The standard of officiating

[fulwoodshrimp]

Is it just me or have we seen a decline in the standard of officiating at matches particularly this season? I realise recruitment of referees and assistants is difficult but people are being promoted to the Football League who are nowhere near the standard required. Our win on Saturday with the stunning winning goal has rather masked the poor performance by the referee and his assistants. They seemed clueless and many of their decisions seemed the result of guesswork. They fell for the Newport theatricals all the time and seemed to do their best to give Newport opportunities to get back in the game imo. I would love to see what their assessor made of their performance or is it a case of the assessor glossing over their inadequacies and ignoring their woeful shortcomings? Things have to change for matches are consistently being ruined by hopeless officiating.

[BerlinWaller]

The fact they are powerless to stop all the shithousery and diving annoys me. They must know that a player is play acting or wasting time but they fall for it every time. Some of the stuff the Newport players were doing on Saturday and getting away with was laughable.

[scalehallshrimp]

Big piece in Sunday times about the poor standard of referees at all levels this season

[MfcChris]

The ref on Saturday has been the referee for 3 out of our 4 league wins this season. We need him to ref us!

The Newport players conned the officials.

[jbc.shrimp]

I don't understand how no words are had from officials to the 'dugouts' when a player goes down injured as Amond did on Saturday, North wall side, physio is brought on, and during treatment Amond is laughing and trying to wind our fans up obviously feigning.

[red shrimp]

during treatment Amond is laughing and trying to wind our fans up obviously feigning.

At one point it looked as though Mark Shore was going to jump the fence and do him in!

All banter, Podge was having a laugh.

[Keith]

I don't understand how no words are had from officials to the 'dugouts' when a player goes down injured as Amond did on Saturday, North wall side, physio is brought on, and during treatment Amond is laughing and trying to wind our fans up obviously feigning.

It was when one of our lads was telling the ref that he was close enough to the touchline to go off the pitch. Ref turned to look to the physio, so Amond shuffled further on to the pitch! He then got up, walked off the pitch without any treatment and turned back, asking to come back on. Quite clearly cheating. The ref could have just left him stood off the pitch for a minute before waving him back on, that would have taught him a lesson.

Many years ago, I used to umpire hockey. In case you don't know, there are three cards, green for a warning, yellow is off the pitch for a minimum of five minutes, but at the umpire's discretion and a red card, 'now I'm going to have to bloody well write to the League about you'. One match, I'd heard a guy give a bit of lip to the other umpire and then he was gobby to me too. I called him over and told him to shut up. I also explained why the decisions he was arguing about were correct and that he needed to understand the rules better. I showed him a green card. A few minutes later, he was gobby again and swore. I called him over, showed him the yellow card and sent him behind the goal. It was a bitterly cold day, with a strong wind and some sleet. At half time, the teams congregated and the other umpire & me came together on the centre spot. The lad jogged up the pitch to join his team mates. As he came to the half way line, I called him to me and asked where he was going? He said to the team... I said something like, 'don't you know the rules? You aren't allowed on the pitch until I say so. Now go back to the goal and walk around the touchline to the other goal'. I left him there for almost all the second half. Eventually I waved him on. He ran up the pitch and as he reached the halfway line, I blew time.

As we walked off I said "you won't be gobby to umpires in future will you?" He apologised and said that he'd learned a lesson!

Yeah, I've always been a twat!

Point is, in sports like rugby & hockey there isn't any of this piss taking (AKA "cheating") because officials won't allow it and players are taught to be respectful.

[BerlinWaller]

I don't understand how no words are had from officials to the 'dugouts' when a player goes down injured as Amond did on Saturday, North wall side, physio is brought on, and during treatment Amond is laughing and trying to wind our fans up obviously feigning.

It was when one of our lads was telling the ref that he was close enough to the touchline to go off the pitch. Ref turned to look to the physio, so Amond shuffled further on to the pitch! He then got up, walked off the pitch without any treatment and turned back, asking to come back on. Quite clearly cheating. The ref could have just left him stood off the pitch for a minute before waving him back on, that would have taught him a lesson.

Many years ago, I used to umpire hockey. In case you don't know, there are three cards, green for a warning, yellow is off the pitch for a minimum of five minutes, but at the umpire's discretion and a red card, 'now I'm going to have to bloody well write to the League about you'. One match, I'd heard a guy give a bit of lip to the other umpire and then he was gobby to me too. I called him over and told him to shut up. I also explained why the decisions he was arguing about were correct and that he needed to understand the rules better. I showed him a green card. A few minutes later, he was gobby again and swore. I called him over, showed him the yellow card and sent him behind the goal. It was a bitterly cold day, with a strong wind and some sleet. At half time, the teams congregated and the other umpire & me came together on the centre spot. The lad jogged up the pitch to join his team mates. As he came to the half way line, I called him to me and asked where he was going? He said to the team... I said something like, 'don't you know the rules? You aren't allowed on the pitch until I say so. Now go back to the goal and walk around the touchline to the other goal'. I left him there for almost all the second half. Eventually I waved him on. He ran up the pitch and as he reached the halfway line, I blew time.

As we walked off I said "you won't be gobby to umpires in future will you?" He apologised and said that he'd learned a lesson!

Yeah, I've always been a twat!

Point is, in sports like rugby & hockey there isn't any of this piss taking (AKA "cheating") because officials won't allow it and players are taught to be respectful.

Nice one Keith, that's sorted getting my kids to sleep tomorrow night.

It was the night before Christmas and Keith used to be a Hockey Umpire.......