Match Officials at the Cross

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I could not believe the abysmal performance of the match officials on Friday night. It seems lessons have not been learnt from last season.

The assistant on the Donie Ford side gave that offside to rule out Fenns goal 1-2 seconds after he had fallen on his arse! He's just guessing! How could he possibly be in a position to give an offside decision? He was not in line with the second rear-most defender, he was trying to stand up so therefore was not concentrating on play.

City should also have had a definite penalty and the referees use of advantage was the worst I've seen in a long time. Every advantage he gave was of no benefit to City whatsoever.

Mind you, after all this debate, nothing will change. We will still get the worst officials I have ever seen in my life, so what's the point in debating all this? Or IS there something we can do?

Would a petition make any difference? A petition signed by thousands of different fans all from different clubs saying that we are no longer going to put up with inept performances from officials who don't seem to know their arse from their elbow, (obviously put a different way! )

When the petition has enough names we could send it to the referees department and demand that something is done. Don't forget, we're talking about €150,000 prize to the winners of the league here. How much do the referees get per game? €125 plus expenses! It's peoples livelihoods at stake here, it's not something that should be taken lightly. The referees are just doing it as a hobby.

Something needs to be done. And soon!

[The Donie Forde]

I could not believe the abysmal performance of the match officials on Friday night. It seems lessons have not been learnt from last season.

The assistant on the Donie Ford side gave that offside to rule out Fenns goal 1-2 seconds after he had fallen on his arse! He's just guessing! How could he possibly be in a position to give an offside decision? He was not in line with the second rear-most defender, he was trying to stand up so therefore was not concentrating on play.

City should also have had a definite penalty and the referees use of advantage was the worst I've seen in a long time. Every advantage he gave was of no benefit to City whatsoever.

Mind you, after all this debate, nothing will change. We will still get the worst officials I have ever seen in my life, so what's the point in debating all this? Or IS there something we can do?

Would a petition make any difference? A petition signed by thousands of different fans all from different clubs saying that we are no longer going to put up with inept performances from officials who don't seem to know their arse from their elbow, (obviously put a different way! )

When the petition has enough names we could send it to the referees department and demand that something is done. Don't forget, we're talking about €150,000 prize to the winners of the league here. How much do the referees get per game? €125 plus expenses! It's peoples livelihoods at stake here, it's not something that should be taken lightly. The referees are just doing it as a hobby.

Something needs to be done. And soon!

Paul Tuite had not such a bad game overall, I thought, although he'll never be Collina ( ) but the assistant does appear to have got it wrong for Fenn's goal. Be interesting to see it again Monday night on Trevor TV...

Donie

[Éanna]

I thought the ref was ok actually. Well, by eircom League standards anyway! The linesman on the donie forde side was absolutely brutal, can't believe he flagged fenn's goal as offside- even if it was off, he was behind the play and couldn't tell. I thought the benefit of the doubt was meant to go to the attacking side I'd give Tuite (pronounced "Twit" I presume) a 6/10. Be interesting to see how the ref on monday compares

[pete]

I missed Fenns goal as was distracted but do remember that linesman giving an amazing offside on Behan a while before that. Could clearly see he'd run from behind the last defender as good angle from the shed.