Sileby Better Than Expected

[tommyc]

The match report as with all others is at pnsfc.com, but I would just like to say how well Sileby Rangers played against us yesterday - particularly in the first half when we were lucky to go in at 1-1. Scoring after 2 minutes probably did not help us and we were unbelievably poor in the first 45.

Much better second half and the better team, even after Paul Hill was sent off after 60 minutes for something off the ball spotted only by the linesman in the whole ground - I was looking straight into the incident and could not believe it when the ref issued a red card. Worse was to follow when the ref gave a penalty with 5 minutes to go for a handball that no-one appealed for!

Fair play to our 10 men for coming back and nicking an equaliser at the death.

Overall Sileby deserved to win - not seen a 4-2-4 formation for a while - would have been gutting to have lost in the circumstances we could have done, but overall Sileby were far better than their league position.

[apolman]

Just read the match report and I thought it was a pretty fair assessment.
Sileby looked dangerous for the last 43 mins of the first half but didn't convert it into a lead. The half time substitute made a big difference and you looked better in the second half. The sending off may have been soft but your lad did raise his hand and cuffed the forward round the back of the head...I saw it!! The linesman saw it and he's got to go, hasn't he?!?
I didn't see a handball for the pen. There wasn't much of an appeal but there wasn't much of a protest either.

It was disappointing for Sileby to concede so late but I thought it was a good game with some decent football played.

[Rat catcher]

Just to let you know that the Referee and his assistants were assessed on this game. The outcome was that he (the assessor) saw the attempted strike by the PNS defender and the assistant was quite correct to bring this to the Referee's attention, with the sending off also being the correct decision. Sorry if this goes against what you have you said in your match report but thought I would give a fairer view point on what happened.

Good luck for the rest of the season.

[tommyc]

All about angles I suppose - from where I was, it looked like he was fending off a late tackle, but Torch is taking his 3 game punishment and moving on.
What with the strange penalty and 1 or 2 other things it is easy to get one-eyed on these things and having reffed myself at the next level up from UCL, I don't usually get into this kind of thing - wouldn't want to let the controversy detract from a poor showing from us in the first half and a great one from Sileby
Always go by the adage that these things even themselves out, in which case we are going to get some great help from officials in the 2nd haf of the season!

[Cat Ratcher]

I note that the payer concerned is accepting his 3 game ban without an appeal so that means an awful lot. As you say tommyc, it's all about angles and if the officials get it right then so be it, if not, then we have been fortunate so lets not complain about it. I see you couldn't resist a 'dig' at the end of your posting though

[tommyc]

Indeed it does Cat Ratcher. Against Thrapston Boxing Day we had a big decision go our way. Unfortunately it was with 3 minutes to go and did not affect the result, so that is 1 life lost!
We had a different ref in each half yesterday at Rothwell and have to say that both were excellent - controlled the game well and whilst there were no big decisions to make, they did what was needed.

[bobbycharlton]

It's not that often that you get the opportunity to praise two refs in one game but I would agree that both were pretty good and did control it well. Regarding big decisions however I would say that Rothwell had a very big appeal for a penalty for handball in the second half that was not given which looked from my posotion to be a definite pen.

[tommyc]

I remember a half hearted appeal for a pen about half way through the 2nd half (though not from the bench), and you get about 3 or 4 calls for penalties every game - ball bouncing up and hitting someone on the arm during a force 12 gale, and didn't stop a goal from being scored or even a chance on goal, so I would have been seriously miffed if it had been given.

2 games with RC were both very close affairs and our 2 sides appear to be evenly matched. Having said that we had 4 important guys out on Saturday, including our captain Paul Hill, fellow centre half John Patten, our 17 goal striker Karl Gibbs and his brother Gary who had started Boxing day so have to admit that I would have settled for a draw at the start.

We have Olney Saturday who I must admit I know or have heard very little about (physical or ball playing, formation or any of that other interesting stuff, that as a manager I can pretend to plan for, only for the players to do what they want in anycase!)

[Cat Ratcher]

Bloody hell Tommyc, what's going on here then? Is that preferential treatment for PNS with 2 Ref's or is it a new thing brought in by the UCL that hasn't been cascaded down

Not only that but you then praise them both. Oh yes, it was Christmas wasn't it ;D

Only joking, I assume one got injured then one of the assistants took over Seems to happen reasonably often.

Can you tell me though, what would happen (for example) if the Referee got injured and was unable to carry on. His/Her 2 assistants were both level 7's (class 3 in my day) but also in their, say, 60's.
Would you expect one of them to take over?
Would one of the teams playing have to 'replace' the assistant who has taken over?
What would you do if none of the assistants wanted to take over?

Just some questions that have been banded about so thought I would ask you, hope you don't mind.

Good luck.