The standard of refereeing in League 1

[Luke Imp]

I've put this in the match thread but it's too ridiculous not to post in here as well.

As for the ref, that's got to be one of the more whistle happy we've ever had. Missed countless fouls (mostly on Hopper and Bishop), didn't stop play when a Fleetwood player played it off him, allowed Fleetwood to take an offside yards inside OUR half and didn't allow us us to get Robson on, despite Roughan going off injured and warned Rushworth for timewasting about five minutes into the second half despite a) not actually timewasting and b) not giving the same warnings to their players in the first half. Absolutely abysmal stuff albeit made the game a bit fiery and got the crowd further involved.

 

[valefan16]

One today must have come on the Pompey coach, he was dog shit. Stone wall penalty not given, late on our keeper no booking? A pattern of play where there appeared two shoves in the box not given…

Portsmouth played him like a fiddle.

The lino was as bad as well, she had a great view of the penalty claim and somehow didn’t give a shove in the back right in front of her.

He was booking anything that moved at the Mem last season but how he’s not dealt with Portsmouths cynical antics with any yellows is beyond me.

Hopefully that’s the last time we have him this season.

 

[Boletus Edulis]

I know there isn't generally a lot of love for rugby among football fans...although coming the other way it can border on loathing at times...but I would like to see us adopt the rule from that game of only the team captain being allowed to approach the referee, and them being present when a member of their team is being warned, booked or dismissed.

We would probably see a reduction in the amount of dissent aimed at officials, maybe not to start but more likely once accepted forms of behaviour are more widely accepted. This might encourage more people to get involved in refereeing, if there is less abuse aimed in their direction, or they actually have the tools to deal with it.

Our captain did that today, and got booked for his trouble.

 

[Bartonyellow]

Let’s be honest they are shit for all teams.
So nobody is singled out whilst it might feel like it.
We have all had Trevor kettle and all the other fuckwits.
It evens itself out over a season I believe.
We are all in the same boat.

 

[thewwfc]

Let’s be honest they are shit for all teams.
So nobody is singled out whilst it might feel like it.
We have all had Trevor kettle and all the other fuckwits.
It evens itself out over a season I believe.
We are all in the same boat.

Yeah, that’s my view too. We get bad decisions go both for and against us.

In fairness, given our shithousery, I’d have to admit that we make the ref’s life harder as well and give him more decisions to make off the back of niggly fouls/gamesmanship etc.

So if teams who employ those tactics get a reputation for it, then you can’t be surprised if the ref makes some decisions with that in mind.

 

[UppaTowen_ITFC]

Another Ref that wanted to be the center of attention. The one at Town today must have come from Sunday league

It’s ironic timing that the first game after making this thread is a contender for worst referee we’ve ever had.

In what world is this a free kick to Barnsley?

https://twitter.com/x/status/1563572121007116290

 

[Super_horns]

Looks harsh but not sure asking for a certain sort of ref to cope with the big crowds and pressure will help his cause .

'Referee cost us the game' - McKenna's verdict on 2-2 home draw with Barnsley

Ipswich Town manager Kieran McKenna says referee Stephen Martin cost his side victory following this afternoon's 2-2 home draw with Barnsley.

www.eadt.co.uk

 

[UppaTowen_ITFC]

Looks harsh but not sure asking for a certain sort of ref to cope with the big crowds and pressure will help his cause .

'Referee cost us the game' - McKenna's verdict on 2-2 home draw with Barnsley

Ipswich Town manager Kieran McKenna says referee Stephen Martin cost his side victory following this afternoon's 2-2 home draw with Barnsley.

www.eadt.co.uk

You should have seen the ref today though. At about 60/65 minutes for whatever reason he just totally crumbled. His decision making was all over the place and even his mannerisms were changing. He’d lost control and you could visibly see him crumbling at the pressure. Barnsley began timewasting (fair enough, everyone does it) and he lost the plot. Had a massive flare up happened in that last 20 minutes, he’d have sent people off just to be seen to doing something.

I don’t like bad refs but I understand it. Today’s ref wasnt just a normal poor referee, he was someone who looked like he couldn’t cope at all with the atmosphere/occasion/situation. Horrendous.

 

[TractorBoys]

Listen, bottom line is pre-match I wouldn't have been devastated with a 2-2 draw today, it certainly wouldn't have stopped our momentum.

However, witnessing that today is nothing short of infuriating. Harness putting us 3-1 up wasn't even close to controversial. People will respond saying it will even out over the season, but will it?? That line of thought relies on every team having similar frequency of events in the opponents penalty area. We all know that's not the case.

I'm so pissed off that I'm not even going to engage or comment on Barnsley short of saying a cumulative additional time through both half's was 12 minutes; none of which were as a result of Ipswich. Robbery.

Dogshit Barnsley. Watch and wait for the inevitable fine/ban from the EFL for McK's comments.

McKenna Slams Referee Martin - Ipswich Town News

Town boss Kieran McKenna slammed referee Stephen Martin for disallowing Marcus Harness’s second-half goal, which would have put the Blues 3-1 in front, and also the official’s overall performance as his side were ultimately held to a 2-2 draw at home by Barnsley.

www.twtd.co.uk

 

[Soz]

One today must have come on the Pompey coach, he was dog shit. Stone wall penalty not given, late on our keeper no booking? A pattern of play where there appeared two shoves in the box not given…

Portsmouth played him like a fiddle.

The lino was as bad as well, she had a great view of the penalty claim and somehow didn’t give a shove in the back right in front of her.

He was booking anything that moved at the Mem last season but how he’s not dealt with Portsmouths cynical antics with any yellows is beyond me.

Hopefully that’s the last time we have him this season.

exact same performance from the same ref where he let Bristol Rovers' captain ref the game last season. almost every decision was favourable to portsmouth today.

i believe we've come away with more bookings (2-1) - seriously laughable.

I'll have to see the 2 penalty shouts again and the red card shout. even if he's got the three right he was absolutely appalling.

7000 vale fans watched their rightback holding the ball on the touchline for 20 minutes in that second half. his time wasting was so bad his own players started urging him to hurry up.

I honestly don't understand how we ever concede penalties given what teams get away with against us. And I've no idea how we ever get booked for time wasting either.



piss poor

 

[Marked Ox]

I doubt the standard is much worse than it used to be. It's just that nowadays every game is televised and there are loads of camera phones meaning that every bad decision can be quickly scrutinised and howled about.

You just need to accept that the refs aren't biased against your club, these things generally balance out over the season, blow off a bit of steam and then move on. Rest assured, every team gets denied nailed-on penalties.

The kind of nonsense that's going on where certain refs are singled out by individuals (Tuchel at Chelsea anyone?) is dangerous considering some of the obsessed nutters that follow clubs.

Anyone who's reffed or run the line at kids level sees this attitude most weeks. Parents at a Div 4 under 12s game who rant at the unfortunate dad who's volunteered to pick the flag up seem to think they're in the stands at a Premier League game. Incidentally, these are the same parents who generally fall silent when looking for a volunteer.

Parents really should be banned from watching their kid's football or sign behavioural contracts that brings the club into trouble for such abuse so that the onus is on the club, not the official to report/stop it.

When reffing I always laughed at parents who knew bugger all about football trying to tell their kids what to do, generally in contradiction to what the coach wanted. I nearly abandoned a game because a Dad ranted at this 10yo lad so much that the lad was crying. As it was in a public park the club couldn't force him to leave so I told the idiot Dad that if he didn't leave the game was off. Tbf, both coaches backed me up which was good to see and he eventually left.

The added benefit of no parents is that the kids may actually just enjoy playing football with their mates like when having a kickabout with them. As no parents reduces the pressure on them for results rather than focusing on just playing and playing for fun.

 

[Marked Ox]

Unfortunately for you Barton is not loved much by anyone who is involved in or follows football...for a variety of reasons...and that seems to be tainting your club. What is that old saying...when the head of the fish is rotten...I suspect the situation may change when he is no longer in charge of the gas.

Indeed. Especially when the ballboys as a collective, are involved in the timewasting and shenanigans.

 

[Marked Ox]

It’s ironic timing that the first game after making this thread is a contender for worst referee we’ve ever had.

In what world is this a free kick to Barnsley?

https://twitter.com/x/status/1563572121007116290

Saw that last night and my first thought was it was a foul considering Harness's hands are all over the defender. Seeing it again, my view hasn't changed. I'm confident Ipswich fans would be screaming about it if it was the other way round and wasn't given.

 

[Valeite]

Saw that last night and my first thought was it was a foul considering Harness's hands are all over the defender. Seeing it again, my view hasn't changed. I'm confident Ipswich fans would be screaming about it if it was the other way round and wasn't give defender as he is being obstructed, he did very well to get the other side of the defender who fell over with no one to lean on

Have you thought about making a visit to the opticians? The defender falls over because Harness escapes his attempt to obstruct him.

 

[Tom_ITFC]

Saw that last night and my first thought was it was a foul considering Harness's hands are all over the defender. Seeing it again, my view hasn't changed. I'm confident Ipswich fans would be screaming about it if it was the other way round and wasn't given.

Who has hands on who here?…

https://twitter.com/x/status/1563852536947392512

 

[Marked Ox]

Who has hands on who here?…

https://twitter.com/x/status/1563852536947392512

A freeze frame that is after the first contact, means nothing.

 

[Marked Ox]

Have you thought about making a visit to the opticians? The defender falls over because Harness escapes his attempt to obstruct him.

His arms are over the defender giving the officials an option and that is what the officials see. I have no problem with them calling it a foul. As I said, the other way round and a goal is given to Barnsley, the Ipswich fans would have been howling about it.

 

[UppaTowen_ITFC]

Saw that last night and my first thought was it was a foul considering Harness's hands are all over the defender. Seeing it again, my view hasn't changed. I'm confident Ipswich fans would be screaming about it if it was the other way round and wasn't given.

Camera is deceptive if you genuinely think he touched him when the bloke goes down. I was right behind the goal in line with it and there was at least a foot or two gap between them at the point of ‘foul’. Absolutely no contact whatsoever from Harness. Right before the foul though the defender puts his arm across to bring him down. It’s a penalty or a goal. They’re the only options.

 

[Si Robin]

Parents really should be banned from watching their kid's football or sign behavioural contracts that brings the club into trouble for such abuse so that the onus is on the club, not the official to report/stop it.

When reffing I always laughed at parents who knew bugger all about football trying to tell their kids what to do, generally in contradiction to what the coach wanted. I nearly abandoned a game because a Dad ranted at this 10yo lad so much that the lad was crying. As it was in a public park the club couldn't force him to leave so I told the idiot Dad that if he didn't leave the game was off. Tbf, both coaches backed me up which was good to see and he eventually left.

The added benefit of no parents is that the kids may actually just enjoy playing football with their mates like when having a kickabout with them. As no parents reduces the pressure on them for results rather than focusing on just playing and playing for fun.

I agree with you to an extent, however, having a parent there can be a positive for a couple of reasons.

1. It helps the kid behave. We have a couple of boys who just want to mess around and end up ruining it for everyone. When one of their parents is there though they knuckle down and don't try to take this piss. If they do get out of hand then their parents are quick to pull them up on it.

2. Some kids just love having their parents watching them. I've got one player, certainly one of our best, who's dad started working on a Saturday meaning he couldn't watch his games. Within 3 weeks he decided he didn't want to play anymore because he missed having his dad there. Fortunately, his dad changed jobs again a couple of weeks after and actually became a parent helper meaning he can help with coaching and whatnot, which the lad now loves.

I'm quite fortunate in that the pain in the ass parents I did have ended up leaving last season. Their boys (they had twins) were good players, but the parents made coaching the boys a nightmare. None of my other parents are as bad. We have one who moans a bit, but not whilst her boy is playing, and she certainly doesn't try to coach him.

 

[Marked Ox]

Camera is deceptive if you genuinely think he touched him when the bloke goes down. I was right behind the goal in line with it and there was at least a foot or two gap between them at the point of ‘foul’. Absolutely no contact whatsoever from Harness. Right before the foul though the defender puts his arm across to bring him down. It’s a penalty or a goal. They’re the only options.

They aren't the only options as the Official wasn't where you were sat and the camera does suggest contact by Harness.

The Ref sees the arms and the defender going down from his angle behind the players. People seem to forget this basic thing after watching multiple angles that the Ref sees one angle, live only.

 

[Tom_ITFC]

They aren't the only options as the Official wasn't where you were sat and the camera does suggest contact by Harness.

The Ref sees the arms and the defender going down from his angle behind the players. People seem to forget this basic thing after watching multiple angles that the Ref sees one angle, live only.

The ref has linesmen of which one would have had a perfect angle to see that the arm coming round was so that Harness could get passed, rather than run into the defender. But linesmen don’t help referees anymore.

 

[nelsonpfc]

Think we only got 2 penalties last season. Morrell sent off v Oxford for a slightly high foot with no contact and some really dangerous high footed challenges at head height, one which didn't even get a foul in the area up at Sheff Wed already this season. Sometimes the refs are swayed by a big crowd at FP. But more often than not they seem to want to go out of their way to not be swayed by the crowd and actually give us nothing. So we all think refs hate us, but to be honest everyone gets rubbish decisions and ones that go your way.

 

[Davidimp]

I've put this in the match thread but it's too ridiculous not to post in here as well.

As for the ref, that's got to be one of the more whistle happy we've ever had. Missed countless fouls (mostly on Hopper and Bishop), didn't stop play when a Fleetwood player played it off him, allowed Fleetwood to take an offside yards inside OUR half and didn't allow us us to get Robson on, despite Roughan going off injured and warned Rushworth for timewasting about five minutes into the second half despite a) not actually timewasting and b) not giving the same warnings to their players in the first half. Absolutely abysmal stuff albeit made the game a bit fiery and got the crowd further involved.

The offside decision was correct Luke as they've changed rule now so you can't be offside until you touch the ball, so he touched the ball having been offside, however it was taken several yards from the correct place.
You're right about the rest though, he was shocking
Their first goal, Lincoln player fouled in build up and probably offside, played weird advantages including one where we didn't get an advantage, Poole was fouled first IMHO before he gave them the free kick for their second goal.
Very poor and baffling performance

 

[dedwardp]

Just to add a bit of balance, the ref we had for the Carabao Cup game against Orient was dreadful, he showed yellow cards to the players from both teams (defenders) who put in their first tackle...that was in the first five minutes. You then had two defenders who couldn't risk putting in a decent challenge and that set the tone for the evening

Without obviously having seen the incidents, a yellow card offence is a yellow card offence, regardless of whether it is their first foul, in the opening few minutes or after an hour. If they're now walking on a tightrope for the rest of the game, that's their problem.

 

[Laker]

I saw the Ipswich “goal” and thought it was a shocker, clearly a terrible decision. But Ipswich would still have won if they hadn’t conceded two minutes later - are they criticising the defence as heavily for the equaliser? I doubt it.

Please tell me there is a video of the pink jacket man on that vlog as there was for our game last season - “pissy tinpot club”. Love it.

 

[Greenacres]

Without obviously having seen the incidents, a yellow card offence is a yellow card offence, regardless of whether it is their first foul, in the opening few minutes or after an hour. If they're now walking on a tightrope for the rest of the game, that's their problem.

Both softer than a half pound of butter left outside on a sunny day.

 

[Tom_ITFC]

I saw the Ipswich “goal” and thought it was a shocker, clearly a terrible decision. But Ipswich would still have won if they hadn’t conceded two minutes later - are they criticising the defence as heavily for the equaliser? I doubt it.

Please tell me there is a video of the pink jacket man on that vlog as there was for our game last season - “pissy tinpot club”. Love it.

If the disallowed goal events hadn’t taken place, I would have no issue with the draw as Barnsley definitely earned it over the 90 minutes. Most Town fans would probably agree that the centre backs were sloppy at the back yesterday.

With their second though, from the angle I sat at the other end, you could see what a brilliant header it was. I knew it was going in straight away.

But the ref changes the whole view of the result. It gets forgotten to mention the high foot on Harness as he enters the box.

 

[Laker]

If the disallowed goal events hadn’t taken place, I would have no issue with the draw as Barnsley definitely earned it over the 90 minutes. Most Town fans would probably agree that the centre backs were sloppy at the back yesterday.

With their second though, from the angle I sat at the other end, you could see what a brilliant header it was. I knew it was going in straight away.

But the ref changes the whole view of the result. It gets forgotten to mention the high foot on Harness as he enters the box.

I hear you and I would be similarly seething with the ref in your shoes. I just wish that as football fans (me included) that we were equally seething of our centre backs for costing us the win as we are with referees for screwing up the decision. Ultimately both are equally responsible for the fact Ipswich didn’t win.

 

[USA Imp]

Let's be honest, all teams are good at shithousery (yes some better than others) and we all view the match from our own teams perspective.

All teams surround the ref when a call has gone against them. All teams have players that dive. All teams waste time when it suits them. All teams have players that scream and hold their face when a stray finger goes within 2 feet of their face. All refs get verbal abuse from fans that questions their sexual orientation, their parentage and their ability to see more than five feet in front of them. Having said that i honestly believe they are doing the best they can, just like everyone they have good days and bad days but i have to keep asking myself would i do their job and i always come up with the same answer.....Oh hell no.

 

[UppaTowen_ITFC]

Let's be honest, all teams are good at shithousery (yes some better than others) and we all view the match from our own teams perspective.

All teams surround the ref when a call has gone against them. All teams have players that dive. All teams waste time when it suits them. All teams have players that scream and hold their face when a stray finger goes within 2 feet of their face. All refs get verbal abuse from fans that questions their sexual orientation, their parentage and their ability to see more than five feet in front of them. Having said that i honestly believe they are doing the best they can, just like everyone they have good days and bad days but i have to keep asking myself would i do their job and i always come up with the same answer.....Oh hell no.

Wycombe and Oxford are the worst for time wasting imo. The Oxford theatrics at our place last season was just extraordinary. All for a 0-0. Something like 10 ‘injuries’ in that second half last season all for them magically to play on 3 minutes later. The anti-football. ‘Boring boring Oxford’ was very apt.