The quality of match officials

[Sleaford Shrimper]

Although Phil Brown has quite possibly over-reacted to some of the refereeing decisions that have gone against us this season, I get the impression from match reports on this forum that more dubious decisions by match officials have gone against us than in our favour. Certainly, some poor decisions appear to have cost us points and, even today, what looked like an offside second goal by Millwall against Bristol Rovers helped to gain them a place in the play-offs at our expense. Trying to be as impartial as possible, would those of you who get to matches regularly like to comment on the overall quality of refereeing you have seen in 2016/2017? Are the match officials in general getting worse and, if so, is there any way they could be helped to improve?

 

[OldBlueLady]

The worst we've seen are supposed to be amongst the best. I thought Gavin Ward, today, had a great game.

 

[South Bank Hank]

I get the impression from match reports on this forum that more dubious decisions by match officials have gone against us than in our favour.

In our perception no doubt, but it's probably the same impression on every other fans forum across the land. If they're getting worse, they'll be getting equally worse for all the other teams too, and certainly the Bury fans were less than content with Ward today.

 

[Mick]

Although Phil Brown has quite possibly over-reacted to some of the refereeing decisions that have gone against us this season, I get the impression from match reports on this forum that more dubious decisions by match officials have gone against us than in our favour. Certainly, some poor decisions appear to have cost us points and, even today, what looked like an offside second goal by Millwall against Bristol Rovers helped to gain them a place in the play-offs at our expense. Trying to be as impartial as possible, would those of you who get to matches regularly like to comment on the overall quality of refereeing you have seen in 2016/2017? Are the match officials in general getting worse and, if so, is there any way they could be helped to improve?

The best, by a country mile, was Robert Jones from Liverpool. Some of the rest were adequate, some just don't bear thinking about.

But despite their shortcomings, they are the best available. Why is the best not good enough ? I think the players and managers have a lot to answer for.

 

[IloveShrimp]

The refs need more help from players. The constant cheating (simulation :omg:) is ruining the game. If the referees only had to administer the rules the majority would be good.

There should be more punishments for cheats including retrospectively, with points deductions administered for those who win games by cheating. Perhaps even there should be no sending offs but points deduction instead. I don't think that fans should pay top whack for tickets and then not be able to watch the best players on the pitch.

 

[Somerset Ex-TTB]

One of the supposed best, cost us a point at Milwall and effectively a play off place, with that stonewall penalty not being given. :smile:

 

[Feathers]

I think you will find that when we win they were excellent and when we lose that are appalling and the worst ever....until the next time we lose

 

[Sleaford Shrimper]

The refs need more help from players. The constant cheating (simulation :omg:) is ruining the game. If the referees only had to administer the rules the majority would be good.

There should be more punishments for cheats including retrospectively, with points deductions administered for those who win games by cheating. Perhaps even there should be no sending offs but points deduction instead. I don't think that fans should pay top whack for tickets and then not be able to watch the best players on the pitch.

I doubt what you suggest would ever happen but I find the concepts attractive.

 

[AndyT]

No issues with the officials, today.

 

[Cockle43]

No issues with the officials, today.

Indeed, hardly noticed them, apart from the cards which seemed to be right; therefore, for me, a good performance.

 

[Harry Bullocks]

Isn't it just (unfortunately), pot luck....sometimes you ride the waves...and sometimes you sink.....over a season I think it generally balances out :unsure:

 

[southendkid]

Some of the complaints on here are through Southend tinted glasses, the refs are sometimes bad but no worse for us than others so it evens out over the season, we can't really blame the ref for the poor results we've had recently. Not to mention people have complained about decisions that turned out to be correct in the replays (eg Leonard's red card) which shows the fans often get it wrong as well if the decision goes against us.

 

[Bearded Shrimper]

today was a perfect example. Any Bury player holding, or in any contact with a Southend player, people all around abuse the ref and lino for 'holding'. Adam Thompson does it, no one complains.

Their number 5 drags someone down, gets a deserved yellow, people around me scream for a red.

Leonard gets send off for a very poor challenge, our fans say it wasn't a sending off.

Occasionally we get shocking officials but usually they are fine. Our fans usually just demand every single decision be given to us.

This whole thing gets right on my nerves

 

[Andyhsufc]

Like most things, you remember the decisions that went against you rather than the ones that went for you. The standard of officiating at our level has not noticeably been better or worse than in previous seasons in my opinion. The same cannot be said for the refereeing this season in the premier division.

 

[Jai]

Ref was very good today I thought. The standard this year though has been noticeably worse than usual though, perhaps we just got unlucky a lot. But the Oldham game will take some beating for poor refereeing. Millwall away wasn't great, and Matthew Lund must still be wondering how he didn't get sent off after four bookable offences in January.

As a former referee myself though it's a very tough job and I do tend to agree that managers in particular in this country are too quick to blame the officials and not take responsibility for their own mistakes, which in turn filters down to the players and fans. It comes from the top too. Look at the likes of Mourinho's attitude towards referees but he never gets properly punished.

Brown is quite bad for slagging the match officials IMO.

 

[Chocolardo]

So boring, this year we have spent so much time moaning about refs just move on. It's only when we get beat that we moan, we must be embarrassing to other teams

 

[RHB]

So boring, this year we have spent so much time moaning about refs just move on. It's only when we get beat that we moan, we must be embarrassing to other teams

Ok, you find it boring. Others obviously don't or they wouldn't post in the thread. There's nothing to stop you ignoring the thread if you don't like it.

 

[Chocolardo]

Just embarrassing, after almost every defeat this season the players take to social media to moan about the ref, fans take to social media or on here to do the same, always quiet when we win though. If others teams done this we would be commenting on it.

 

[Zeuss]

Close this thread immediately!
It is totally wrong to use the words "match officials" and "quality"in the same sentence.