NFR Refs might finally be getting it right

[bugsy]

Even Phil Dowd got it right today.  Refs are starting to look for the player going into the box and dragging a leg looking for contact.   When in doubt give me the 'no call' every time. 

[fulhamben]

are you on about the arsenal game. if so that was a penalty took his other leg and the trailing had to go into back of him as he lost balance

[bugsy]

are you on about the arsenal game. if so that was a penalty took his other leg and the trailing had to go into back of him as he lost balance

That might have been the case but look at the foul. There might have been minimal initial contact OUTSIDE the box but Ramsey? decided to DRAG the left leg. Dowd saw that and correctly didn't give the penalty IMO.  t 

[bugsy]

If players continue to LOOK for the penalty, they shouldn't get the benefit from a 50/50 call.  The players created this problem not the refs.

[Sheepskin Junior]

Look, the referee will give the decision if he believes it to be a penalty and won't if not. He sees it once, one angle, full speed. I hate criticism of a referee when you've seen the same thing 5 times, each at a different angle and slow as a snail. That is not how you make a decision.

[Enter the Frei]

the comments in this thread just prove that the ref cannot get it right for everyone. So much of football is just how you personally see an incident, it is impossible for the ref to get every decision spot on for everyone.

[fulhamben]

the comments in this thread just prove that the ref cannot get it right for everyone. So much of football is just how you personally see an incident, it is impossible for the ref to get every decision spot on for everyone.

true but it would be nice if they got the clear cut ones a bit more often. everton could have had 5 today

[Burt]

Video technology for penalty calls as well as for goaline disputes...?

[Scrumpy]

the comments in this thread just prove that the ref cannot get it right for everyone. So much of football is just how you personally see an incident, it is impossible for the ref to get every decision spot on for everyone.

Absolutely.  :54:

[GoldCoastWhite]

Honesty from the players and a new generation of coaches that don't advise kids to go down in the box at the slightest touch ?  079.gif

[A Humble Man]

This is a very difficult subject and I do not envy refs.  A defender stick his leg out a bit and an attacker bends his run a little so he goes over it.  The defender is at fault in sticking his leg out and the attackers is at fault in deliberately running over it.  But is it a penalty, I do not think so, but I would book both players one for intent and the other for simulation.  

The ref is having to make decisions like this all the time.  If the FA, the managers and the PFA told the players to stop professional fouls and simulation it would be a much better game.  

[leonffc]

Maybe in this instance but the ref only playing 4 minutes injury time at Old Trafford last week proves they have a long way to go ;-)
"how can you win a game of football when only 4 minutes is added"

[Rupert]

Penalties are often a gut reaction. Very rarely have I blown for a foul, then realised it was in the box, so it was a penalty. Some were very clear, a player leaping up and catching the ball (he thought it was going to hit his face, apparantly, which made me ask why he bothered jumping, if that was the case), or a player about to shoot for goal being taken out by a defender, I felt a little guilty about the red card (he had clearly been going for the ball, but missed) until he started telling me about my parentage, thus turning a straight red for denying a goal-scoring opportunity into a much more expensive "bringing the game into disrepute."

Much of the time, however, you see two players challenge, a player goes down, and it really is a question of whether you think he has been fouled or is he looking for it. No doubt I have got it wrong, but I know I'm right more often than not, going by post-match comments. The best one was a game where I denied the home team two "clear cut" penalties, on the grounds that both were cases of the attacker going down after the slightest contact. After the game, which the home team won anyway, in the club house, the TV had the previous day's league game highlights, up comes an incident of a player going down, penalty said the ref, no penalty said yours truly, cue jeers from the home team, until the second replay showed I called it correctly, it was a dive.
It gave them pause, as they realised I really could see the difference between a real foul and a simulation, albeit after contact, so I couldn't book anyone.