Whitey Grandad

Yep. No pressure.

They were both pulling each other's shirts before they even got into the box. Orsi takes a swipe at DCC who then flaps back. Which of these multiple offences do you penalise and with what sanction? This is a common question amongst referees and our mate on Wednesday got it wrong.

That’s been a general criticism of VAR since it was first proposed. The same Laws and their proper interpretation should apply across all levels of football and across all countries. The way that the officials operate is changed by the presence of VAR and you might think that a Premier League team would be used to operating within it but are the officials? That referee on Wednesday has previously mainly operated without VAR having officiated at only five Premier League games. It’s no surprise if he’s overawed by it and takes his time and follows the lead of another referee sitting miles away in front of a flickering screen

I can only repeat my earlier comment. That could never be described as ‘a hit’. It was a flick with the back of his hand.

There needs to be a full medical report first.

Honesty rarely pays.

It depends on the status and experience of the on field referee. The raw ones are too scared of standing up for their own decisions and feel that if they have been recommended to review they must have been wrong. There is also confirmation bias. The more times that you see a replay the more you think that the action must have been premeditated because you know what’s coming next. You have lost the spontaneity of the initial observation.

Quite right. Anything that needs more than a few seconds cannot by definition have been clear and obvious.

Not true. Much anger I detect in you, rockhopper. If you feel the need to resort to obscene swearing then I fear for your future health. You know very well that I am a referee who is no longer active. My record is clear on refereeing matters and I will support them and explain their decisions whenever I can. I hate VAR for reasons that I have made clear many times and it naturally follows that I contest many of the offside decisions. Cheating is an abomination in any sport and should rightly be decried. You may be surprised to learn that I don’t give a toss about any result. I just want to see a good sporting game.

I'd pay to see that!

31st December 2022 Fulham v Southampton 96 mins Gavin Bazunu

It makes no difference which teams are involved. The current situation with the interpretation of the handball law is a complete horlicks. The more the refereeing authorities fiddle with their instructions the worse things get.

If you think that's a hit you've led a very sheltered life.

Dives a good two seconds to late. Seems perfect for us.

It could never be described as 'violent conduct' so no red card and no direcct free kick (penalty). The correct action if any was necessary was to book both players for 'unsporting behaviour' and restart the game with an indirect frre kick, most usually to the defence.

It all depends on pricing.

Some tough decisions coming up before too long. At the moment I’m minded not to renew. I have no affiliation with the seats. My grandson will be away on a placement next season. We can always get some tickets if we feel that we want too Money is very tight.

The ball was in play at the time even though it was in McCarthy’s hands. One of the great miscarriages of justice and an example of ridiculous refereeing that will continue to be talked about throughout the history of the game. Opps, I forgot that it wasn’t against Beckham or Rooney.

It wasn’t that extreme. If ‘how hard is irrelevant’ don’t forget that Orsi ‘lashed out’ at DCC immediately before. Never a foul. Never a penalty. And in the context of what had been allowed to go up till then, all against Saints, disgraceful. Piss poor refereeing by a piss poor referee.

It was quite a violent challenge. Djenepo’s head gets jerked back by the elbow. He had beaten Maher by his trickery so he just steps across to block and sticks his arm into Djenepo’s chin. Please Mr. Referee Thomas Bramall will you explain to us all why a this is not a penalty and a red card yet a tap on the back is worthy of gifting a goal? As a team we’re too nice to referee.

Exactly right. They make their billions by selling the brand worldwide and clubs like Southampton do not feature in that. They are an inconvenience. We travel a lot and all over the world all we see are Liverpool shirts. Or Man United. Or Arsenal. Or Chelsea. Or… I was in a shop in a Mexican coastal town and the friendly salesman there wanted to ask me a question. He got out his Man Utd replica shirt and asked me why he got so much abuse from English visitors. I explained to him gently that we liked to see fair play and not have sporting outcomes dominated by those who have the most money.

Before I wipe my recording from the face of eternity here are a couple of screenshots of the assault on Djenepo in the first half last night. This was less than a minute before their penalty for alleged handball.

They’re only that because of all the media hype. And they have to hype up the whole kaboodle in order to get the muggies to fork out extortionate amounts to watch it.

Late on in last night’s match whilst we were abjectly sinking out of the Cup all the big screens were showing was promotions for the women’s team.

Yeah, whatever. As I said, I saw their game against Burnley when they let in four and their defence was as porous as soggy blotting paper. I notice that they’re just above in the table having let in seven more goals than us and have a goal difference worse than us by four. Just imagine how much worse they might be without him.