Did you see that Ref?

[Professor]

Just had another look at the video of the Bristol Rovers game. Interesting 'advantage' played by ref just before the 5th goal - or was it incompetant refereeing?

 

Hughes, the Rovers No.11 seemed to have a red mist, bundling Antonio over as he tried to get to his feet, then knocking him down again and then when Antonio still got to the ball, fouling him a third time so that he went down, this time with the Assistant flagging madly for the foul. All of this was outside the area and well to the right, where there was no indication that the attack could lead to a goal, but the Ref took no action.

 

The referee was saved by Puncheon, who took on the ball as Antonio fell, but Punch had to beat one man and go past another on a run along the edge of the penalty area before getting in a shot that managed to go past two other defenders and the GK to squeeze in by the post.

 

Ironic this, but Puncheon should never have had that chance, as Saints should have been given a free kick just outside the area, and Rovers should have been down to 10 men.

 

See what you think. Its at 2.10 into the clip:

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/eng_div_2/8620991.stm

[Fowllyd]

Having watched the highlights this morning, I spotted that too. My initial thought was that it was a good advantage played by the ref, as Puncheon took the ball on pretty quickly after Antonio was fouled (and with the linesman flagging like crazy). The ref could have stopped it if Puncheon had then lost the ball.

 

As you can't see the ref in the picture it's impossible to tell whether he missed the fouls or allowed Saints the advantage. Given the nature of the fouls on Antonio I'm inclined to go for the latter. Either way, I can't see a sending-off in there, though I'd have thought the Rovers player should have been booked - and that could have been done anyway, advantage played or not.

[iansums]

I put it down to good refereeing. They are normally far too whistle happy, blowing up as soon as they see a foul. They should always just pause to see if advantage can be played.

[Didcot Saint]

What about the Pen? Their player leaned into Fonte knocking him over then went down!

Good Job it did'nt affect the result.

[Saint_Mabes]

I've only watched the penalty once, but it looked like a penalty to me. Jose's legs almost seemed to slip out from under him as he tried to block the player, but there was definate contact and it didn't seem that their player knocked him over to me.

 

He's aloud one slip up - Jose Fonte baby!

[Junior Mullet]

Looks like a good advantage played to me. Puncheon was playing very well, cut inside along the edge of the box and was shaping to shoot. Would have been poor refereeing to have stopped play there IMO. Was the player booked after the goal? Should have been.

[Winchester_Saint]

I thought it was a good advantage played, to be honest, although the ref could have/should have booked the Rovers player afterwards. Not enough of this happening in my opinion - too often are refs these days eager to stop the game when he thinks it's a bookable offence, even if the team retains possession and are attacking. Why not just play the advantage and then book the player the next time the ball goes out of play - it's not as though they need great memories or anything to remember to book the player afterwards!

[B Rabbit]

It was a penalty and it was a good advantage played...

[Barry the Badger]

Not enough of this happening in my opinion - too often are refs these days eager to stop the game when he thinks it's a bookable offence, even if the team retains possession and are attacking.

 

I agree, and also think that the advantage in football generally doesn't last long enough.

 

I'm no great Rugby fan but I do like the way the refs use advantage, it can last a lot longer and if 30 seconds later nothing has come of it then they will pull it back.

 

The ref on Tuesday may well have played the advantage, but I bet he would not have pulled it back for a penalty if Puncheons shot had been saved.

[benjii]

The ref generally had a good game in terms of decisions. There was one shocker when they were awarded a throw-in wrongly but that was the lino's fault, not the ref's.

 

The only gripe I had was that he let a couple of their players escape a booking when they should have got one and then booked Schneiderlin for something fairly innocuous. Having said that, the stats said he committed 6 fouls so I suppose he probably can't complain overall.

[The9]

I was there and he clearly signalled advantage, having initially not reacted to the flag particularly quickly, thus enabling Puncheon the time to recover and beat his man.

 

He was stood there with both arms out, slightly crouched down, that's "advantage" even from 90 yards away.

[brightspark]

Saw the highlights and I think the ref would have been brimming ear to ear. A wonderful decision. Shame he won't get a thread with 200 posts declaring how awesome of a performance he put in (in comparison with Mr Walton!!!)

[Tony F]

I was there and he clearly signalled advantage, having initially not reacted to the flag particularly quickly, thus enabling Puncheon the time to recover and beat his man.

 

He was stood there with both arms out, slightly crouched down, that's "advantage" even from 90 yards away.

 

100% agree - even from the far end of the ground (seated in South Stand behind goal) I could see the advantage being played by the ref. It was a very good and brave call and Puncheon scoring certainly justified his judgement.

[Pat from Poole]

Not Saints related, but my favourite bit of action from the last few days was from Preston's game with Scunny at the weekend. Scunny's first goal was hilarious.

 

The Preston centre-half St. Ledger played a backpass to his keeper, turned round to berate a colleague for something or other, not himself realising that his backpass to the keeper was woefully short and allowed a Scunny player to run on and score.

 

One of those that you have to see to appreciate; very funny though.