Bristol Rovers G/Keeper Yellow card

[davewebbsbrain]

You know what...this has caused a lot of debate and for good reason, but.....

The keeper didn't then pull off a blinding save from a penalty or anything like that, we got the 3 points...job done.

Had he launched a long kick that had resulted in a goal or in any way affected the final result, then it would mean everything....but it didn't.

Lets look forward to our next game!!



P.S. I think he should have been sent off!!

 

[Fish]

Just reading Poll's book at the moment as it happens. As someoone who also 'referees' every week (albeit hockey, not football but for my point's purposes the principle is the same), anyone who is willing to step over the white line each week and make tough calls in front of thousands AND TV cameras like refs do have my utmost respect, regardless of their professional status or not. So to dismiss Poll's views simply because in the cauldron of one very high pressure (loser goes out) international match in the dying minutes he notes down a yellow card in the wrong column is a stupidly high standard to set - especially when there were so many similarities in the players names and accents given the number of Australian Croats and Croatian Australian players. If we all applied that standard then we'd have no internation football cos there'd be no-one left to ref it. He only got to do that game because, over a 26 year long career, he demonstrated consistently high performance better than nearly everyone else on the globe.

One big difference between hockey and football is that officials in hockey have more licence to caution for intent, possibly because turning a blind eye to an intentional foul which didn't come off is possibly more dangerous when you have people waving sticks of wood at each other to perpetrate it with.

The ref for the Bristol Rovers game could not have been able to see if the shot was actually likely to go in without the keeper's illegal and deliberate intervention, because the line of the shot (if he was properly positioned) would have been across his line of sight, not along it. So for one, he couldn't be sure that the shot itself was an obvious goalscoring opportunity because he couldn't be sure the shot was on target. For the same reason, he also couldn't be certain that if the shot was in fact a cross, it would have gone to an un-marked Southend player. THerefore either way in my opinion he can't be sure it's an obviious goalscoring opportunity in the same way that a goalkeeper coming out of the top of his D to meet an on-rushing forward one-on-one in the clear would be denying if he handled (which I suspect is the sort of instance we would normally see reds given to keepers for handling outside the area.

On that basis, crazy as the laws of football are, he can't give a red card even though we all knew the keeper was committing a deliberate offence which in his view would clearly stop Southend developing the very decent chance of scoring they'd got in that situation.

 

[Shrimpergonzo]

The interesting wording for me in this is that it is a "goalscoring opportunity" not a "goal" that is denied.

Therefore the ref doesn't need to know that it is definitely going in, rather that there was an opportunity for us to score a goal from that position - which of course there was (as opposed to one of their attackers deliberately handling the ball in our penalty area, which would only be a yellow)

That opportunity was denied by the deliberate handball - straight red for me!

 

[Herne Bay shrimper]

I'm sure at Roots Hall and elsewhere in the past I've seen keepers catch the ball six inches outside the penalty area, with no onrushing players, and get a straight red - how, then, is that denying a clear goalscoring opportunity?

For what it's worth, I can see why the ref made his decision - doesn't mean I have to agree with him, but it's a tough call, and I was screaming at the guy from the stands when that yellow card came out...

 

[Mick]

I'm sure at Roots Hall and elsewhere in the past I've seen keepers catch the ball six inches outside the penalty area, with no onrushing players, and get a straight red - how, then, is that denying a clear goalscoring opportunity?

I don't recall such an incident.

If it had occurred, it would have been overturned on the inevitable appeal.