This is an old clip that I've just been shown which has a multitude of key match incidents. Its from the First Division (now called the Championship) playoff semi final second leg. The referee is Barry Knight - at the time now a SG referee but was later to become one. You can watch it and look at the decisions on their own merits, but do bear in mind this is 13 years old and while the laws haven't massively changed, attitudes and interpretations have done and may have resulted in different decisions today as opposed to then? You decide.
Interesting video. I think the first and third penalties are good. Even if there's some simulation on the first one, it seemed like a pretty obvious trip. The third one was just utter stupidity by the defender. The second penalty is obviously the one that made Bolton irate. I think, in that day, it wasn't a penalty. The irony is, in today's game, that's a foul tackle. I think that's the one law change (that merely tackling "carelessly" is a foul) or interpretation that would have been different between now and then and mattered. The first red is mind-boggling. I almost refuse to believe that it wasn't a second yellow, but even the studio commentators after reiterated it. If there was nothing else, and that was just for the foul, then that's an inexcusable mistake. The second red, to be honest, looked like SFP but he got sent either way so no problems there.
yeah, I also seriously thought it might have been a 2nd yellow instead of a straight red as well. And thank you EnglishRef for posting this. It was a fun watch. And I even learned about the American who once owned Chester City and he formerly played with the New England Patriots.
That looks like a crazy game. Also it's a wonder that anyone in England would want to be a referee after seeing how they are treated on TV. There was at least 4 red cards for threatening behavior in there that should've been given. They were acting like animals.
You state that like it's decided, as long as there's money at stake there needs to be no limits on peoples actions. What if we take that to it's logical extreme, where's the line? I suppose some would say the line is in that Saudi video in the other thread. This was not far from that and it looks to be getting worse in certain places which is why a volunteer AR died from being kicked to death by teenagers. I do not think money is any reason to threaten someone with bodily harm, these players should have been punished. Big Sam should have been punished but most likely he was given a slap on the wrist and people cheered how he was standing up to the big bad FA and their referees. It just takes one person or a few people to go too far in one of these situations and a referee is injured or dead, and fans are cheering for more.
I never said it was justified, you said they were acting like "animals" and all I did was to give you a possible explanation as to why they were behaving as they did...
What struck me was how little protest there was on the first red card relative to the protest of the second penalty. To be honest, that's one of the reasons I thought--and still sort of think--it was a second yellow, despite what the commentators said. A team goes absolutely berserk over conceding a penalty that, while likely not the norm for that time period, was still a pretty robust challenge. And then they just accept a red card that has absolutely no justification in law? Seems odd. Wish we could find a game report for the match.
Because of the positioning of CR's back then (now they are closer to the penalty area to watch for players entering before the kick), he is too far away to get involved at the 4:00 minute mark of the video when the Ipswich player who is getting ready to take the PK is being "confronted" by a Bolton player. Another example of the game evolving. Hopefully in 15 years, people will look back at videos of today's game with amazement that so much clutching and grabbing is allowed on corner kicks, that would be whistled for fouls anywhere else on the field. Perhaps wishful thinking on my part.
It was definitely a straight red for DOGSO, as shown here (click on the 5-3 result). As for the comments on TV and afterwards, remember this was 13 years ago. We may still criticise pundits, players and managers, but attitudes have definitely changed since then and I genuinely think there'd be outrage if players acted the way they did, managers said what Allardyce said and TV pundits/presenters said what they said nowadays. This was long before The FA's "Respect" campaign.