Gloucester Saint

And had a full time job at Royal Mail!

The Worthington one showed he had some previous with Frank, probably from his Bolton days. The Jimmy Case Red at the cup game was a joke. Bryan Robson of 1983 might have raced through from halfway on goal but not the 1990 post-multiple shoulder operation slowed up version. And his shoulder issues weren’t finished as he broken down again v RoI at Italia 90 IIRC. Yellow card certainly but red, not even today.

It was prior to the locality rules hence why Webb couldn’t do Sheffield games later on. I thought he was firm but fair, maybe strict on yellow cards but no obvious bloopers I can recall. Toms used to get some stick from the lower East for offside calls but I bet the majority were correct.

Souness was manager, he knew how dangerous it was as for the type of player he’d been. And Elm Park was a shithole and Reading fans are still berks (from Berkshire) although hope their club doesn’t go out of business as it’s been threatening to for a while, and that they get new owners.

Probably easier to recall the decent refs. Paul Durkin with a Dorset combination of Wendy Toms on the line was always solid and fair, widely considered the best official of his era. That mantle went to Howard Webb, only the one Saints blemish for him and Neil Warnock said they didn’t get him at Sheff Utd and it frustrated him as he rated him as the best of the best. Eddie Walthamstow let the game flow, you got a good game with him but would penalise anything cynical, as it should be. Michael Oliver looks good at times but difficult when there’s so much crap at PGMOL and Stockley Park around you. Has time on his side to be a class act. John Brooks has a mixed record but no complaints from anyone about his performance at Wembley. When a lot of the officials are on it, they can perform a very demanding job well, but there’s a few in this list who were/are terrible everywhere they go/went. Mistakes will always happen but there technology is now there to catch the obvious, if used judiciously. And there’s the rub!

Very good memory of the events, it was September 2005 but otherwise perfectly recalled. Brilliant goal by Fuller.

Kettle was notoriously bad, wasn’t just us. Whole division hated him as did the EFL when he was relegated there. We never had issues with him that I can recall but Barry Knight made some shockers to the extent Big Sam and their CEO banned him from Bolton games as his safety couldn’t be guaranteed. Rennie never made an out and out blooper but was so arrogant that WGS said at a fans forum that he was the only referee with an agent. Draw your own conclusions.

As others have posted, Peter Walton v Brighton whilst in our favour was as bad as Leeds home, and you can understand them losing the plot, it was that bad. For those of us slightly older ones, there were some further howlers long before the days of VAR, when the officials really should have no excuse now (but PGMOL writes them a dog ate my homework letter anyway). Steve Dunn, a plump little referee from Bristol disallowing Shipperley’s header (nothing wrong with it from any camera angle on Sky) in a FA Cup QF at Old Trafford. Even Fergie scratched his head when asked why it was ruled out. That Man U outfit didn’t need any extra help. Then he had a shocker in one of the first home games at SMS, sending off Delap and Dublin for joke incidents, when a bit of booing of Kachloul on his return spiced things up and Dunn lost the plot. David Axcell has to be mentioned for missing Paul Davis’s GBH on Glenn Cockerill at Highbury in 1988. IIRC he made another horrible blooper in the early 90s as well and nobody involved with SFC wanted to see him ever officiate one of our games. As others have said Mike Dean multiple times where it did get personal and Lee Mason v Villa including Cash’s punching the ball over the bar on the line when it was going in and had beaten their keeper. Unlike Axcell and Dunn, VAR was on offer and they STILL got it wrong. Andy D’Urso’s top flight career ended after booking Barry Ferguson twice and no red card in 2004 plus a very off penalty to us in injury time. Still wasn’t enough to save Paul Sturrock’s job. Whoever was referee Derby away September 2005, Redknapp and Bassett were sent off in protest and were still visible on camera angrily berating the fourth official in the tunnel area. Kevin Friend was bad multiple times including Liverpool home but not in the same league as the above pillocks.

Kriek Lambic is a favourite of mine and also Fou’Foune which is a mix of 18 month matured Lambic and Apricots. Timmermans Peche is a good one as well, not so keen on their Curvee Rene. Took me a few tries for my palate to adapt in my 20s to the funkiness and complexity but have come to enjoy and appreciate them.

Has been the case for most of this season and more so after the Bournemouth debacle.

It’s what I’d do in his position, he must realise that things are not going well at all and his co-partners are miles out of their depth.

Ok, an opinion then. You're entitled to it, as are others who believe that Martin’s approach and the player recruitment set-up we have will never be effective.

I agree, but as someone else has posted, it’d be difficult for Dragan to sack Rasmus even though he is the main investor. Best way would be to bring other large investors on board so Rasmus and Kraft are outvoted. Anyway, best way to vote is with our feet. The protests, memorable as they were, didn’t get rid of Branfoot, the 9,000 gate v Ipswich (less than that in the Dell that night too) and issues getting sponsors did. Empty seats hurts their business and revenue streams.

Source?

Large Albanian flag across the Northam wall might do it https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-44586587

For sub-£500 yes, perhaps £750-800 if one day and very straightforward, but for bigger jobs you’d want to keep a bit back at least to ensure it all worked and be able to snag etc. Because if they’ve made a ricket, and you’ve fully settled, good chance they ain’t coming back if they’re on the more feckless side. The ones with a work ethic and pride would, so you’ve also got to see them working, are they tidy, conscientious etc.

Corberan’s stock would stay higher getting WBA into the play offs again.

Watford mark 2. Ask their fans what they think of the Pozzos. Thank you Martin Semmens - Gao and now these jokers. What a charlatan.

We will be back to the attendances of 2008/9 if they do that. Martin has become as divisive as Lowe was and SR are on notice with the supporters to improve or sell.

But only at the £20-25m level now unless you are willing to take a hefty buyback clause others won’t consider as was the case with those two. Tino and Romeo wouldn’t be going for £5m and £12m now even so, and it’s idiotic that Semmens made a strategy of it and SR copied it.

It’s a shocker, still doesn't excuse Martin being Wessex League tactically, but PGMOL are very dubious. Wolves and Forest suffered from some very suspect officiating last season. What should have happened is the police and Premier League looking into the financial affairs of all officials concerned and Stockley Park employees to ensure there wasn’t a corruption issue. Italy and Belgium had historic issues with it, we aren’t immune. Instead, Forest get hit with a record £750k fine for speaking out and the dirt is brushed under the carpet again. With the amount of money swilling around and portals to gamble on nowadays, it would only hypothetically take a handful of addicted people to cross the line. On the other hand, the Euros did show our officials to be Europe’s worst so it’s just as likely a competency issue. Every game there was a fucking problem they were involved on pitch or VAR. Other countries can use VAR, ours can’t. Look at last season’s debacle at Bournemouth. What was it, 7 or 8 minute delay for a 45 second decision?

Some of them were good - Fernandes (I was wrong there), Lallana, THB, Archer, Taylor - but in the forward areas we needed a better player instead of BBD/AA new contract/Cornet loan. Just one example of quantity over quality, and it’s how Nathan Jones couldn’t fit his squad into a single dressing room it was so bloated. And it just happened again. Alcaraz - good player, good lad, but sack the managers and bring in a slower tempo possession obsessed one which didn’t suit Carlos. The SR approach of just focusing on single transactions is flawed, you have to recruit to the overall plan and invest in more quality where you really need it.

That’s relatively more recent though in our overall history - October 2019 and what, 2021? Project re-start we played some lovely stuff and we were far more competitive in both those seasons overall. I agree it’s been a crap few years but back to back bad owners will do that. And not SR hasn’t spent unlike Gao - it’s just had an overgrown kid playing computer games and one of City’s castoffs in charge of recruitment. Common thread is Martin Semmens in terms of both dud owners.

Yep, not just me smelling a rat on the rushing either. I’d be looking at the quality of the job definitely. We’re re-doing the extension next year (the original way before us didn’t have proper footings unfortunately) and the local family builders and glazers est 50 years plus we are using don’t want any £ up front even with a large job and proper payment by completion/quality agreement because they back their own high standards with a stack of good references and work we’ve looked at ourselves. And they know we will make good on our end of the deal from their due diligence.

But without the budget. It might work better if Dragan was one of the main investors, not the only. I’d see £3-5BN as a minimum for what they’re trying to do. If they got Saints top 10 PL established again, it would lift the rest of the group but when the main club performs below its typical benchmark since 1966 bar 05-09 as an outlier, that’s not attractive. Other investors with a bit more drive and ruthlessness would see the likes of Rasmus down the road PDQ with less of his ‘Funky’ decision-making.