Today's referee

[Churchill123]

Well its pretty fucking clear wasn't it that he wasn't giving us the same decisions that he was to Chavski! - At half time i honestly thought we would have seen Zaba sent off, the way mariner was dishing free kicks and cards out!

 

[Bilboblue]

One thing I noticed yesterday was Ivanovic balling out the ref about not giving Joe a red card, he went on and on at him about it, absolute joke that the ref didn't give Ivanovic a yellow for it.

Thought the ref had an absolute shocker yesterday as as someone else alluded to, shows just how bad he was when we won 2-0, comfortably in the end, despite Marriners performance.

 

[Pigeonho]

Perhaps even Marriner thought that would be a bridge too far. He couldn't wait to point to the spot but if he'd red carded Hart he'd have been subject to serious media scrutiny and Hart would 100% have had the red card rescinded. (Ba running away from goal, not in control of the ball and the ball heading out of play. There is not a chance that could have been considered a goal scoring opportunity).

As it was, MOTD2 didn't show a single incident of the any wrongly awarded free kicks to Chelsea (some of which should have been given the other way), free kicks not beng awarded to City (like when Aguero was flattened) and the ridiculous yellow cards given to Zabaleta and Rodwell. Therefore no post match talking points and Marriner gets away with it.

Walton was the most bent ref I've ever seen but (as far as I recall) never gave a penalty against City. Instead he gave soft free kicks just outside the area to the opposition (usually Everton or Liverpool) and even softer free kicks against City when they were going forward, thereby breaking down their attacks. As I and others have already state on this thread, Marriner's performance was the worst since Walton and Mason reffed a City game. No ref at this level is that incompetent. That was a bent performance.

In your opinion, you can't say that factually.

True. The same as you can't say for a fact it wasn't. However, I was there and I know what I saw.

I saw it too, and a very dire performance it was, laughable at times. When you say 'bent performance', how do you mean? What was to be gained by him being bent? Was he Bent towards Chelsea? If so, why? I can't see what he would gain by being bent either way...

 

[acton28.blog]

I think the ref was just goold old plain attrocious.

When did refs start wearing red so much?

 

[the originalkippaxman]

It is not just the referees that wind me up it is the overall inconsistency that we all have to witness week in week out. They should be made accountable for their decisions and should be made to answer reasons decisions were made on key incidents.
They don’t help themselves and prime example was the Red card at the Capital Cup final. Okay letter of the law says it is a red card. You tell me any true football fan watching that game Swansea coasting it 3-0 up about to get a penalty and Bradford has not had a shot even a corner at that point of the game.
Did he really need to send him off he would have gained and all referees would have gained so much more respect if he had just issued a yellow and came out afterwards and said yes it was a red but why ruin all those fans days further.
Just came across as a right fucking wanker.

 

[Pigeonho]

It is not just the referees that wind me up it is the overall inconsistency that we all have to witness week in week out. They should be made accountable for their decisions and should be made to answer reasons decisions were made on key incidents.
They don’t help themselves and prime example was the Red card at the Capital Cup final. Okay letter of the law says it is a red card. You tell me any true football fan watching that game Swansea coasting it 3-0 up about to get a penalty and Bradford has not had a shot even a corner at that point of the game.
Did he really need to send him off he would have gained and all referees would have gained so much more respect if he had just issued a yellow and came out afterwards and said yes it was a red but why ruin all those fans days further.
Just came across as a right fucking wanker.

But the thing is, his assessors in the stands will be ensuring he is following the letter of the law and had he not, he might not get a final again. He had to send him off, regardless.

 

[the originalkippaxman]

It is not just the referees that wind me up it is the overall inconsistency that we all have to witness week in week out. They should be made accountable for their decisions and should be made to answer reasons decisions were made on key incidents.
They don’t help themselves and prime example was the Red card at the Capital Cup final. Okay letter of the law says it is a red card. You tell me any true football fan watching that game Swansea coasting it 3-0 up about to get a penalty and Bradford has not had a shot even a corner at that point of the game.
Did he really need to send him off he would have gained and all referees would have gained so much more respect if he had just issued a yellow and came out afterwards and said yes it was a red but why ruin all those fans days further.
Just came across as a right fucking wanker.

But the thing is, his assessors in the stands will be ensuring he is following the letter of the law and had he not, he might not get a final again. He had to send him off, regardless.

That is the problem if he wanted a final again he had to send him off. Would have earned more respect if he hadn't and explained why afterwards.
But then again when you see how they treated the linesman John Brooks after the Arsenal game just shows how distant they are from the fans.

 

[JoeMercer'sWay]

It is not just the referees that wind me up it is the overall inconsistency that we all have to witness week in week out. They should be made accountable for their decisions and should be made to answer reasons decisions were made on key incidents.
They don’t help themselves and prime example was the Red card at the Capital Cup final. Okay letter of the law says it is a red card. You tell me any true football fan watching that game Swansea coasting it 3-0 up about to get a penalty and Bradford has not had a shot even a corner at that point of the game.
Did he really need to send him off he would have gained and all referees would have gained so much more respect if he had just issued a yellow and came out afterwards and said yes it was a red but why ruin all those fans days further.
Just came across as a right fucking wanker.

But the thing is, his assessors in the stands will be ensuring he is following the letter of the law and had he not, he might not get a final again. He had to send him off, regardless.

which is why both he and Marriner will get good assessor's reports for this weekend despite the fact 99% of blues on here think he was shit.

 

[SuperYaya]

I read an academic study on Premier League referees and their bias and it seemed to conclude (though statistics) that usually the home team got the majority of the decisions. Makes it even more striking when it's an away team getting a huge portion of the decisions I guess.

 

[Matty]

Marriner was awful yesterday, properly terrible display.

I have no real arguments with the Kolo Toure or Zabaleta bookings, both were worthy of cards. However in Kolo's case the foul came out of frustration that he didn't get a freekick for yet another foul against him by Ba, who spent the entire game fouling the City centre halves without being pulled up for it.

Rodwell's booking was a joke. He was warned earlier for cleanly winning the ball in a tackle and then was booked for failing to connect with Ivanovic who was throwing himself to the floor.

The penalty I don't have much issues with, I felt it was pretty clear and we'd have been screaming for it if it was the other way round. So, no, no issue with the penalty itself. What I do have an issue with is that the play reached that point and allowed Hart to bring Ba down. Ba was all over Kolo Toure when the ball was lumped over his head, something which seems to have been ignored by virtually eveyone in the media. He had his arms over his shoulders as they turned to chase the ball, and he was clearly impeding Toure, which allowed him to get past and into the box, yet another Marriner error.

The final statistics, if you believe the BBC Website, were that possession yesterday finished at 50% each. Now, given we had the same amount of the ball as Chelsea, and we were the ones who clearly played far better, creating more chances and winning the game, you'd be forgiven for thinking, at worse, the foul count would have been pretty even. No, Chelsea committed just 5 fouls during the 90 minutes compared with City's 19! Sky had similar stats, with Chelsea shading possession 53% to 47% but City "winning" the fouls count hands down by 20 fouls to 5!