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Referee worse than legend Barry Knight?

Anyone remember the George Courtney roadshow at Bury i don't think he gave us a decision all afternoon. We lost 4-0 if my memory serves me and a packed away end was left badly shaken by the little twat
 
Jack Daniels said:
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What a great game of football!

Head above parapet - I don’t think that refereeing was anything like as bad as everyone made out. I suspect Knight would feel very aggrieved at being pilloried- having been (deliberately?) put under massive pressure by Big Sam’s lads.
I don’t think VAR would have overturned any of the three penalties.. Just because the Bolton players virtually attacked the ref in some of their reaction does not make them right! - and this just seemed to feed the narrative to the commentators that Knight was losing it.
OK, for the second one - at the time, the rules were different but the defender only just about stopped the ball as he went over the ball and dangerously took out the attacker. I don’t blame the ref for giving it.
Even the first sending off - which I agree was a wrong decision because there seemed to be a defender in the middle who could have come across (maybe it was the linesman’s job to help there?) - he got absolutely slated for - but watch carefully and the defender clips Marcus Stewart’s foot very early in the tangle. This causes the defender himself to fall and THEN accidentally fall into Stewart again tripping and pushing him over.
The know-it-all tv pundits yell that the defender just slipped into Stewart but they haven’t spotted that early clash of feet that started it. And that first foul was the defender’s fault. Definite cynical foul. Should have been yellow. Just a question whether knight got bad advice from his lino.
 
Jeremy Simpson is a terrible referee, very weak, gives a disproportionate amount of free kicks against strikers etc. but we don't actually have a bad record when he does our games. Think it's 2 wins and 2 draws this season.
 
miff said:
Anyone remember the George Courtney roadshow at Bury i don't think he gave us a decision all afternoon. We lost 4-0 if my memory serves me and a packed away end was left badly shaken by the little twat
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In fairness to George Courtney he never refereed a 4-0 defeat for North End at Bury. He did referee our game there in 1989 but I'm not aware of any issue at that game. The 4-0 defeat was in October 1987 and refereed by David Allison of Lancaster. There were two pens against North End in that game but that's all I remember.
 
Tino said:
Jeremy Simpson is a terrible referee, very weak, gives a disproportionate amount of free kicks against strikers etc. but we don't actually have a bad record when he does our games. Think it's 2 wins and 2 draws this season.
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Brian Gloomy said:
In fairness to George Courtney he never refereed a 4-0 defeat for North End at Bury. He did referee our game there in 1989 but I'm not aware of any issue at that game. The 4-0 defeat was in October 1987 and refereed by David Allison of Lancaster. There were two pens against North End in that game but that's all I remember.
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That's quite interesting. Jeremy Simpson was a protoge of David Allison. Both being from the same area. I remember Mr Simpson reffed our home victory against Wigan, earlier this season. He also sent off Jermaine Beckford, against Leeds, in a 4-1 defeat on Boxing Day, 4 or 5 years ago. To be fair to Allison, he used to ref in the North Lancs League, if he had a free Saturday.
 
Regardless said:
What a great game of football!

Head above parapet - I don’t think that refereeing was anything like as bad as everyone made out. I suspect Knight would feel very aggrieved at being pilloried- having been (deliberately?) put under massive pressure by Big Sam’s lads.
I don’t think VAR would have overturned any of the three penalties.. Just because the Bolton players virtually attacked the ref in some of their reaction does not make them right! - and this just seemed to feed the narrative to the commentators that Knight was losing it.
OK, for the second one - at the time, the rules were different but the defender only just about stopped the ball as he went over the ball and dangerously took out the attacker. I don’t blame the ref for giving it.
Even the first sending off - which I agree was a wrong decision because there seemed to be a defender in the middle who could have come across (maybe it was the linesman’s job to help there?) - he got absolutely slated for - but watch carefully and the defender clips Marcus Stewart’s foot very early in the tangle. This causes the defender himself to fall and THEN accidentally fall into Stewart again tripping and pushing him over.
The know-it-all tv pundits yell that the defender just slipped into Stewart but they haven’t spotted that early clash of feet that started it. And that first foul was the defender’s fault. Definite cynical foul. Should have been yellow. Just a question whether knight got bad advice from his lino.
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Not going to disagree with all of it. The red for the ‘foul’ on Marcus Stewart was utterly ridiculous as was one of the penalties.

I was there v Forest away. Worst display I’ve seen in 42 years watching North End. To say I was incensed is a huge understatement.
 
Other than the Forest game, I remember being incredibly angry after both the Wolves Trevor Kettle debacle and also, the Notts County home game after Laird was assaulted by Campbell-Ryce. The ref that night (can’t remember who and can’t be arsed googling) completely lost control of the game which led to that happening.
 
BenPearsonIsGod said:
Other than the Forest game, I remember being incredibly angry after both the Wolves Trevor Kettle debacle and also, the Notts County home game after Laird was assaulted by Campbell-Ryce. The ref that night (can’t remember who and can’t be arsed googling) completely lost control of the game which led to that happening.
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Update - in trying to find out who the referee was that night, I’ve stumbled across this video of him being booed off that night hahaha

 
We had some useless officials in an away game at Bradford when Creswell was bulldozed into the advertising hoardings and injured by some thug playing for Bradford and the ref did nothing.
 
europne said:
We had some useless officials in an away game at Bradford when Creswell was bulldozed into the advertising hoardings and injured by some thug playing for Bradford and the ref did nothing.
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Didn’t Fuller get sent off for gripping the Bradford player?
 
Preston Lad said:
Didn’t Fuller get sent off for gripping the Bradford player?
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Can't remember which game it was but I recall Fuller on the touchline about maybe 10 yards in from the LHS corner flag doing some step over / crazy leggy dance over a static ball taking the piss out of the opponent. I turned to my mate, laughter across my face only to turn round a few seconds later to see Fuller get Red Carded. For what, I can't remember.
 
Jack Daniels said:
Can't remember which game it was but I recall Fuller on the touchline about maybe 10 yards in from the LHS corner flag doing some step over / crazy leggy dance over a static ball taking the piss out of the opponent. I turned to my mate, laughter across my face only to turn round a few seconds later to see Fuller get Red Carded. For what, I can't remember.
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I think I remember that. Wasn't it Bumley at Turd Moor? Also, didn't he smack the opponent with a flailing arm? IIRC, we had loads of injuries and Creswell played centre midfield. I think it was Alan McCormack's debut. I'm pretty sure it was a 1-1 draw.
 
BenPearsonIsGod said:
Update - in trying to find out who the referee was that night, I’ve stumbled across this video of him being booed off that night hahaha

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That Campbell-Ryce challenge was absolutely disgraceful.

You could hear the crack on the Town End.

No attempt to play the ball and the ref bottled it.
 
Preston Lad said:
I’ll be honest, I couldnt remember if he did.😄🤷🏻‍♂️
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He did, but as BenPearsonIsGod said he'd let the game get completely out of hand. Don't think there's any highlights anywhere of that game but from memory it was a poor decision every few minutes or so, let far too much go on both sides but in particular Notts were holding on for a point and basically kicked anything that moved.

That led to Laird sadly having his leg snapped into god knows how many pieces by JCR. I remember coming off the game absolutely furious as injuries are a part of sport and accidents happen, the responsibility for that however led firmly at the feet of the referee that night.

I've just done a bit of research and according to Soccerbase that was Tony Harrington's (the ref that night) first season in the EFL after being promoted from Non-League. You really could tell.

Since then he's risen through the ranks and referee'd our win at Hillsborough last week. From what I can recall from last week I thought he did ok. Hopefully like any human being he's learned from his mistakes early on in his career.
 
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