Fine Margins, rub of the Green, and Shocking Officials

[avoidconfusion]

Stop making excuses. We were wank today end of. The players should be fucking ashamed of themselves.

This. Thread should be closed really, it's pathetic to blame the ref for the cowardly performance of the team today.

 

[Manc in London]

We have been poor (no shit, Sherlock) but nothing is going our way either. It's unbearable to watch.

 

[lancs blue]

Stop making excuses. We were wank today end of. The players should be fucking ashamed of themselves.

We were and we may well have lost anyway but decisions and pure bad luck all went against us yet again.
The problem is we are weak mentally at the moment and we need the rub of the green. At the moment we're getting nothing in terms of
either luck or decisions.

I'm a firm believer that you make your own luck, we looked a tired, jaded team after about 25 minutes, there's no way that should be happening and it's nowt to do with officials or luck.

 

[uwe rosler 28]

Can't really complain after the last 3 home games penalty sending off 2 mins west brom lucky own goal v west ham and keeper cock up and lucky with offside goal against villa! I dread to think were we would be without luck in our last 3 home games!

 

[Bill]

Can't really complain after the last 3 home games penalty sending off 2 mins west brom lucky own goal v west ham and keeper cock up and lucky with offside goal against villa! I dread to think were we would be without luck in our last 3 home games!

luck is one thing. cheating officals is something else entirely. luck does even its self out. cheating refs never do

 

[ballinio]

Can't really complain after the last 3 home games penalty sending off 2 mins west brom lucky own goal v west ham and keeper cock up and lucky with offside goal against villa! I dread to think were we would be without luck in our last 3 home games!

luck is one thing. cheating officals is something else entirely. luck does even its self out. cheating refs never do

worst I`ve ever seen for bent refs, they are not even trying to disguise it anymore, they've had us for at least 8pts this year.

 

[Eds]

Can't really complain after the last 3 home games penalty sending off 2 mins west brom lucky own goal v west ham and keeper cock up and lucky with offside goal against villa! I dread to think were we would be without luck in our last 3 home games!

luck is one thing. cheating officals is something else entirely. luck does even its self out. cheating refs never do

worst I`ve ever seen for bent refs, they are not even trying to disguise it anymore, they've had us for at least 8pts this year.

I think that is being generous to be honest.
Genuine question, when linesmen are looking into the Colin Bell stand do the players blend into the crowd to the point that they can't see them standing two or three yards offside. I

 

[trublue55]

Can't really complain after the last 3 home games penalty sending off 2 mins west brom lucky own goal v west ham and keeper cock up and lucky with offside goal against villa! I dread to think were we would be without luck in our last 3 home games!

rub of the green, hmm, ok we had a "lucky" start against West Brom, but i honestly don't think, that result would have been any different without the "assist",

fairly obviously our next two games were Palace away and the Rags, those games have been discussed earlier, but we were certainly undone in both, by "fine margins, rub of the green and shocking officials" large doses of all 3 in both games.

West Ham, at home, was a pretty regulation home win, and we did more than enough to have been ahead, before the og

Last Saturday, ok, i accept we had the "rub of the green" with a goal gifted to Sergio in the opening minutes, but after that, we were very patchy, and Villa certainly came well into the game. However, without playing at all well, we still managed (eventually) to take a two goal lead, despite a shocking non penalty (and a red card - very similar to Spurs at home) for a pull back on Sergio. Although i must confess, i can't remember when David Silva was scissor tackled in the box, however, irrespective of taking the ball first, anywhere else on the pitch, it was 100% a foul - and a cast iron penalty. Furthermore, Bentekke was offside when the free kick was taken, from which Villa scored their first goal.

So please, the fact that a close to "the edge of offside - to coin a ratboy phrase decision, went in our favour, in the last 5 minutes, does nothing to detract from the fact, that with half decent correct decision making, involving both referee and linesman, we would quite conceivably have been 4 or 5 nil ahead before that, and thats in a game we played poor in!

So i'm sorry, i definitely stand by my original post, on balance, over the season, we have lost out by fine margins, we have by no means had the rub of the green, and we have most definitely suffered at the hands of shocking officials

ps, this does not excuse the fact, that we have underperformed, and should have done better. How poor the rest have been, it is reasonable to make a case, that we should have retained our title already, however, even given our failings, if the fine margins and rub of the green had evened out, without the shocking points costing wrong decisions made (certainly not in our favour), we would still have been considerably closer to, if not ahead of Chelsea, and would still have had every chance of finishing top, and i repeat, we have at times been poor, if not shocking ourselves!

 

[Millwallawayveteran1988]

Is it not possible that the other dominant sides may feel the same to a degree though? Mourinho was certainly moaning about lack of penalties going Chelsea's way earlier in the season. I thought they should have had one on Sunday.

We have still had the most penalties this season and the most over the last 5. We have had the second least awarded against us out of the top 4 plus spurs and Liverpool.

I think refs are not giving penalties now like they were. 70 this season against 106 3 seasons ago. It seems like they have been told to cut back.

As for this "if it were anywhere else on the pitch" if that was applied correctly, there would be 10 penalties a game with all the tugging of shirts etc. I actually thought the Silva one was debatable as he took the ball albeit it with a tackle that like you say, in most places would have been a free kick (we scored from the same passage of play anyway so that didn't cost us).

Linesman I agree need improving. They are awful in general.

I bet all of the top 6 teams will have similar arguments to these though.

We are where we are because we have underperformed. It's no more complicated than that. Regardless of where we are in the league, anyone with sight can see that we have not played anywhere near as well as last season in more than maybe 5/6 games.

 

[Bill]

Can't really complain after the last 3 home games penalty sending off 2 mins west brom lucky own goal v west ham and keeper cock up and lucky with offside goal against villa! I dread to think were we would be without luck in our last 3 home games!

rub of the green, hmm, ok we had a "lucky" start against West Brom, but i honestly don't think, that result would have been any different without the "assist",

fairly obviously our next two games were Palace away and the Rags, those games have been discussed earlier, but we were certainly undone in both, by "fine margins, rub of the green and shocking officials" large doses of all 3 in both games.

West Ham, at home, was a pretty regulation home win, and we did more than enough to have been ahead, before the og

Last Saturday, ok, i accept we had the "rub of the green" with a goal gifted to Sergio in the opening minutes, but after that, we were very patchy, and Villa certainly came well into the game. However, without playing at all well, we still managed (eventually) to take a two goal lead, despite a shocking non penalty (and a red card - very similar to Spurs at home) for a pull back on Sergio. Although i must confess, i can't remember when David Silva was scissor tackled in the box, however, irrespective of taking the ball first, anywhere else on the pitch, it was 100% a foul - and a cast iron penalty. Furthermore, Bentekke was offside when the free kick was taken, from which Villa scored their first goal.

So please, the fact that a close to "the edge of offside - to coin a ratboy phrase decision, went in our favour, in the last 5 minutes, does nothing to detract from the fact, that with half decent correct decision making, involving both referee and linesman, we would quite conceivably have been 4 or 5 nil ahead before that, and thats in a game we played poor in!

So i'm sorry, i definitely stand by my original post, on balance, over the season, we have lost out by fine margins, we have by no means had the rub of the green, and we have most definitely suffered at the hands of shocking officials

ps, this does not excuse the fact, that we have underperformed, and should have done better. How poor the rest have been, it is reasonable to make a case, that we should have retained our title already, however, even given our failings, if the fine margins and rub of the green had evened out, without the shocking points costing wrong decisions made (certainly not in our favour), we would still have been considerably closer to, if not ahead of Chelsea, and would still have had every chance of finishing top, and i repeat, we have at times been poor, if not shocking ourselves!

absolutley on the money.