Ref for the derby

[s1ty m]

What he did most effectively was close the game out for them, broke play up and kept stopping the game with lots of soft free kicks. Would like to know how much the ball was actually in-play for the final 15 mins.

Yep. It's cheating. Nothing less.

 

[Dave Ewing's Back 'eader]

People early on in the thread were ok with Atkinson, as generally he's reffed us recently in a fairly even way (compared to most) but Saturday, that was his remit Dave, united allowed to hustle, tussle and manhandle with no sanction, as soon as we did it, BEEEEEEP, he seemed especially keen when it gave united a chance to put the ball in the box unchallenged, as Keith Hackett suggests, there was clear favourtism throughout mate, and it's obvious as to why it was during this particular match.

Fans have been lambasting Raheem for his first half misses. I just wonder whether they would have been enough to see the game out considering what transpired in the second half! 5-0 up at HT, we get two sent off second half and he allows the Rags the Freedom of Beswick!

I've always had suspicions re Atkinson ever since he morphed into The Time Lord at the Swamp and allowed Owen to score when people would have been making for the car parks. I came to the conclusion the man is devoid of any kind of conscience or moral compass!

 

[Neville Kneville]

What that picture doesn't show is that Aquero was pulling the ball back inside at the time of the tackle because he saw it coming.

If he had just let it roll he would have been taken out with the ball nowhere near.

The referee was appalling and is obviously not fit to officiate at this level, but nothing will happen.

I sit with a perfect view of that area & that's exactly what happened.

Aguero did him like a kipper. Any slomo 'touch' on the ball, is just that; a 'touch'. Aguero was in total control, pulled the ball onto his left foot to go inside Young who had taken himself out of the game with his ridiculous panic tackle, so he just followed through with his studs up.

 

[fatbloke]

He's not the reason we lost though, shit defending was.

It’s funny you say that I’d say roughly 75% of penalties awarded are converted, we should have had two and the rag scum down to ten men so you’re talking absolute bollocks however shit our defending was.

 

[PW]

We should highlight this at every opportunity, without a shadow of a doubt the players will have noticed this too, it would be folly to think it wasn't on the players minds more and more as the game progressed, they will know he was looking to give them an advantage at every opportunity, and he did.

I think you're absolutely right and that's why the players reacted the way they did as the game progressed. It wasn't even subtle, it was down right cheating.

 

[Dirty Harry]

Fans have been lambasting Raheem for his first half misses. I just wonder whether they would have been enough to see the game out considering what transpired in the second half! 5-0 up at HT, we get two sent off second half and he allows the Rags the Freedom of Beswick!

I've always had suspicions re Atkinson ever since he morphed into The Time Lord at the Swamp and allowed Owen to score when people would have been making for the car parks. I came to the conclusion the man is devoid of any kind of conscience or moral compass!

Very true mate, but I certainly don't believe Atkinson was or ever has, acted of his own volition, to me, he's merely a puppet, what I still find odd about that particular derby, is the lengths they went to to justify any added time, we'd never seen it done to anywhere near that degree before (and only a few times since).

 

[Dave Ewing's Back 'eader]

Very true mate, but I certainly don't believe Atkinson was or ever has, acted of his own volition, to me, he's merely a puppet, what I still find odd about that particular derby, is the lengths they went to to justify any added time, we'd never seen it done to anywhere near that degree before (and only a few times since).

Added time at a Rag game was always dependent on the immediate goal count!

 

[Dirty Harry]

I think you're absolutely right and that's why the players reacted the way they did as the game progressed. It wasn't even subtle, it was down right cheating.

I think many people tended to not notice because they were caught up in us being 2-0 up and playing well, I'm sure if they watched the whole match back, they'd see from very early on how he manipulated the game, united fans I know are generally pretty much ok and pretty fair minded, for them to say you'd think Atkinson was a united from that performance speaks absolute volumes.

 

[Dirty Harry]

Added time at a Rag game was always dependent on the immediate goal count!

I know we kind of say that with tongue in cheek Dave, there is/was obviously a time limit before they just had no option but to blow up for full time, but that particular one, down to the second of trying to justify it, smelly fish.

 

[Trevor Morley's Tache]

Mark Halsey the former premier league referee is also highly critical of Martin Atkinson's inept performance during yesterdays game


http://you-are-the-ref.com/man-city-2-man-utd-3-reaction/

That report says that there were 3 incidents to dissect. Actually, there were a whole lot more, but I suspect Halsey only picked up on the blatantly obvious ones. And yes, he was correct about Fern; it should have been a red, but I am certain that doesn't happen if Atkinson was refereeing the game correctly, and fairly. Fern was just reacting to us being done over again. Another team run through us with absolute impunity, yet every time one of theirs went to ground he blew for a foul.

I know our defending was suspect in the SH, but if you analyse Atkinson's positioning, he did get in the way of our runners on more than one occasion, blocking off both attacking and defending players. He gets in the way and the play slows down, which allows them to get back in shape. It is one of the subtle, dark arts of the referee, and rarely gets noticed. However, if you watch a game back, and analyse it purely from a refereeing perspective, you can see these kind of patterns emerge. For instance, if a player is known to have a bit of a temper, or can easily be wound up (Fern has a predictable breaking point), then you as a referee could create a situation where you can get a player to react by letting certain incidents go, whilst not letting other incidents go. Niggly fouls are a prime example, or holding and pushing. I am really surprised he didn't send Fern off, but then he knew that he only needed to issue a yellow to get him a 2 match ban.