Referees/Officials

[Trust in Pep]

I was pleased when I heard it was him as he reffed the other games involving us very well this season. He was excellent tonight and like others have said, if anything favoured us. I thought Fernandinho should have been booked for that challenge early on.

What I did like was he allowed the strong but not unfair challenges from behind to go and as a result the game flowed better. We should have taken advantage of that.

He stood for no shit from players throwing themselves to the ground either including some of ours and wasn't afraid to send Fellaini off.

A good 9/10 performance for me.

I think we definitely got the decisions last night. Just goes to show what happens when you speak out against the refs like YaYa did. Bacon face did it for years.

 

[Centurions]

I think we definitely got the decisions last night.

I can see where the confusion arises from since we've not had many games where the ref has actually been even handed so last night probably seems to lean in our favour. In actuality I'd say he was just pretty much spot on in everything.

 

[richards30]

Although, you could argue, had the finishing and defending been better all season, the table would also look a lot different.

 

[aguero93:20]

Well done Atkinson, about time that horrible fucking **** got sent off for assaulting one of our players. If the FA have any bollocks they'll extend the ban too, he was off before the headbutt for the second deliberate foul in 20 seconds and went for Sergio after the straight red.

 

[Kinkladze 1]

Great Reffing last night. Took no shit and didn't blow every minute for the tiniest infringement. Where's this guy been all season? He was telling Rashford to hurry the fuck up and get off the pitch when he got subbed. Albeit Rashford totally blanked him and walked all the way.

 

[Gray]

thought things evened themselves out, in which case why wasn't Jesus goal allowed to stand. Doesn't matter it was offside, we were due one so it should have been evened out.

Tut, agenda confirmed.

Especially when compared to Mickymouses goal of the month at the swamp, laughable.

 

[Millwallawayveteran1988]

Well done Atkinson, about time that horrible fucking **** got sent off for assaulting one of our players. If the FA have any bollocks they'll extend the ban too, he was off before the headbutt for the second deliberate foul in 20 seconds and went for Sergio after the straight red.

They should charge him for not leaving the field when sent off. Fucking tool he was getting sent off within. 5 seconds of getting booked.

 

[BlueAnorak]

All you can ask is that the referee applies the rules in the same way to both teams, and Martin Atkinson did, so he deserves some praise.
I'm not sure he would have given a second Yellow card to Sir Bogbrush of the Swamplands for the second foul on Aguero in 18 seconds (though by his body language he looked as though it was a high probability) but Hair Bare (or is that Hair Brained?) took the decision away from him.
But a breath of fresh air compared with the rest of them.

 

[BluessinceHydeRoad]

I think the ref had a good game. He made mistakes, some decisions were contentious but he was impartial. We don't expect favours, just fair play and that's what we got.

 

[Chris in London]

I don't disagree that Atkinson generally had a good game on Thursday.

However.

At the game I was concerned with how much time was wasted by the rags during the six minutes of added time, and how little the ref did about it, so when I watched the game again I made a note of how much time was missed waiting for the rags to complete a substitution, take a goal kick etc.

It was 45 seconds between Jesus scoring and De Gea taking the free kick for the offside decision. The substitution of Rashford took a full minute. De Gea took 40 seconds to take a goal kick after Jesus missed a near post chance and he took another 45 seconds to take a free kick in the corner in front of the rags supporters. So that in total is 3 minutes ten seconds. During the initial six minutes the ball was out of play more than it was in play.

How much additional time did the referee add after all that? 48 seconds. This is of course the referee that allowed the infamous fergietime goal in the 6th minute of injury time where he had signalled 4.

I don't blame the rags for deliberately time wasting, it's no more and no less than we'd have done if the positions had been reversed. I do think if the referee had got his card out the first time he met with time wasting from De Gea we would have had at least another minute or two of play.