By CandH’s Niall McDonald
I was really looking forward to last night’s match.
A New Year fixture against one of the big boys. A full house under the lights. A chance to put one over on Jose again. An opportunity to test ourselves against some of the top players in the world, and in Zlatan, one of the best of all time.
It was the archetypal cold, crisp winter’s evening and everything seemed set for something special. I posted a comment on the C&H Facebook page an hour before last night’s game that I felt it was either going to end in a famous victory, or heroic failure. In the end it was more the latter, thanks to Mike Dean.
Now the rights and wrongs of the decision have been done to death already but as I sat watching Feghouli trudging off, in equal part disbelief, equal part devastation the old adage ‘an early sending off kills the game’ had never been truer.
“That’s it over now” I said to my daughter, before trying to explain to her what had happened – actually, that’s got me thinking – maybe referees should come out after a game and explain themselves to a group of 9-year olds?!
While the players and the crowd re-grouped I found myself running through the knock-on effects of that single decision. It goes without saying there’s the impact of the extra effort spent by the team playing a man down for 75 minutes. We were no longer able to use attacking substitutions or protect some key players and give others game time. What effect might there now be on the equally huge game against Man City in the Cup this Friday?
Feghouli’s had a torrid start to his career and, having been given his chance, now misses 3 games – putting him back and applying yet more pressure on the squad when we are already losing players to the AFCON. Antonio had the opportunity to play in a free, attacking role snatched from him. Instead he was shunted around the pitch, never really in the right place at the right time until he spurned his one-on-one – his confidence must be dented.
The loss of three points, or a point, could yet be absolutely crucial. Points drive league-placings, and influence team selection and tactics in future matches. Points also mean prize-money at the end of the year, which support transfer dealings. There were (officially) 57,000 in the stadium. A lot of time and money spent travelling, on a bank holiday, by a lot of people who were denied the game they wanted to see.
If we had pulled off my hoped-for ‘famous victory’ the club would have had fantastic marketing material to throw at all and sundry to show we were now, finally, competitive in the new stadium. Sky and 5Live gave this fixture showcase treatment – they can’t have been happy seeing the spectacle reduced to ‘attack v defence’ in the first act. How many viewers switched off? How many unhappy advertisers??
The FA and their sponsors can’t be overjoyed seeing the coverage of the game focused around refereeing errors, dismissals and offside goals? How do the players in Dean’s next game react? Will they think twice to compete for the ball for fear of a straight red? Will they, if Twitter lip readers are to be believed, even look at him in case they are given an early bath??
Now, we still might have lost to Man U with a full 11 and our very best game. But my point is that a single, incorrect decision by one person – and let’s charitably consider it a genuine mistake – impacts on tens, hundreds, thousands, millions of people and can cost them an awful lot of money to boot. And this was a league game – not a cup final, not a relegation decider, not the last minute of the season.
I wasn’t a fan of video replays and 3rd party intervention before yesterday: “these things even out over the course of a season”, as Arsene Wenger says. But would a 20 second delay have got us to the right decision? I think it probably would.”
Niall if you think they even out over a season you are mistaken, they do not which can be proved statistically they result in the teams that do the most attacking getting most of the decisions which generally means the teams with the most money benefitting because they have the best players and the teams with the least money and the less good players suffering disproportionately.
IMHO TV replays should happen for every big decision, the referees should have microphones to the 4th official which would should be switched on so the fans can hear the reasons given for those decisions. It is tantamount to match and league fixing that those at the top always get a disproportionate amount of decisions awarded in their favour not just in our but every league, it is proof that either the referees are crooked or they are just prone to mistakes as all humans are, mistakes shouldn’t decide games and every team should have a right to expect an even playing field, to suggest it would slow the game down when you have idiots like Jones perpetually throwing themselve down and time wasting is ludicrous, managers should also have an appeal system in game if they think they should be getting a decision which has been missed, furthermore the 4th official should be able to contact the referee for retrospective action on decisions that would result in a yellow or red card at which point the game would stop and a free kick awarded at the point of the incident to the opposing team. These are simple changes that would be easy to implement and would solve most of the problems with the pathetic levels of officiating and would deal with the cheats who could be booked in the game when they have tried to con the ref.
It was very annoying to say the least but , as for turning away and switching off it never entered my head . I also thought that it was game over with that sending off but the lads , instead of letting Thier heads drop continued to have a right good go . Proud of them and rightly so . We could have snatched a point or even gone in front with ten men . What nailed it down for Man Utd was the second and offside goal by three Country Miles .
The only knock on effect I want to see is West Ham gaining confidence through playing well despite losing through no fault of Thier own . As for the ref he should be moved to the second division and not officiate at another Prem Game . That also goes for the Linesman who had a perfect view and kept his flag down .
No wonder Mourinho didn’t see anything .
1st time I’ve ever agreed with you Kev must have had to much alcohol over Christmas 🙂
Blimey, I find myself agreeing with you – maybe I’m still hungover from the New Year!
The Ref made a blatant error that killed the game stone dead and then the linesman made an unbeliveable decision that only added insult to injury – mind you the Ref also dropped a gooly by missing Kouyate’s bad tackle – all in all a very bad night for the officials.
The only positive I can think of is that it may hasten the pace of the introduction of video technology – oh, and West Ham’s heads didn’t go down after some dreadful decisions going against them!
The officiating was chronically poor,including not flagging offside when Manure missed an open goal, but it is hyperbole to say that sponsors and advertisers were devastated.All that matters for them is revenue.
The only people who might be devastated are WH supporters!
Completely agree about the use of replays- referees are consistently making poor decisions not helped by being conned by players- both true in the sending off yesterday. It will also help even out things for smaller teams- no more evening things out over course of season nonsense.
I don’t know if saying that Jones conned the ref justifies the sending off. Remember, the sanctions, red or yellow, should not be given based on how bad one of the players is after a contact, but rather the danger, violence, or cynicism of the offender’s action. Dean just doesn’t know how to apply the rules. He gave a red on the theatrics Jones used, in that I fully agree.But that is a wrong application of the rules. And a lack of common sense, like this “ref” has shown consistently each time I have seen him. If he had two ounces of decency and savoir faire, he would not have to use threats against Obiang, he would not have sent Feghouli off (ref has to be ABSOLUTELY certain about this before doing it, and the delay in the decision speaks for itself), he would not send players off on a second yellow thirty seconds from the end of a match, like I have seen him do it.
He is the the ref that cards the most in England Prem. What does that tell you ? He can’t handle it, nothing else.