"Lee Mason. Oh Dear"

[cleavers]

We didn't score in those three games because we played cack, not because of the referee.

Mason is a shit referee, I've no worries about agreeing with that conclusion, but to suggest we didn't score because of him being the referee is frankly ridiculous (we didn't create many decent chances being the most likely reason we didn't score).

Well, with every other referee who has had charge of more than one game we have averaged at least two goals per game, and with him it's no goals in three.

Either that is a coincidence or it isn't.

The article doesn't necessarily point to any correlation other than a statistical one, but the statistical one is worrying enough.

Chris I didn't mean any offence, but the fact we haven't scored is because we've played shite against 2 teams that did the bus parking thing, and one who outplayed us, unless of course I've missed the 3 disallowed goals in each game he's reffed (one at West Brom could have been given in hindsight, but where I was sat, nobody thought so at the time).

It is as you say coincidence.

He is shite though, one of the worst in my opinion.

 

[SWP's back]

Just playing with numbers.

Just playing with letters

 

[Bill]

Just playing with numbers.

Just playing with letters

brilliant.

 

[Franny Lee's Barrel Chest]

Sounds bad, but I'd be more worried if it was a case of us having goals ruled out by him, or penalties awarded against us which appear harsh to say the least.

Yes, he's crap, yes he potentially gives us yellows when allows other teams to butcher us without sanction, but he doesn't prevent us creating chances or make us fail to defend. That is down to us. If we create and score on Sunday, it doesn't matter who the ref is.

 

[the kippax kid]

I'll said it before and I'll saying it again Masin was a match going Rag when he was cutting his teeth in the North West Counties league. The very fact that he says he is now a 'Bolton' fan stinks to high heaven for me.

how do you know this?

 

[Sigh]

I wouldn't wipe my arse with his face. Staypuft.

 

[Nevizade]

I'm not too bothered about him affecting the result on Sunday. Foy did his best to stop us winning last week but had to give up after our third. What bothers me is we are bound to have a player sent off for nothing so they miss the game against the rags. My money's on Yaya - two nothing fouls/tackles that aren't even fouls = two yellow cards. Job done.

 

[mat]

I'll said it before and I'll saying it again Masin was a match going Rag when he was cutting his teeth in the North West Counties league. The very fact that he says he is now a 'Bolton' fan stinks to high heaven for me.

how do you know this?

My cousins fella used to drink with him whwn he lived at Moses gate and he hates us even moreso since the takeover.

 

[Andouble]

whilst I am a big time referee hater, just about anyone could have reffed the Liverpool and Swansea games and we'd have gotten the same result. We were simply dreadful in both matches.

 

[bluenova]

I quite like a good stat but not sure three games can ever be statistically significant. Have you looked at his performance against city over the previous two years as well?


I'm not a big fan of an ultimate conspiracy theory, but think it's likely that referees bring into the game the same biases that the general football fan has. While they no doubt try not to act on these it's virtually impossible not to.

For example, we all know the phrase 'blue tinted glasses'. Every one of us is guilty at some point of giving a city player the benefit of the doubt when we'd be condemning a united player for the same actions. We do it much of the time unconsciously.

Now imagine you're a referee. Many of them will have bought into the myth that united never spent as much money as we have, and that our success is bad for the game. Even if they think they're being fair those views will come out unconciously throughout a match.

Over time it will improve. After all, it's now 'common knowledge' amongst most people that chelsea's spending was in no way comparable to ours, when the figures tell a different story. In a couple of years time we'll be as much a part of the establishment as the other big teams. We'll be in the phase of topping up an already good team, while having valuable players to sell, and our club will look much more respectable to the outside world.

We might never get the breaks from a ref who is a closet rag, but most will begin to have the view that we are where we deserve to be, and that we're expected to win. We'll then benefit from the unconcious bias of referees who expect us to win every game, and who know that decisions against us are more likely to put them under pressure.

Fingers crossed, by a week on Monday we'll be top of the table and not worrying about referees :)