The Penalty

[Peabody]

From my position, in the Riverside, I couldn't see. Was it a. Pen?

[colinwhite]

no way would have been given it ,lets put it that way !

[Beamer]

Just as importantly (aside from the big club bias) why wasn't the Smalling grabbing Mitro given. I know that Mitro had hands on him but he was trying to get at the cross whereas Smalling actually had his back to the ball and was looking over his shoulder without any intention of doing anything other than stop Mitro getting to it.
MLM runs into Mata who had stopped dead because he had either tried to flick the ball back or overrun it but either way he was never going to get it with defenders all round him - very soft.

[davew]

Yes it was, seen the replay many times now, agree that we should have had 1 with Smalling grabbing Mitro.

[HV71]

Very soft- don't think Mata even appealed

[Woolly Mammoth]

If the incident had been in Man U s box the biased referee would have waved play on.

[bog]

We would NEVER have been awarded that.

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[SG]

We would NEVER have been awarded that.

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Agreed never a penalty and no chance of it being given up the other end. Smalling's grab of Mitro was blatant but not given - surprise surprise

[Sting of the North]

Although it was on the softer side, I think it was a penalty. I agree though that I find it unlikely that it had been awarded if it was the other way around.

Unnecessarily clumsy challenge since Mata was never going anywhere. MLM did not have a great game yesterday unfortunately.

[Bill2]

I have not seen the incident apart from at the match. In my opinion Mata just stopped in the box and was run into, not a foul and he deliberately played for it. Would we have got it? Not with the ref yesterday. Just look back to the Liverpool game, Man U or Liverpool player falls over, it is a foul and a yellow card for the Fulham player. They commit worse fouls with impunity and no cards. If you feel I being bit irrational compare the Liverpool game, Gomez committed two professional fouls and only 1 card and the second offence was worse than the first. Yesterday Bryan got a yellow for his first foul which wasn't that bad, yet Matic committed a professional foul when we were attacking and while we got the foul no card was given, he only got a card for his second offence. Also look back when DeGea hurt himself when he cleared the ball and then subsequently run into Mitro, he was awarded a free kick. But Mitro never even tried to play the ball and everyone thought it was  Fulham throw in.

So in my opinion we would have not got the penalty, and we have to put up with more fouls before any action while we get punished for every misdemeanour. If people think that is my imagination just think back to the Anguissa sending off, nobody even thought it was a foul and the disallowed goal from Mitro against Liverpool yet with all the technical assistance from cameras nobody could really be sure it was.

We are getting screwed by the refs virtually every week and with our next three home games I am dreading it.

[Twig]

Like Bill I have not seen the pen incident since getting back from the match but at the time I saw it just like he did.

[Bill2]

Just watched the highlights and while disappointed did not show some contentious ref decisions looking at the pen it comes in the bracket of I have seen them not given.

[Milo]

We wouldn't have had it.. I agree.

However was a clumsy, late foul on Mata by MLM with very little chance of getting the ball.

[F(f)CUK]

At the time I was apoplectic re the decision. Having watched the highlights, I can understand why it was given. Not certain that he could have avoided the contact.

[Nero]

Im just happy a player got close enough to a Man Utd player to give a penalty normally we stand 10 feet back and let people pick pass/cross/shot

[filham]

An insignificant incident totally overridden by our poor performance. Had that penalty been given to us instead of them they would still have walked away with the match.

As their manager admitted this was just the type of game  needed before an important European game in a few days time.

[SP]

I think the penalty looked very different from different angles.  A far worse decision was a Utd player losing his footing then sliding into our player.  No prizes for guessing which way the free kick was given.  Can't recall if we got a booking for this one.