Martin Atkinson

[MCFCinUSA]

to be fair he didnt fall for most of suarez's antics but apart from that he was shite!

true to a degree, I had my heart in my mouth on a couple of occasions because I thought he was going to give them an outrageous penalty, but he still didn't give us a sausage and what was so blatant was the way he applied things more or less one-sidedly as the crowd appeared to get the better of Atkinson & his linesmen.

pity Silva couldn't squeeze that one in at the last minute which would have been poetic justice, but we came through them, their acting, and the referee's gullibility intact (as far as our unbeaten streak goes)

 

[kevodevo]

Failed to notice Andy Carroll's 2 footed lunge from behind on Kompany! Quite clearly more of a red then Balotelli's.

plus twat gets away with it having got a yellow so no post match punishment atkinson was truly out of his depth

 

[andrewmswift]

Failed to notice Andy Carroll's 2 footed lunge from behind on Kompany! Quite clearly more of a red then Balotelli's.

plus twat gets away with it having got a yellow so no post match punishment atkinson was truly out of his depth

not out of his depth. bent. for liverpool.

you can't take today and then their derby this year against everton and see anything other than a refereeing actively calling the game for one side's favor. he should be banned.

 

[kevodevo]

mario's first was a surefire booking but for the fact that they'd hauled our players back on breaks 2-3 times and never received a booking for it. mario on the pitch for minutes and his first offense and gets a card. i'm sorry but if it's not a booking when they do it it's not a booking when we do it.

the second was a total joke. frankly i think mario's more brilliant because he could tell how shit Atkinson was and knew he would be sent off for doing literally absolutely nothing. watch it in real time and see that he never takes his eye off the ball and never even thrusts his elbow out in any real manner. a complete joke and that red along with rodwell's should see atkinson never ref a liverpool game again. he's in for them.

City should appeal that atkinson should not be in big matches either - he is really poor so inconsistent he is unbeleivable

 

[BL2blue]

Was a fiery game and always going to be difficult to ref. That said, Atkinson did an OK job with a few glaring exceptions:

1) Suarez should have either got a yellow card for his constant diving AND/OR his standing on Kompany's foot after the ball had gone (which is what Milner got a yellow card for!)

2) Reina should have been sent off for using his left arm when he came out. Everyone in the ground is looking for it, Atkinson has a great, straight on view of it, but he bottled it, because he knew it was a straight red, keeper replaced and 10 vs 11!

3) Mario's first yellow is EXACTLY what Skrtel did in the first half. Exactly the same....but no yellow card.

4) Mario's second yellow was certainly not malicious and, as an ex-centre forward, is done more out of protecting oneself than anything else. There was NO movement of the elbow backwards, and he simply had his arm up to protect him from the thug that was coming in over his left shoulder. That said, in today's game....and definitely if your name is Mario Balotelli......it is a yellow! Movement of the elbow makes it a red. Thankfully, it is one game! He is clearly not stupid, and his work rate has improved measurably over the past month or two, but he is STILL giving away stupid fouls that lead to yellow cards and red cards, and a totting up of points that could be a disaster at some key stage in the season. Thankfully, I think it is the Norwich game that he will miss!

I agree with most of this

Reina should have gone and we would have won easily had that happened. Can't believe it's not been highighted. If it had been against Utd and not given Baconface would now be on a charge.

Suarez is a great player but must have dived about 8 times in the game today and yet didn't receive a single caution.

Mario's sending off was a joke and entirely influenced by the Liverpool players. A disgrace.

2 points gone courtesy of Mr Atkinson. Suppose it keeps the league interesting.

As an aside I wasn't impressed with Martin Tyler and Alan Smith's desire to have Kompany sent off. Their general commentary was biased towards Liverpool or should I say against City as it's becoming commonplace now.

 

[bluethai]

Atkinson gave red to City(Balo), Arsenal(Frimpong), and Everton(Rodwell),... and you guess the team against?

 

[teddykgb]

15 minutes in today on the back pass that Aguero jumped on....Reina comes way out of his box and absolutely blocks Aguero's chip with his hand/arm. I have no idea how this wasn't handball and also have no idea why this hasn't been made into a bigger deal...that sends their keeper off very early in the match.

I know the Balotelli stuff happened later and was just as controversial, but that missed handball was a disaster today.

 

[deano ou812]

getting out of anfield with a point will actually feel like three,considering atkinson's reffing which was a disgrace,could'nt wait to send mario off and was virtually blowning up before a tackle to give liverpool freekicks,perstient fouling by pool players went unpunished,and carrolls lunge down the back of kompany's calf was a red never mind yellow,the only reason he got the yellow was atkinson was not far from it and had no choice but to give it,hope this fcuker does'nt ref another game of ours....

 

[Eggsy]

I really hope that we are not going to start to become like rag fans blaming the Ref etc... every match.

Atkinson didn't have that bad of a match today>

We haven't played well and still come away with a point, Kompany was lucky not to be sent off before Mario

 

[SalfordCityBlue]

Sending off was a joke, but there were two worse decisions today - Reina had to go, for me the keeper can't 'accidentally' handle the ball outside the area and stop an attack. If he leaves his area and the ball hits his hand there's only one decision to be made there.

The second one was the handball against Milner - Atkinson clearly saw it hit his chest and CLEARLY signalled as much, five seconds later when Milner is bombing forward he blew his whistle.

Inexcusable. He saw it - his actions gave him away.

After those, as soon as Skrtel went into his acting routine it was obvious Mario was going off.

Disgusted, but delighted as that was a great point in the circumstances.

Liverpool are a horrible team. Fuck them.