The pain and agony of SA

I feel i approached this blog somewhat naively. I felt that some weekends, the supposed best referees in the land would have quiet weekends, get everything right and i could talk about trivial matters. Seems not.

The major incident of the weekend came from every refereeing blogger's best friend, Stuart Attwell. This was a crucial game for Liverpool after a poor start and i think was a show of faith from the PGMOL to give MR.Attwell the game. The now "infamous" freekick taken by Sunderland, shows Mr.Attwell's relative inexperience. While im not in a position to comment on experience, Howard Webb or Peter Walton would not have made this error. By the letter of the law, it was correct, the freekick had been taken. But, as we are so often reminded, it is our application of the laws that matters, this should, in my opinion include common sense. The common sense approach would be to bring play up, and let the keeper take the freekick. However, he was right to only award a yellow card to Steven Gerrard, as much as it may have been intentional, malice is completely different and it was a half hearted attempt to either win the wall or harm the player from Gerrard. Attwell - 5/10

Mr.Clattenburg's red card at Birmingham V Wigan is as ambigious as Alec Mcleish's answer to the question of Craig Gardner's red card. " A few years ago, thats a yellow card" were the words of Mcleish, this may be true, but doesnt excuse Gardner's over the ball, studs up challenge. I believe this is where the premier league differs from the grassroots. I gave a very similar challenge at the weekend, a yellow card. The calls of "that's soft ref" were inevitable but in the case of park football, a fair case. In the premier league however, with insurance on the players health a huge business, these tackles should not be tolerated.
Good decision Clatts - 7/10

Anothe referee who needs a mention is Michael Oliver - Unlike most 25 year olds, this man doesnt seem intimidated by anything, and can control games as potentially fiery as the West Brom upset of Arsenal. He is setting a new bar for young referees, a tough one to match.


Dean - 7/10 -  great control of Blackpool cauldron
Dowd - 7/10 - Well handled, Potential for upset
Atkinson 8/10 - Tough game, well controlled by a top official
Webb - 7/10 - Quiet day, welcome im sure
Jones - 7/10 -  Good performance, easy penalty call
Halsey - 6/10 - Overly fussy, but controlled well
Marriner - 8/10- justified faith shown in him by board.