A distinct lack of compassion
Sickening! That's the only word to describe a refereeing decision that has no place in the professional game that occured at Old Trafford last night, and, it was a decision for Manchester United, not against them, so what you are about to read is a criticism that I cannot see being repeated here very often.
In the early stages of the League Cup, the big clubs from the premiership get paired up against the lower league opposition, and it's a memorable experience for these lower league players, normally in their late teens, to compete in a big stadium and play 90 minutes against the Man Utd's, the Arsenals and Chelsea's. Sometimes, there's even the giant killing story, but mostly they are there for the experience. Last night, Barnet, a team fourth last in the English 4th division (Premiership, Championship, League One, League Two) came to do battle at Old Trafford.
After 90 secondsa hopeful ball was caught by Ross Flitney, the 21 year old Barnet keeper, with no United Player within 20 yards of him and his momentum took him a foot over the 18 yard line. The referee sent him off. The United manager Alex Ferguson was livid. The Barnet manager, Paul fairclough was incolsolable as his 21 year old 'keeper wiped tears from his eyes on the walk to the tunnel. Fairclough then had to substitute Louis Soares for reserve keeper Scott Tynan. The Referee ruined what should have been a memorable night for two young players.
United went on to score from the resulting free kick to rub salt into the open wound. The game was effectively over after 2 minutes. United went on to win 4-1 but that's not the point.
The point is that football should be about the spirit of the game and the application of the laws in that spirit. In this case a yellow card would have been more than enough and if we want to apply the letter of the law every time we don't need subjective referees, computer programs can do that. Referees are there to exercise judgement, in this instance, the complete lack of compassion resulted in a destruction of a contest before it even begun.
Mr. Richard Beeby, you are a disgrace to the refereeing profession..
Full story at http://football.guardian.co.uk/Match_Report/0,1527,1601465,00.html
In the early stages of the League Cup, the big clubs from the premiership get paired up against the lower league opposition, and it's a memorable experience for these lower league players, normally in their late teens, to compete in a big stadium and play 90 minutes against the Man Utd's, the Arsenals and Chelsea's. Sometimes, there's even the giant killing story, but mostly they are there for the experience. Last night, Barnet, a team fourth last in the English 4th division (Premiership, Championship, League One, League Two) came to do battle at Old Trafford.
After 90 secondsa hopeful ball was caught by Ross Flitney, the 21 year old Barnet keeper, with no United Player within 20 yards of him and his momentum took him a foot over the 18 yard line. The referee sent him off. The United manager Alex Ferguson was livid. The Barnet manager, Paul fairclough was incolsolable as his 21 year old 'keeper wiped tears from his eyes on the walk to the tunnel. Fairclough then had to substitute Louis Soares for reserve keeper Scott Tynan. The Referee ruined what should have been a memorable night for two young players.
United went on to score from the resulting free kick to rub salt into the open wound. The game was effectively over after 2 minutes. United went on to win 4-1 but that's not the point.
The point is that football should be about the spirit of the game and the application of the laws in that spirit. In this case a yellow card would have been more than enough and if we want to apply the letter of the law every time we don't need subjective referees, computer programs can do that. Referees are there to exercise judgement, in this instance, the complete lack of compassion resulted in a destruction of a contest before it even begun.
Mr. Richard Beeby, you are a disgrace to the refereeing profession..
Full story at http://football.guardian.co.uk/Match_Report/0,1527,1601465,00.html
posted by Derek Keogh | 2:00 PM
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