Shrimpsvoices

In a professional sport where standards of play are improving it is surely time for the EFL to look at the standard of refereeing. Some officials have shown themselves to be hopelessly out of their depth officiating matches and nothing seems to be done and year after year fans groan on occasions when they see who has been assigned to their club's game. That was my experience when I saw the referee assigned to our game against Walsall. I regard Graham Salisbury as an extremely poor referee based on his performances in Shrimps games previously. His performance last night only confirmed my feelings and evidently frustrated our manager DA also! I have found over the years his decision making is inconsistent and erratic and I have found he struggles to keep in touch with play. I am perplexed what his assessors think of his performances as nothing changes and he continues to be allowed to spoil games. I realise refereeing can be a thankless task but I think action is needed to improve the recruitment, the fitness and training of match officials to ensure more consistency in games. At the moment it is a lottery which referee is assigned to matches and that decision often determines the result of games. It is surely time for EFL action to sort out this huge problem.

To be fair, he was crap for both sides.
Missed their pen and gave a free kick, my position I couldn’t see that Wildig was pulled back but the camera angle proves it, so two missed, kind of evens it up, though two wrongs don’t make a right.
As for the pull back on McA, he did allow play on but when Cole mis-trapped it he should have brought it back and booked Sadler. He gave a goal kick and didn’t even talk to him! Just awful.
His son, Michael, as we remember is even bloody worse.

At the moment, we are seemingly being punished for every little error, the Walsall goal had more than a touch of fortune about it, as did both Orient goals on Saturday, can’t blame the ref for them!
Hopefully we will bury some chances against Colchester.

Having watched the highlights back, the foul on Wildig is worse than when I saw it 'live', the push/tug comes as shot is being taken - I had thought Aaron managed to compose himself and just fluffed his chance by opting for a dinky effort; although even then it should still be a penalty. If Wildig goes down the referee probably gives it - but it shouldn't (but invariable does) make a difference in the box (and we moan about simulation). Probably a red card also for a professional foul - no attempt to play the ball. Referee doesn't want to make this call in my opinion, so he gives nothing. Pathetic.

Pull-back on McAlinden (both hands) should've resulted in booking also, but I don't think you can bring the play back for the infringement as Cole is given/tries to use the advantage to score but messes up his opportunity.... always a difficult call, but for me two touches in the box, one of them an attempted shot, is sufficient enough an advantage. Should've squared to Wildig for a tap in, but obviously doesn't see/hear him.

Is there a queue of people lining up to be a referee? Could this be part of the problem? Ultimately you need one - but if you have a limited/short supply, I guess some get by being poor regardless of good or bad 'independent' assessments. I noticed that MFC Community Sports are offering a refereeing workshop hosted by a WSL official. They have pushed this on social media a couple of times, so it doesn't look like they have been oversubscribed with interest....... unlike the Fortnite (computer game) tournament

I watched most of th second half but missed D.A. being sent to the stand. If this was for simple verbal disgust at the ref with no physical contact, how is it that no action was taken against their No.7 Sinclair and their manager, who must have both taken semaphore training before last night's match with all the arm waving, and verbal they were giving the ref ? ?

Also Cole “ pushed their defender in their area” ref awards them a free kick,
Few minutes later CMG is pushed over by their defender in their area almost a carbon copy of the first offence, nothing given ??
How many times did they kick the ball away and nothing was done ?
As said before he has always been poor

I've commented on this before, but I definitely think the issue is with the recruitment and retaining of referees.

My view on why we struggle to recruit referees is at the grassroots level. Refs turn up to a Sunday league match, and it can be an 18 year old lad on his own trying to control 22 middle-aged men with no support. A lot of refs report suffering abuse, either physical or verbal, and so I think they give up or stick to youth football and don't bother to progress. I think loads of potentially great refs are "lost" this way.

Also, with all the money in the game I think they're massively underpaid. At our level, refs are still part-time, so will likely have a second job, but after working all week they're expected to keep pace with professionals training every day. Lots of refs likely can't commit to years of part-time work on the chance of promotion. Professional football deserves professional refs.

tim-sanchez wrote:I've commented on this before, but I definitely think the issue is with the recruitment and retaining of referees.

My view on why we struggle to recruit referees is at the grassroots level. Refs turn up to a Sunday league match, and it can be an 18 year old lad on his own trying to control 22 middle-aged men with no support. A lot of refs report suffering abuse, either physical or verbal, and so I think they give up or stick to youth football and don't bother to progress. I think loads of potentially great refs are "lost" this way.

Also, with all the money in the game I think they're massively underpaid. At our level, refs are still part-time, so will likely have a second job, but after working all week they're expected to keep pace with professionals training every day. Lots of refs likely can't commit to years of part-time work on the chance of promotion. Professional football deserves professional refs.

Good that ts. Pay the salary, creating far more interest, with the expectation, or even demand, of standard. As with any decent job, fit for purpose, or out. Would need a good amount of money, time etc to get there, but would bring about the change needed.

Refereeing is a thankless task and they all see things in a different way. The best we can hope for is that a referee is consistent over the course of that match.
Should have been a penalty for Walsall - should have been a penalty for us, neither given, at least its consistent.
A slight nudge by Cole in their box and a foul given - a nudge by a defender in their box and nothing given,
that's not consistent.

So on balance with VAR we should have had two penalties to their one!

Not that I want to see VAR at any level.

Note: Brentfords Toney was booked for kicking the ball away and later sent off for a second bookable offence. Has anybody ever been sent off for kicking the ball away twice!

Alan wrote:Refereeing is a thankless task and they all see things in a different way. The best we can hope for is that a referee is consistent over the course of that match.
Should have been a penalty for Walsall - should have been a penalty for us, neither given, at least its consistent.
A slight nudge by Cole in their box and a foul given - a nudge by a defender in their box and nothing given,
that's not consistent.

So on balance with VAR we should have had two penalties to their one!

Not that I want to see VAR at any level.

Note: Brentfords Toney was booked for kicking the ball away and later sent off for a second bookable offence. Has anybody ever been sent off for kicking the ball away twice!

Are you Alan the referee?? If it is you mate, then the difference is, you are consistently good. Lower level agreed, but fitter than most the refs in Lge 2 aswell.

Slanester wrote:Are you Alan the referee?? If it is you mate, then the difference is, you are consistently good. Lower level agreed, but fitter than most the refs in Lge 2 aswell.

Not me Slanester, but good to hear that there are some good referees at local level.

Unfortunately if the 'linesmen' ( the teams coach or captains best mate) are similar to when I played then you are offside no matter how many players you beat before slotting the ball home!

Alan wrote:

Slanester wrote:Are you Alan the referee?? If it is you mate, then the difference is, you are consistently good. Lower level agreed, but fitter than most the refs in Lge 2 aswell.

Not me Slanester, but good to hear that there are some good referees at local level.

Unfortunately if the 'linesmen' ( the teams coach or captains best mate) are similar to when I played then you are offside no matter how many players you beat before slotting the ball home!

Very good ref, consistent, and not intimidated by anybody. Your reference to linesmen....

RedRedWine wrote:Is there a queue of people lining up to be a referee? Could this be part of the problem? Ultimately you need one - but if you have a limited/short supply, I guess some get by being poor regardless of good or bad 'independent' assessments.

100% the issue for me. If you demote a poor referee, you need to promote one to take their place. If there isn't a better, or even broadly similar standard ref ready to come up, then there is no demoting going on.

With the money in football, refereeing should be a reasonably well paid career. How many players have to stop due to injury but are still fit & healthy enough to keep up with play? If they could make a living as a ref, their acquired knowledge of the game would be valuable. If they earned enough to be full time, then their fitness improves, but also their 'on pitch' ability increases. There would be time to get together and dissect games & decisions, get peer support etc.