I enjoyed that tonight and would praise Scott Oldham for being so atrocious it actually woke up our sleepy support and made for a great atmosphere. It galvanised the players too and inspired them. We probably would have lost with a regular official, so I thank him for inspiring us to get a point. Having said that, I never want to see the lanky c*** ever again. I thought Stoke were poor although they should really have beaten us once they had the numerical advantage. But I thought we deserved our point today, in what was an even game even when it went 10 v 12. Only 15 more points from 22 games to get.
I forgot (shamefully) to mention Livermore in my previous post. His experience, leadership and nouse have been invaluable to us this season. He has the very spirit and heart that we have been lacking and a wonderful example for the younger players. Getting his goal today was great for him and the squad. Oh and our set piece guru seems to be impacting already.
He appears to have previous... https://rokerreport-sbnation-com.cd...ldham-was-shocking-its-not-good-enough-end-of
Thought we started terribly and looked unable to clear our lines early on . But worked our way back into the match, looked more organised and deserved our lead. We got into some decent positions and the final ball let us down. Then Stoke equalised and the first half fizzled out. Once we went down to ten I thought we showed a lot of spirit and looked the better side. Hamer made 2 decent saves but can’t remember Stoke threatening Apart from that , despite the advantage and the appalling referee . Though not impressed by Stoke it’s a hood point in the end. I almost despaired when Rajovic came on , but actually thought he was largely decent and held the ball up ok . Thought Georgi had one of his better matches but not sure he’s the answer . Seems like we’ve got a few injury issues now plus Bayo out so the next few matches could be testing.
It was actually only his 3rd game at Championship level, first this season. I'd imagine Leagues 1 and 2 will get the pleasure of his officiating for the foreseeable.
I presume Skyla is referring to when he dropped the ball and Hoedt bailed him out with an overhead goal line clearance. But it looked like an infringement on Hamer by two Stoke players. He was probably expecting a whistle, but the referee was not getting involved. Have to say that seemed odd to me at the time, because goalies normally get those kind of decisions. With hindsight, it seems consistent with that referee.
Yeah, I thought Hamer caught the ball with two hands and the Stoke player standing beneath him bumped him and caused him to then drop it.
Ah right. I remember that one. Yeah, he may or may not have been fouled. But in reality he had to go up against 2 bigger Stoke players and for me did the next best thing to catching the ball which was doing enough to put them off heading it in. From the Bonham reference I thought he'd been lobbed or something and I'd deleted it from my brain!
“This ref is sh#t”- 3/4 of ground joining in that chant Helped create a good atmosphere which the team responded to - good use of subs by VI Felt like a win as we left the ground with good applause for the players who gave their all.
The ref making their player go off after receiving treatment as a result of a foul, shouldn’t be refereeing in the Championship! He doesn’t know the rules!
Some quotes from Valthat echoes comments in th8s thread: "With 10 men we played some great football,” Ismael said. “The spirit was unbelievable in the stadium – for the first time this season I got some goosebumps. The fans gave us a lot of energy. “I’m proud of my players because they stayed calm and showed great fighting spirit.” “Everyone got that feeling tonight that something was wrong,” he said. “It was difficult to manage all the emotion because it was not only the players, it was all over the place.” “My feeling was of injustice,” the manager said. “I know I have a job to do on the sidelines, to be an example, but I am human.” https://www.irishnews.com/sport/soc...d-dig-in-for-draw-OEIIGZICQJJNPNQH7UK34EIKAA/
He still has to go off if he's fouled, but not if the "fouler" is booked for the foul - which he was, so the ref still got it wrong!
Referee weren’t great overall but that blatant handball he missed when Bayo was through on the break and taken down on the halfway line was brain numbingly bad.
Hat tip to Matty Pollock, who I’m sure is a lovely lad, but getting offside once from an attacking free kick when you’re the furthest man with the benefit of looking across the whole line is unfortunate, but twice is criminal. That both happened in injury time at the end and were our only real opportunities to put Stoke under some pressure late in the game and maybe force a goalmouth scramble, and he was fresh on so can’t claim tired legs/mind, was infuriating.
Another step in the right direction imo, and a decent comeback from Tuesday’s shambles. We will never know of course, but I’m not sure our team of the last two seasons would have showed the character to get something from that match. Just 3 defeats in 15 now so we’ve made ourselves tough to beat, but most realistically we still have too many flaws to give the play-offs a good crack. Nobody has yet done the double over us, and 15 different players have now scored. Happy New Year to you all, and see you in Devon on Monday!
And to think some on here are seem as negative . I bet Uncle Ron and Gary were actually praying Stoke scored ! https://twitter.com/DanCohen17/status/1740903206631477702
Awful ref but the red wasn’t harsh - it was sheer stupidity from Bayo. One of the few decisions the ref got right. Livermore and Morris were excellent. How Morris isn’t first choice over Lewis is baffling. Porteous was much better as well compared to recent weeks. Martins bottling a header and instead trying a side foot volley was infuriating as the simple header would have put us 2-0 up, but might have messed his hair up. Raijovic did well when he came on. I know there are plenty who decided his performance was **** before he had even set foot on the pitch but his hold up play was good and he was bringing others into play. VI got his subs spot on. The Rookery has been like a library this season so it was nice to hear some noise. Seems they only make noise when they have a strop on so the ref being **** inadvertently helped the atmosphere.
Apparently the corner we scored from wasn’t one so maybe got some luck there Or maybe just sums up his performance as the assistant was overruled .
Crikey! If ever there was an occasion to recognise a positive result in the face of adversity,last night was it. I don't think anyone believes TDB is an acceptable right back but some balance to the other relevant aspects of the game wouldn't go amiss.
Oddly enough when Bayo lashed out at the opponent, I had forgotten he was on the field for those 7 minutes, ( he had a decent header in the middle of the pitch) but I don’t recall him involved up to that time apart from that. As soon as you do what he did a red was likely even VAR would have agreed! Good to see we kept going shame we didn’t play the first half like the second as we would possibly have scored more in the first place!
If the referee hadn't been so biased there is no doubt we would have won. Bayo has apologised but it wouldn't have even happened if the ref had given either of the 2 fouls perpetrated against him, hauling him down, then holding him down but no, the ref claimed no foul and Bayo threw his arm to try and get away.
He didn't signal any advantage with his arms as is standard protocal. If at best it was verbal that's still the referee's mistake (Among so many) with incorrrect communication and contributed to the incident. From the stands there was no sign of any advantage being communicated in any form.
I think we can tell from this how Bayo felt. Probably wanted to tell him where he can shove that can of spray as well.
If that's what the ref has claimed happened to Ismael, he's lying. Clearly gave a patronising 'get up' wave at Bayo who was appealing for the free kick.
I’m glad someone has mentioned Morris. It was to his great credit that he played as well as he did after not playing in the first team for so long. As others have said, the main disappointment was the final pass time and again in our attacks. We could have won that game at a stroll if they had been more accurate, even after going down to 10 men. Having said that, it’s great to like the team again after the last couple of years. The atmosphere was great in the second half with everyone behind the players. The only thing missing was a late goal for a glorious victory.
Next time we see Scott Oldham, Watford fans will react. (photo shamelessly taken from Sam Street twitter)
I thought Morris was very ordinary and far too slow when we had 11 men. He was caught out nearly as many times as TDB. I’ll give him max credit though for giving absolutely everything in the closing stages. Three times he charged forward and it was obvious after the first his legs were gone. Fair play for sticking with it.
Morris is rudimentary player. Perfectly functional but nothing flashy. What I would say is he’s honest and totally committed to the cause. Even though he’s as basic a player you could find, I really appreciate him. His attitude has always been first class. A perfect squad player, who will come in, do a job, and will not kick up a fuss if dropped. After being out of the squad for such a long time, to come in and give that type of performance was full credit to him. I thought he had a great game.
