No he wasn't. Styles just showed the yellow card twice to Terry, having forgotten he'd already done it once.
A very poorly reffed game by Mr. Styles a little to quick to get involved with the plays for my taste. He gave the point to Chelsea in my opinion, Liverpool outplayed them the entire game.
Styles again maintained his normal standard - a disgrace to football, the premiership and English referees in general. How the likes of Styles and Mike Riley can ref at this level is beyond me. Liverpool deserved to win that game and were robbed by the To$$er in charge. These imbeciles are ruining the game - they must be penalised more seriously when they make such **** ups. Graham Poll made errors but not as regularly as these guys - why does he have to retire? The only comfort for Liverpool is that they proved that they can outplay Chelski again.
They should be denied high profile matches and relegated to the lower leagues for a period - this happens already but not nearly enough. Refs from below would be promoted possibly before they are ready but they could not ruin a game anymore than is happening already. The best refs like Howard Webb and Clattenburg would ref two games a weekend, paid accordingly, and be assigned the "crucial" games. You can not let poor refereeing ruin a result as it again did today.
it takes top notch players 3 days to recover from a match and you want refs to do two games in two days...? put that bottle of gin back in the cabinet
Lol. I was gonna say that too mate. Two games in two days? By half time in the second match they'd be knackered, which could affect their performance in several ways. As for the temporary demotion thing, I'm not really in favour, as it implies that a **** up in the Premiership means more to the footballing world than a **** up in the Championship.
If your going to send the refs down at least wait untill we are back in the Premiership, we don't need them ruining our games.
the penalty decision was an absolute disgrace....surely he must be demoted or punished in some way:rant:
What I want to know is why all this 'controversy' over refereeing in this 'HUGE' clash but for us last season (and Birmingham this season according to Steve Bruce) the Premier League (or FA, I don't know which UEA) do nothing about it! Double standards.
When there is more riding on the game (i.e. the clubs that want to break away and form their own super league) it pays (literally) to listen to their complaints.
if anything malouda fouled finnan for the penalty:dismay: ben haim should of got a 2nd yellow in the incident involving terry:dismay: SHOCKING:dismay:
It wasn't show to Essien??? It was held up and then Styles pointed at Terry and said "Terry". His only mistake on that incident was a minor procedural one in that he showed the card once, got besieged by half the Chelsea team, started writing in his book and then forgot he'd already shown the card. Essien is just a numpty for misunderstanding. Also, Sky said Phil Dowd (4th Off) asked Styles immediately over the mic thingy if he had meant to show Essien or Terry the card and he clarified then it was for Terry. Seen as the ball wasn't back in play then he could have easily corrected his error (if he'd actually made one). So a cover up is a pretty silly accusation. He's still a ***** though!
Dropped for a week! http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/20082007/58/premier-league-styles-dropped-penalty-howler.html Blundering referee Rob Styles has been dropped from Premier League duty following his Anfield nightmare. Styles awarded a controversial penalty to Chelsea following an innocuous challenge on Florent Malouda by Steve Finnan, but has since apologised to Liverpool for his mistake in the 1-1 draw. Referees' chief Keith Hackett said that Styles had made a mistake and would be dropped for next weekend's action by way of punishment. "It's up to the officials to get the big decisions right and in this case it was wrong, so Rob will not be officiating next weekend," he said. "Originally he belived an offence had been committed, but having looked at the video and seen a better angle and a better view, he now recognises that it was not a penalty." Styles compounded the mistake later in the game by appearing to show a second yellow card to Michael Essien before saying it was intended for John Terry - who he had booked moments earlier. Liverpool boss Rafa Benitez was furious at the penalty award, which was made after Malouda jumped into Finnan and no Chelsea players bothered to appeal. "I want to have respect for the referee but only he can explain but he will not be able to explain properly," said Benitez. "There were 45,000 people here and they could not see a penalty. That is why Jose Mourinho could not see it." Reds skipper Steven Gerrard described the penalty as "very, very unfair", but Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho begged to differ, and said: "I think it's a penalty." Mourinho was less impressed by the Essien incident, saying: "The referee explained that he had only booked one player, John Terry, but Essien stood there for a long time and he said afterwards that he believed he had been cautioned again." On a bad weekend for match officials, Fulham were denied a valid goal against Middlesbrough despite a David Healy effort clearly crossing the line. The linesman involved, Ian Gosling, has also been suspended for this week's Premiership games. Alex Chick / Eurosport
How's it that strange? Terry was mouthing off in his face so he showed the card for dissent to basically shut him up. Terry walked away but while Styles got his book out he was then confronted with half the Chelsea team in succession, he had Essien standing behind him whinging in his ear, the crowd making loads of noise, the Liverpool attackers (probably) complaining about the wall etc as well as having to remember what to write and where. It's also likely he had the other officials chattering away in his earpiece. Once you take into account that the majority of cards are given after the writing in the book is done is it really that much of a surprise that at that moment of pressure he made a minor error? The proof he said Terry was mentioned on 606 last night by the BBC Football correspondent. Apparently Sky didn't show it live or in replays (probably cos it ruined a decent story for them if they disproved it properly) but they had the feed in the media centre.
It was a poor performance by Mr Stiles, end of. But we just have to get on with it, we will only know how important those two points might prove at the end of the season. I'm concerned by the fact that Hackett has rung Rafa to apologise, where will it end if this is going to happen, whilst being extremely frustrated at not getting the three points, there have been many occasions where a refs mistake has benefitted LFC (only last week at Villa for one), but thats the end of it. In a way, I enjoy the controversial decisions, its what makes the game great, and has the banter at top notch until the next game. I am just so pleased at the way LFC played yesterday, there was only one team who wanted to win the game and if we keep that level of commitment and workrate up then our long wait for another league title may not be far away. (He says with fingers and toes firmly crossed.)
I agree, but it is the CONTROVERSIAL decisions that make the game enjoyable... not the flat out wrong ones. Personally, I think that if a player is found to have dived after the game, they should be banned for three games and their team should have to play the first of those with only 10 men. This applies to any diving anywhere on the pitch. I accept that sometimes a player will fall down to avoid being hit or will lose their balance because they evaded the tackle, but they should tell the Ref that this is what happened so that the ref can make a fair decision. Too often players make a mountain out of a tackle and then leap to their feet without any sign of pain once the ref has awarded them the foul. There is no way that the ref can be expected to tell when this happened and so there must be some trust between the players and the officials. Yeah, I know it'll never happen.
It is a very difficult argument to weigh up properly. How can you decide exactly how many points a ref wins/loses you over the course of a season? I think we would all agree that if you are a 'bigger' team you will generally get more than the 'smaller' ones. Video refereeing is also a tricky one, in the case of offside or balls being over the lines, the decision is easy to reverse, but in the case of fouls, and pens (and I am not saying that Chelskis was a pen as it clearly was not) who decides if it genuine? How many times do you see minimal contact and a foul given with commentators saying 'I've seen them given' whilst not staking their claim one way or the other. The easiest way to get the best out of refs is for them to finally stand up to the constant pestering by teams like Chelski and Manu. If Rooney and co were to get booked for the first time each game they all surrounded the ref, then after getting sent of after ten mins for three or four games, they would learn to let him get on with his job.
Indeed. I am against all video reffing (not a word...), except goal line cameras. Being able to moan about the ref is part and parcel of the game. Plus the game woudl have to be stopped for ages after ever foul, offside, shirt pull, line call. It would be pathetic and unnecessary.
