It gets worse and worse every time you see it.

It is serious foul play.

[Jimmymaccer]

MOTD and chums will clear it up….

Oh, hang on a mo.

[bfccrazy]

The weird thing is I was having a conversation with my brother just before this, as Pope had very recently come out to punch the ball. He remarked that Pope did well to take the ball and not collide with a Norwich player and I made the point that it wouldn’t matter as keepers seems to have the divine right to attack the ball with their fists and clear out anything in the way. Within a couple of minutes this happened.

One day, there will be a very serious injury caused by this kind of reckless goalkeeping, and only then will referees start to punish it. This is worse than being punched whilst standing as he’s in mid air, and if knocked unconscious he could easily have landed on his neck.

Still completely staggered that a penalty and red card wasn’t awarded.

For me it’s worse because it’s happening blind to attacking players - you get “taught” early to not back out of a 50/50 as you’ll get hurt.

This happens too regularly and the keeper is punching an outfield player when they are not expecting it and cannot see the keeper approaching.

[martin_p]

MOTD and chums will clear it up….

Oh, hang on a mo.

A ‘bizarre decision’ according to Danny Murphy.

[NewClaret]

Lineker, Wright and Murphy all unanimous that it was a pen.

Disgrace from Friend and VAR.

[ElectroClaret]

Lineker, Wright and Murphy all unanimous that it was a pen.

Disgrace from Friend and VAR.

But apparently, it was checked by VAR.
Which begs the question, wtf are they looking at?

[Rileybobs]

But apparently, it was checked by VAR.
Which begs the question, wtf are they looking at?

Everything is checked by the VAR though isn’t it. Otherwise who else decides what is ‘checked’ by VAR?

[NewClaret]

But apparently, it was checked by VAR.
Which begs the question, wtf are they looking at?

How anyone can watch common assault not conclude it’s a foul is beyond me. If that happens in the street he’d be locked up.

If that were in a Man United, PGMOL would release a statement explaining/apologising for the decision after the match. Because it’s us, it’ll get swept under the carpet and forgotten about.

[Commy]

I have never done this but, I have never seen so biased a ref in all the time I have been watching football. He was an absolute disgrace. I am sure he hates Burnley. And how VAR let him get away with it I don't know.

The thing is, the clubs put reports in about the refs and nothing ever changes. What is the point?

[dermotdermot]

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I still don’t understand how this isn’t a penalty.

The way Vydras body drops had me worried - he’s one hard …….. to just sit up from that.

That just has to be a penalty. Krull missed the ball and punched Vydra, taking him out. Red card. Unbelievable that this wasn’t looked at re VAR.

[Vegas Claret]

I am in a generous mood so:
5
5
5
5
This was the worst refereeing performance i have seen in 64 years of watching Burnley games and thousands of other games. A referee who cannot even time a game is no good. The record of 3 fouls given against Norwich in 96 minutes is totally laughable and incomprehensible. Seriously, was this referee bribed/leant on and if so by whom ?

did you go to Barnsley when Kevin Lynch was in charge, nobody will outdo him in that performance !!!!!!!!!!!!
(beginning to think it's being called Kevin that's the issue!!)

[RammyClaret61]

Commentators on the tv feed for here both stated it’s never a penalty, “the keeper clearly wins the ball”

[superdimitri]

Commentators on the tv feed for here both stated it’s never a penalty, “the keeper clearly wins the ball”

He got a small touch on the ball. If decisions are going to be like this then I hope we don't see a repeat of the Bamford penalty vs Pope last season where Pope made better contact with the ball than both Krul and Ramsdale in our recent appeals.

When I saw it at the time Krul's challenge really didn't look that bad, if it was a clash of heads instead it would have just gone to a drop ball. It wasn't deemed dangerous enough to give even when he touched the ball, not sure it would have even come to anything if he didn't tbh.

But this was just one decision of many. It was like Friend got out of bed the wrong side and decided to wave away every appeal. He then tried and failed to get control of the game by dishing out yellow cards for aimless nothing's.

[Foulthrow]

My favourite one yesterday was when he was telling wood why he wasn’t getting a penalty, he turned round, saw a Norwich player on the floor, clearly hadn’t seen what happened but immediately gave a free kick. A shambles.

[JimmyRobbo]

Commentators on the tv feed for here both stated it’s never a penalty, “the keeper clearly wins the ball”

Laughable isn't it. Vyds clearly got there first. Anyone who has played football knows that the keeper's punch couldn't have put the ball on Vyds' head for it to go towards goal in that fashion.

[Loyalclaret]

That was poor, very poor

[RVclaret]

Commentators on the tv feed for here both stated it’s never a penalty, “the keeper clearly wins the ball”

I think the co-comm was Rob Green (former Norwich keeper) so rather unsurprising comments.

[nil_desperandum]

Laughable isn't it. Vyds clearly got there first.

But that point is irrelevant. It doesn't matter who touches the ball first.
Whether or not he gets the ball or not, it's wreckless, dangerous play from Krul, and if an outfield player takes out another player in that manner - even if he gets the ball - it's a straight red nowadays, (so of course a penalty).
(We frequently see players head the ball but get penalised because they catch the opponent in the face with an elbow, arm or fist.)

[martin_p]

Commentators on the tv feed for here both stated it’s never a penalty, “the keeper clearly wins the ball”

Presumably ‘here’ is Norwich!

[martin_p]

My favourite one yesterday was when he was telling wood why he wasn’t getting a penalty, he turned round, saw a Norwich player on the floor, clearly hadn’t seen what happened but immediately gave a free kick. A shambles.

I was raging at that one. He literally had his back to the incident. The linesman was looking but didn’t flag (but the sole purpose of a linesman’s flag seems to be to indicate that the ball has gone out of play these days).

[BurnleyFC]

It’s a shame it wasn’t piggy-faced ****** Kevin Friend who was on the end of Krul’s double fisted assault.

[quoonbeatz]

The one that really summed him up was the free kick for Aarons falling over the ball with no one within a yard of him.

I don't think Krul should have been sent off but it's as clear as penalty as you will ever see. Only Friend's 2nd game of the season wasn't it? I think we saw why.

[Darthlaw]

In rugby a tackling player holds responsibility for how the player he is tackling lands.

If they get it wrong, it’s instant dismissal.

Watching that Krul ‘punch’ makes me sick how he’s managed to not only get away with staying on the pitch but not even be penalised.

The only positive in this is that Vydra didn’t come away with a serious injury.

[AfloatinClaret]

I tend to be sympathetic/generous toward referees, but felt that Mr Friend made a lot of poor decisions today, exacerbated by their inconsistentcy.
Very early in the game either Brownhill or perhaps Westwood appeared to be pulled down approaching Norwich's penalty area but Mr Friend waved play-on/no foul and within seconds there was an almost mirror image of that challenge made by JT at the other end. Mr Friend this time penalised and added insult by booking JT for the offence, though that booking may perhaps have been for JT's protest regarding the referees double standards rather than the challenge itself?

Those few moments seemed to 'set the done' for the game; referees have 'bad' games - I'm sure I had plenty - but failing to at least appear fair and consistent in your decision making is unforgivable.

A. Decision Making 12
B. Consistency - 8
C. Fitness and Positioning - 22
D. Control and Authority - 13

[CrosspoolClarets]

That a player from each side was booked for dissent in separate incidents shows the ref was having a mare. Quite rare. Eventually players from each side were throwing themselves over because of the way the reffing started. He looked like he was having a miserable day, it was only when the crowd told him he didn’t know what he was doing that he started laughing (each time the chant came out).

The things he got right (Wood) caused uproar simply because of the earlier ones he got wrong. The Vydra one was also down to Pawson, I don’t see how Vydra heading that wide with a possible brush against the keeper on its way means VAR judge Krul won the ball and in any event it was reckless and out of control. That our player went off injured due to it added injury to insult.

I do think the ref was biased because he became intransigent and reluctant to give us anything which he didn’t rise above, he may also have been influenced by Klopp and others talking tripe last month.

[Clarky]

For me his inconsistency was highlighted by 2 free kicks in the space of a few minutes. The first, against us the wall was made to stand at least 12 yards back. The second for us , I doubt the wall wall was8 yards.back.

[Local cricketer]

That's a good question - it's nearly always 4 or 5 when nothing much has happened.

Arsenal a few year back when they scored

[Stproc]

5
5
5
5
As bad a display of refereeing that you could ever see. He negated us far more than Norwich did, we couldn’t tackle anybody for fear of another yellow / red card and the 2 runs from their half where they were untouched just highlighted the situation.

[Beagleheart]

My son lives in China and can’t always find a feed so I keep him in touch via WeChat. Looking back at yesterday every other text was about how awful the referee was. I can’t remember doing this before. Mr. Friend wasn’t remotely up to the required standard.

10
9
11
10

[MT03ALG]

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I still don’t understand how this isn’t a penalty.

The way Vydras body drops had me worried - he’s one hard …….. to just sit up from that.

If this had not happened on a football pitch, the keeper would have been charged with GBH !!

[bfcjg]

Even Alan Partridge would have us a penalty.

[Spike]

Dodgy refs now retire to be permanent VAR cheats!

[RammyClaret61]

Presumably ‘here’ is Norwich!

No sorry, Australia.

[tiger76]

I don't think I've ever commented on a ref thread before, however that was so poor I'm moved to brandish Kevin Friend a red card after that shocker.

And even excusing Mr Friend, what on earth were his assistants, and especially VAR doing.

We didn't play well, but if even one of those key decisions goes our way we probably win that game.

[bfcmik]

A. Decision Making -3
B. Consistency =>0
C. Fitness and Positioning 22
D. Control and Authority 11

[Mattster]

I commented on the game around the 70 minute mark that his performance had gone past being rank bad to being simply weird.

It was honestly like he was watching a completely different game as his decisions were utterly detached from what was happening on the pitch.

In terms of marks it's a quite easy to make it 1's across the board apart from fitness and positioning because he was in the right position to make completely the wrong decision on most occasions.

A. 1
B. 1
C. 20
D. 1

[Darnhill Claret]

Could have been worse. Jay could have got two yellows for his two attempts to stop their third centre back when he ran almost the length of the pitch. First when he grabbed hold of him in the centre circle (but not very effectively) and then when he tripped him on the edge of our box. Thankfully Friend got that wrong as well.

[Herts Clarets]

A. Decision Making 5
B. Consistency 15
C. Fitness and Positioning 20
D. Control and Authority 1

One of the worst refereeing performances i can remember.