Last night, I was angry.
I feel particularly sorry for the handful of Citeh fans who had me shout in their faces when we scored. They were frustratingly arrogant though, and were apparently suffering from some sort of syndrome reserved for clubs with money; that is one that means you fail to see any blatant fouls by your team, and think that because you have money your team can do no wrong. I’m in reference here to the tackle early on Faubert that ripped a hole in his sock, above his ankle…”not a foul” they maintained.
May I also suggest that with great financial power comes more favourable refereeing decisions. I guess we knew that anyway, but it was again made evident last night.
I wouldn’t want to be accused of being bitter again, but frankly I felt we were dealt a grave injustice last night (although it doesn’t make up for the poor poor first half performance, and it’s not an excuse for a loss)
Firstly, can somebody please explain to me why our second goal was disallowed? I’ve seen it over and over, and there is not justifiable reason for it to be chalked out. That goal would have pulled the scored level at 2-2.
Actually, no it wouldn’t have done…
Because, secondly, neither do I see why they should have got the freekick they did…from which they scored their second. Again, I did not see a foul…please do correct me if I’m wrong. The City player went up for a header and missed it. I suppose that is a foul really….when you’ve got money. It wouldn’t have been 2-2 without that freekick, we would have been 2-1 up. Completely different game from that point on…even if our performance didn’t deserve it.
I do fully understand that the way we played, particularly in the first half, was poor. Very poor. And we could’ve been well beat.
It’s such an obvious thing to say, but goals change games. Had our goal stood we would’ve been on a high, I’ve not doubt about it. Our confidence would surely have rocketted and our gameplay changed. We play our best football when playing with confidence and last night we looked drained of it.
It’s not unheard of for teams to go places like United, City, Arsenal and sneak a result with a smash and grab performance. Or grab a goal that was against the run of play…but it’s those goals and those games that change games and ultimately the course of the season.
Our performance didn’t deserve to win the game last night, but nonetheless I left feeling robbed of a result by two poor decisions by the man in the middle.
Of course though, nothing will be said of it. A fuss won’t be made and a refereeing performance won’t be reviewed.
Sam
Exactly the way I saw it Sam to be fair.
Of course we were never going to win the match, but you need a rub of the green to get something as well.
Scotty’s goal was perfectly good and at 2-2 we had a chance- Goals are what ulimately decide games….Never mind here’s to three points on Sunday- COYI!
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Hey Sam,
A few bits of your article i completely agree with, a few i don’t so here we go.
The tackle on Faubert i would call a foul, however, it was very much a 50/50 and the ref wasn’t in the best position to see it. I wasn’t impressed by him writhing around on the floor until he realised he wasn’t getting what he wanted though and feel that he probably set west ham up for being harshly viewed upon for the rest of the match as it will have put doubt into the refs mind as to whether each time he went down he was genuinely fouled or not.
I completely agree that the ‘foul’ on Lescott was a shocking decision and you should have had that 2nd goal. I don’t agree that it is a sign that city are a team that the referees will view favourably – it was again a mistake by the linesman which can happen in any game (offside decisions being another regularly debated one).
As for City’s second goal from the free kick, i believe de jong was pushed and the ref was right to award the free kick. i think you should be more worried that Rob Green didn’t save it.
I had the same misgivings from the manchester derby last week with fergie time playing a big part.
All in all i thought it was a good game, again worried about the defensive wuality of both teams however your 2 centrebacks have played 12 premiership games between them so you should tighten up.
on a lighter note Sam, Rob K was with my mum in the city stand so couldn’t cheer when you scored!
.-= mancity´s last blog ..Dunne deal =-.
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Good to see Rob putting himself on the line for the C&B!
Possibly Faubert’s reaction was a little OTT, but it was a poor poor tackle nontheless – had it been again someone like Ronaldo last year, Fergie would have been calling for refs to give him more protection!
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You should never blame poor football on the referee even if he did make mistakes.
I was at the game and also thought that the foul for the free kick was soft. However had this not been given it would have changed the play and it is unlikely that Scott Parker would have scored as he did.
Of course we don’t know what would have happened but we deserved to lose. It wasn’t the referee’s fault so get over it.
During the course of the season referee’s mistakes will even themselves up. They always do.
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“During the course of the season referee’s mistakes will even themselves up. They always do.”
In those few short words you have proven that you are a fool. Yes, there will be some give and take over the season but I, for one, doubt very much that we will get enough luck over the rest of the season to make up for the gaffe’s we have already been on the receiving end of.
Wigan and Liverpool come to mind quite easily as games we should have won. Figueroa last man foul on Hines – not even a free kick according to the ref.
Carragher last man foul on Hines – gained a penalty and a yellow card for a clear cynical foul (don’t try and deny it – there was nobody else within distance to stop him shooting and as for it not being a goal-scoring opportunity – try telling that to Torres who scored from exactly the same position at the other end). And before anyone argues about Diamanti then scoring it with two touches…. the result of exhaustive replays and closeups is that he ‘might’ have. Well, if it hadnt stood then we still would have been playing ten men for an hour.
Now, whilst one of these errors came against a rank and file club the other did come against a top 5 club (we need to incl Citeh these days). Referees feel under undue pressure against these clubs as any mistake they make to the detriment of TTC (the top clubs) will be magnified and analysed by the press, losing the title blamed on them by the respective manager etc, etc. Whereas mistakes in favour of TTC against the rank and file are explained away as they even out! Well, I for one believe that they do not. Jeff Winters league of injustice is interesting but doesnt go far enough to analyse the true extent of discrepancies. To do that you would need to take into account incorrect sendings off (or lack of), free kicks (or not) for non-existent (or existing) fouls that subsequently lead to goals.
It would be very interesting to see how many teams win with ten men as a percentage of mins played. Then, for each sending off that should have happened but didnt, you could try to calculate what the result might have been (a la Duckworth Lewis). Don’t get me wrong – I dont think ud see any of the rank and file winning the league. One of the bigger teams would probably still do that, but i do believe that you would see a much closer gap to the rest of the league and maybe even a few of us sneaking into the champ league spots.
Funny that you see many of the managers of big clubs complaining about decisions that didn’t go there way but none of them ever seems to suggest that video refs should be used. Wonder why? Perhaps they are mindful of the fact that they get far too many favours over the course of a season and don’t want to give up their TTC privileges!
I, for one, am in favour of video refs being available to all refs at the top level. Indeed, not only should the ref be able to call for them but the assistants should too. They should be commended for everything that is initially missed but subsequently pulled up. I would go further, the video ref should be able to tell the ref to stop play and take action for something that nobody has referred, ie if he sees/analyses it and feels it warrants a sending off/goal/penalty then it should happen! People will argue that could take minutes and delay games a la american football, but I say no. Unless its something the ref sees and stops play for (referring to video ref for quick confirmation), play could be allowed to go on and everything that happens in the meantime stands. Yes, you could have a player sent off after scoring a goal for a foul that he committed prior to scoring the goal (or similar situation) but answer this:
Would the offended against team rather have the bad old days, ie before the video ref tech was introduced (what we have now) where not only has he scored against them after he should have been sent off but he plays the rest of the game as well?
How much less arguing would there be for incidents when someone is sent off or penalties are given if the players know that the video ref made the decision? How much time would that save? They will know that the decision will be correct 99% of the time and can be booked immediately for delaying play with any arguing.
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My major concern with video tech in the situation that we found ourselves in against city would be that the city players would probably argue that they stopped playing because they heard a whistle — would this end up causing more issues?
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Hello,
Can I pick you up a comment you made? “During the course of the season referee’s mistakes will even themselves up. They always do.”
Do you think that is true? How about anybody else?
How does this fit with people claiming teams never get decisions at the big clubs? Do the referees even these decisions out against smaller clubs!?
PS This is not an attack on the poster. I am genuinely interested in what people think.
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Bad refs decisions DO NOT EVEN OUT OVER A SEASON dont be a mug, if you lost 3 points for a bad decision and got relegated wheres the justice in that, i have seen most of our games this year live, and the spuds were helped by the ref, so were liverpool, and so were man city. im not saying we should have won all 3 games, but with an honest ref with a pair of balls we wouldnt have lost all 3. Zola should carry on as usual and not panic, the team will gel and click into gear, then we will fly up the table with confidence.
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We didnt deserve aything from this game, but the comments are spot on. There was no foul for citys fee kick, and the linesman who put his flag up to for a foul by Cole just lost his bottle in front of those City fans.
It will always happen to away teams unless your Man Utd or one of the clubs with a noisy manager(Mark Hughes). Referees mistakes get more attention (perhaps Zola needs someone to make the noises for him.
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they did outplay us for most of the game. we were devoid of any confidence but this is a catch 22 situation with the lack of results. we are having a run against the top seeded clubs at the moment so this may change soon. i do agree though that ref’s poor decisions do not even themselves out over the season, the richest clubs are more successful at applying pressure to every decision against them it seems.
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while you’re at it thow in the “foul” from which they scored their 3rd … Faubert avoided the player and got the ball .. very poor decisions all round
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Couple of things, yes I agree the foul that lead up to our disallowed goal wasnt a foul, but also, the city defence had ‘stopped’ so whether Scotty would have scored, who knows.
their free kick, again, it was soft but you get them every week, its just that they scored from it that brings it to everyones notice.
We were poor, almost like we were in awe of the £100 mill they had spent and felt like we shouldnt win.
Also massive respect to Tevez, the guys a legend and a part of me hoped he missed those sitters on purpose ;o) I know he scored but Id like to think he only did enough and wont rub salt in the wound. Anyway, his gaol celebration was almost apologetic and youve gotta respect that.
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i have got another gripe concerning the city match, the commentary on espn was utterly disgraceful, totally biased towards man city, it was a city love in, im cancelling my subscription immediately, the bastasrds are not getting any more of my cash, jon champion and joe royle p off.
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Spot on (john ledington)regarding SPN the commentary was an utter disgrace, they slated faupart for getting stud holes in his sock and mocked west ham the whole game, Jon champion and Joe royle were biased beyond belief, i recorded it watched it through twice and it made me even more angry every time.
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Fortunatley for me the tv in the pub wasn’t loud enough to hear – otherwise I would have definitely been far more angry than I was already!
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TREVORH spare us the cliches – reveal to us your proof that “referees decisions even themselves up over the season”!!
Sam you’re spot on, referees decisions do effect games, along with player performances and confidence.
But hey, chins up fellow Hammers as “i’m sure we’ll be back to winning ways next game” COYI
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For all of those posters who are picking holes in my comment about referees decisions evening themselves out over the season then it is my opinion and one that is shared by many people. Of course to prove it exactly one would have to replay every game in slow motion and question every dubious decision. We are not going to do that are we? So there is no proof readily available.
However the majority of football fans will blame a team’s loss on the referee, and so called bad decisions, and not because they played badly.
Like many other fans I see around 30-35 games a season, home and away, and I have seen West Ham benefit from many rank bad decisions made by the ref. Johnson being sent off for Fulham last year was soft. Remember the season we almost went down? The goal that wasn’t against Blackburn and the soft penalty? (I think it was Blackburn but do correct me if I am wrong).
Would we have still stayed up had those decisions been given correctly?
Rob Green clearly handled outside the area against Arsenal last year (as he did against England recently). 2-3 years ago we were awarded a goal against Middlesbrough when it didn’t cross the line.
I will agree that our luck has been right out this season and that we really are due a change of fortunes. I am not disputing any of the poor decisions awarded against us this season either.
It is subjective but to answer JOHNE I am not a fool. Please do not refer to me as a fool. However for all those that doubt my comments, you please prove to the contrary.
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