The Good the Bad and the Ugly
As
the expectations and excitement of the recent take over fuel our imaginations
for the coming months and years, what, I hear you say (not) about our
experiences so far since that tumultuous day at Nuneaton last April ( see header pic).
Has life in the National League met, exceeded or failed our collective or individual desires?
What am I talking about, at the time of writing one place adrift of the play off births with new players aplenty including the return of Danny Lloyd. All this achieved largely with the same players from last season minus Warbs and Duxbury and the unfortunate Darren Stephenson.
A decent start with away draws at relegatedNotts
County Ganders Green Lane
.................... which leads me nicely into the Ugly – Referees.
Has life in the National League met, exceeded or failed our collective or individual desires?
What am I talking about, at the time of writing one place adrift of the play off births with new players aplenty including the return of Danny Lloyd. All this achieved largely with the same players from last season minus Warbs and Duxbury and the unfortunate Darren Stephenson.
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| Dazzer- missed ! |
A decent start with away draws at relegated
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| Lesser Crested Hammill, as seen at Sutton. |
.................... which leads me nicely into the Ugly – Referees.
For
those present at Sutton, that day and even for those that were not, the
assigned match referee for the game, tweaked something in the warm up and was
replaced by one of the ‘other officials’ Sadly, this official was clearly
petrified over the whole 95 minutes and deferred just about every decision to
his colleagues off pitch. When a Sutton defender decided to catch the ball two
feet above his head in his own penalty area and then realising his error buried
his head in his hands awaiting the inevitable whistle awarding the visitors a
penalty a miracle happened: our replacement referee, who was very well placed
to witness the incident………..did nothing. With no instruction from the edge of
the pitch he presumed he had just suffered an extraordinary hallucination and
played on.
Forgive my vitriol but coming on the back of Benjamin Speedie’s performance in the trophy replay against Dorking and then to find that next up was Aaron Jackson v Sutton (them again) my resolve is in tatters.
Perhaps the real heart breaker came at Aldershot where a liner (assistant referee) who had deferred every decision to the referee finally made one on his own and in a clear and timely manner flagged for offside as the home player ‘scored’.......... the referee concurred but sadly not two home players who decided to interrogate said liner on his decision. Up strolls the referee to join in this debating society where he decided that his assistant has either a) Hallucinated, b) Succumbed to the home players ‘advice’ or c) Was not part of the correct Malaysian betting syndicate and overturned both his own and his assistants original verdict.
For my part having slowed the video down to the enth degree I think the goal was good but that is hardly the point. If berating an officials decision gets results why aren’t we all doing it? For my penny’s worth I thought the officials in the North over the past two seasons were better than what we are witnessing at National level. If Sebastian Stocksbridge and Paul Marsden can become Football League referees what horrors are in store for future years?
Forgive my vitriol but coming on the back of Benjamin Speedie’s performance in the trophy replay against Dorking and then to find that next up was Aaron Jackson v Sutton (them again) my resolve is in tatters.
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| Ed : Calm down man- here`s a pic of Amey, I know you like Amey! |
Perhaps the real heart breaker came at Aldershot where a liner (assistant referee) who had deferred every decision to the referee finally made one on his own and in a clear and timely manner flagged for offside as the home player ‘scored’.......... the referee concurred but sadly not two home players who decided to interrogate said liner on his decision. Up strolls the referee to join in this debating society where he decided that his assistant has either a) Hallucinated, b) Succumbed to the home players ‘advice’ or c) Was not part of the correct Malaysian betting syndicate and overturned both his own and his assistants original verdict.
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| These guys ? |
For my part having slowed the video down to the enth degree I think the goal was good but that is hardly the point. If berating an officials decision gets results why aren’t we all doing it? For my penny’s worth I thought the officials in the North over the past two seasons were better than what we are witnessing at National level. If Sebastian Stocksbridge and Paul Marsden can become Football League referees what horrors are in store for future years?
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| A familiar player / Stocksbridge pose |
Talking
of horrors let me give you another one. Barnet away - the stewarding. In
particular this seasons National League fixture in November. Most of, if not
all jobs require an aptitude to carry out the work safely, effectively and with
as little drama as possible, well maybe not in Hollywood but you get my drift.
I drove to this fixture and parked in the car park where a token is required to
exit the car park barrier. As I walked to the club shop to purchase the token
the Fingerpost Flyer arrived and I decided to meet it and talk to some of my colleagues
on board. Bad mistake. As the first few people disembarked the ‘flyer’( average
age of occupants around 60) they and I were met by a middle aged man with a
strong Scottish accent, suitably attired in Barnet Hi Viz gear.
His opening gambit was “ I want yoo lot in the ground now” When some travellers informed him that they would like to look inside the club shop – this is nearly 2 hours before kick off, his response is “none of yoo lot are going near that shop” I informed him that I wished to purchase a token for the car park, his response was “your not going near that shop” I then asked him how I was going to get the token to get out of the car park at the end of the game……. No response, shrug of shoulders. Eventually he agreed that one or two could visit the club shop and as we retreated the team coach arrived. As the players walked from the coach to the dressing room I struck up a brief conversation with Paul Turnbull who I sponsor, cut off in mid sentence the air filled with “YOU NEED TO WATCH YOUR LANGUAGE” our steward friend from some 30 yards away has somehow deduced that I was uttering profanities to our club captain who walked on equally bemused.
Adam Thomas then enquired as to my journey down, “Hi Adam you ok….. YOU NEED TO CALM DOWN” our unstable steward had now lost all sense of reality, even the 3 or 4 police officers around him could not contain their mirth and clearly had seen this all before.
Things faired little better inside the ground. After the obligatory body search, a young fan was ejected from the bar for either being underage or buying a junior ticket. Fair comment I guess but to clearly target him seemed somewhat over the top. A club official was then initially refused access for his sons to sit with the away fans, a decision that was eventually rescinded. For the whole of the second half the away fans were eyeballed by somebody who looked like an official clad with a variety of Robocop gear including camera’s His unerring gaze never flinching looking for the slightest thing to unleash his terror on.
His dreams were answered when County scored at the death one young man foolishly decided to vacate his seat, have a little solo celebration at the front walkway. Bad mistake, Robocop’s birthdays all arrived at once and the fan celebrating was without mercy manhandled out of the ground. I note that as I write Barnet’s home game against Farsley Celtic was postponed around 2 minutes before kick off and twitter features an endearing little picture of the officials with the home officials surveying the damaged pitch, at the centre of this picture is “YOU NEED TO CALM DOWN” no doubt berating all around him including the frost damaged pitch.
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| Ed; was this him ? |
His opening gambit was “ I want yoo lot in the ground now” When some travellers informed him that they would like to look inside the club shop – this is nearly 2 hours before kick off, his response is “none of yoo lot are going near that shop” I informed him that I wished to purchase a token for the car park, his response was “your not going near that shop” I then asked him how I was going to get the token to get out of the car park at the end of the game……. No response, shrug of shoulders. Eventually he agreed that one or two could visit the club shop and as we retreated the team coach arrived. As the players walked from the coach to the dressing room I struck up a brief conversation with Paul Turnbull who I sponsor, cut off in mid sentence the air filled with “YOU NEED TO WATCH YOUR LANGUAGE” our steward friend from some 30 yards away has somehow deduced that I was uttering profanities to our club captain who walked on equally bemused.
Adam Thomas then enquired as to my journey down, “Hi Adam you ok….. YOU NEED TO CALM DOWN” our unstable steward had now lost all sense of reality, even the 3 or 4 police officers around him could not contain their mirth and clearly had seen this all before.
Things faired little better inside the ground. After the obligatory body search, a young fan was ejected from the bar for either being underage or buying a junior ticket. Fair comment I guess but to clearly target him seemed somewhat over the top. A club official was then initially refused access for his sons to sit with the away fans, a decision that was eventually rescinded. For the whole of the second half the away fans were eyeballed by somebody who looked like an official clad with a variety of Robocop gear including camera’s His unerring gaze never flinching looking for the slightest thing to unleash his terror on.
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| Well over 400 eyeballed ! |
His dreams were answered when County scored at the death one young man foolishly decided to vacate his seat, have a little solo celebration at the front walkway. Bad mistake, Robocop’s birthdays all arrived at once and the fan celebrating was without mercy manhandled out of the ground. I note that as I write Barnet’s home game against Farsley Celtic was postponed around 2 minutes before kick off and twitter features an endearing little picture of the officials with the home officials surveying the damaged pitch, at the centre of this picture is “YOU NEED TO CALM DOWN” no doubt berating all around him including the frost damaged pitch.
It
need not be like this, look at Notts
County
So
what else irks me? Players performing overtly long, goading, obscene gesturing
(Boreham Wood home) goal scoring celebrations in front of opposition fans. I
can almost get it if the player concerned has been getting a load of abuse from
those fans, think AFC Fylde club “legend” Lug ears Lard arse but for a player
nobody has ever heard of spending a good 20 or 30 seconds goading a partisan
home crowd in full view of a spellbound and often comatose referee, I just
don’t get it. Admittedly the thought of winding up 5000 home fans must be more
appealing than celebrating with the 20 or 30 visiting fans but when resultant
trouble arrives these actions look unnecessary and childish. Stick with a mini
acknowledgment and even a mini goad but then go and do it with your own
fans.
So
what else. Time wasting from the 30th minute, fake fouls, quite a
recent development this, where, if a player feels he cannot successfully trap a
loose ball, keep it in touch, make ground on a faster opposition player or win
a tackle, simple, go all Basil Fawlty and just collapse on the spot.
Referees love this and always give a free kick, even if there isn’t an opposition player within 5 yards. Newton’s (3rd) law being that for every action there is a counter action means of course that often when a both feet off the ground, studs up, leg breaker of a tackle occurs – think against Ben Jackson, Dorking, the referee actually gives nothing, no free kick, no yellow card, no red card, no talking to.
https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=9rp4DwAAQBAJ&pg=PT235&lpg=PT235&dq=I+Newton+-+footballer&source=bl&ots=AWBvKEDbE7&sig=ACfU3U0L69ZfUTiUH6hwlc4qa1p9y84CJg&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiZnPOln6HnAhUjURUIHf9VDzU4ChDoATAJegQIChAB#v=onepage&q=I%20Newton%20-%20footballer&f=false
Good to know that physics ‘lives’ in football.
What else? I know, corner kicks, attacking players being strangled, shirts ripped off, manhandled to the ground by defenders, this always results in a free kick to the aggressor, always (except to Sam Minihan at Boreham Wood where the home side were awarded a penalty) Anywhere else on the field it’s a free kick but never in the penalty area for a penalty. However by applyingNewton
Referees love this and always give a free kick, even if there isn’t an opposition player within 5 yards. Newton’s (3rd) law being that for every action there is a counter action means of course that often when a both feet off the ground, studs up, leg breaker of a tackle occurs – think against Ben Jackson, Dorking, the referee actually gives nothing, no free kick, no yellow card, no red card, no talking to.
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| I Newton- actually turned out 3 times for Barnsley Reserves ! |
Now check out this
interesting link to Man the Footballer—Homo Passiens: The Missing Link in Human
Evolution ...by Mike Mc Innes.
https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=9rp4DwAAQBAJ&pg=PT235&lpg=PT235&dq=I+Newton+-+footballer&source=bl&ots=AWBvKEDbE7&sig=ACfU3U0L69ZfUTiUH6hwlc4qa1p9y84CJg&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiZnPOln6HnAhUjURUIHf9VDzU4ChDoATAJegQIChAB#v=onepage&q=I%20Newton%20-%20footballer&f=false
Good to know that physics ‘lives’ in football.
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| And this as well v Sutton, caught nicely by Andrew Machin. |
What else? I know, corner kicks, attacking players being strangled, shirts ripped off, manhandled to the ground by defenders, this always results in a free kick to the aggressor, always (except to Sam Minihan at Boreham Wood where the home side were awarded a penalty) Anywhere else on the field it’s a free kick but never in the penalty area for a penalty. However by applying
So,
having covered the bad and the ugly, what’s good? Faster football, bigger crowds,
better stadiums, one step from the football league, national travel (good but
expensive)
As
our own future appears to be rosy, what better thought can I leave you with
than ‘welcoming’ Sebastian Stocksbridge or Paul Marsden to a Football League
fixture at EP !
Adrian
Caville
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