Whitey Grandad

He is literally playing in a different league.

I agree with you. It has ruined the game as an experience for me. It’s all because of TV and the money it has paid. They have bought the rights to view it and they want to control it. Football has sold its soul. It’s not just Saints for me. I love a good game of intense football where each side is free to have a go in whichever way suits their style best. I hate modern TV coverage with its endless meaningless replays of non incidents, mostly whilst the ball is in play. Shots from six different camera angles with slow motion shots of the player’s reaction. Meanwhile out on the pitch the game is going on. You can’t just concentrate on the game any more and get absorbed in its movement and passion. Why do we ever need shots of the crowd? Or the managers? It’s not just me. My grandson is twenty and I have been going with him to games since he was a young teenager. He said last night that he and his friends had been talking about the way that football has changed over the past few years and become less exciting. Maybe it’s time for us to change our interest to the lower leagues where they play ‘proper football’.

Who was in in the Man Utd game who juggled the ball three times in their penalty area?

We disagree. The ball hit Lyanco’s arm, not the other way round. It was clearly accidental, Lyanco could never do anything deliberately. Until a couple of years ago that would never have been given, and rightly so. If you really think that DCC ‘hit’ Orsi then we have a big problem. On the same point, what did you think of the forearm smash on Djenepo on 38:35 minutes?

I don’t think we were. We were just dragged down to their level.

Because we’ve already bought the tickets.

The game turned on that awful miss by Mara in first half stoppage time.

Yep, well inside.Over on our right and a couple of yards inside the area. Would somebody please explain to me how a tap on the back is worth a penalty yet that assault wasn’t? It was deliberate and above neck height. Ought to have been a red card.

The was another weird one quite a while ago when a player picked up a coin that was on the pitch and tossed it back into the crowd. It was considered violent conduct and he was sent off. Was it Liverpool at the Dell?

I wouldn’t even call that a slap in the back and compared with the assault on Djenepo it was trivial. If it’s considered severe enough to be a foul then it’s serious foul play. Which it wasn’t.

I have no problems with teams that come to play and beat us fair and square by better football or by wanting it more but that second half was anti-football. Stop/start with pretend injuries and having to drink four swigs of water before taking goal kicks is pathetic.

I don’t agree. The first would never have been given in the previous hundred years of football history. A clear case of ball to hand. His right arm is in a natural position and the cross hits his hand and knocks it backwards. It’s a ridiculous interpretation of the law and if it is not changed the forwards will give up trying to score goals and just fire shots at defender’s arms. As I have said above. Not blatant at the time and watching the live replay just now neither of the commentators mentioned it. The referee doesn’t see it as handball even though the ball is obviously deflected but he isn’t up with play anyway. As you say, the second is really weird and is no more than a touch on the back. It is nothing compared to the forearm smash on Djenepo in their penalty area on 38:35 minutes, barely a minute and a half before the first penalty.

No need for the infantile insults. the ‘blatant’ handball was so ‘blatant’ that nobody who was actually at the game thought anything of it. If that second incident was a ‘strike’ then it should have been violent conduct and a red card. The reaction of Orsi was despicable. If I had ever given either of those as penalties I would not have left the pitch in one piece. What has happened to our beautiful game?

???

We were comfortably in control until those decisions which knocked us back. We were too narrow for the first half but improved in the second.

There was the Grimsby handball down on the right just before their first penalty and the front of DCC’s shirt was being torn off him from ten yards outside the penalty area until both players were inside. That’s was upset DCC so much and he hardly touched their pathetic creep. The referee didn’t see the shirt pull because of his position and VAR didn’t refer him to it but everybody in the Kingsland could see it.

Why???

That’s not the point. There was something not right about the way that this game was managed. A referee who was out of his depth and trying hard to impress. VAR whose only purpose was to examine the last incident that went their way and not the one a couple of seconds before that should have gone ours.

But they weren’t. That’s the thing. Grimsby did nothing to deserve a win and were gifted two goals plus multiple other decisions. We scored three goal but only one was allowed to stand.

Never a foul.

What really passes me of is the Grimsby fans celebrating when they've been handed the game on a plate by the officials. They never got close to scoring.

His shirt was being pulled.

DCC'S shirt was being pulled all the way into the area.

Clumsy typing. My fingers are frozen. If I were in Grimsby now they'd coat them in breadcrumbs and flog them to Findus

I'm at the game.