You’re not fit to referee

There was controversy over the refereeing decisions of Trevor Kettle on Saturday at Luton Town versus Bradford City. Kettle was, unfortunately, assailed by missiles from the Luton supporters at the end of the game after he gave a controversial penalty. The commentators on the radio and Simon Parker in the T&A pointed out that it was pretty much the only decision that went City’s way during the 90 minutes (plus about seven minutes injury time). I haven’t seen the incident but by all accounts the decision to give the free-kick that led to Luton’s second goal and a booking for Luke O’Brien was a very poor one. It’s not the first time this season a referee has been poor – the officials in City’s games against Chester City and Accrington Stanley were poor if memory serves. The worst, though, has to be Jarnail Singh. He has now twice failed to stop a game when City players have been down with head injuries. I think the first was Oldham Athletic at Valley Parade and the more recent occasion was away to Shrewsbury Town. Referees are supposed to stop the game if there is a serious injury – particularly if it is a head injury. Google has examples of fans complaining about the inconsistent application of this rule. The Scottish FA clearly think this is a rule worth enforcing and referee Craig Thomson admitted his error in failing to stop one match involving Motherwell and Hearts:

Motherwell forward David Clarkson received an accidental head injury in the 12th minute of this game, the incident occurring on his opponents’ 18 yard line. Play progressed and seconds later a goal was scored at the other end of the field. Whilst the two incidents were not at all related, referee Craig Thomson has indicated that if he had realised that the injury was to the head and could have been serious he would have immediately stopped play for early treatment. Referees have been instructed to deal with such head knocks in this way.

The italics are mine. Other sites that have reported on or discussed the incident are linked below:

boyfrombrazil; BBC report; Claret and Banter.

Oh my god – there’s a Facebook group for Trevor Kettle called “you’re not fit to referee”. I just googled his name and it was one of the first results. FB-Kettle.

If you have a “least favourite” referee or you can remember a particularly bad performance by an official please feel free to comment below.

No News is Good News… I Hope!

From the Telegraph & Argus: McCall urges patience. I’m hoping this means that the reason we haven’t had any news recently (bar the Arnison signing) is that, as a club, we are playing our cards close to our chest. This story is worth reading for the comments alone. The inaptly named ‘Mr Sensible’ seems to be either (a) playing devil’s advocate (b) an internet troll or (c) a Leeds fan. This is word-for-word: “Face facts A failing club with bad ideas and brain(limited)washed fans.” It’s a bit rich for Mr Sensible to accuse City fans of having limited brains when he writes like that. Punctuate boy, punctuate!

Less happily, it seems Boulding is going up a league rather than join BCFC. Story here.

There’s more City news on the Boy From Brazil site here: BfB, including: the news that McCall is still interested in ex-Sheffield Wednesday ‘keeper Rob Burch; the interesting fact that Arnison was wanted by Port Vale and Darlington – but still chose to join City; and this story about Chester’s transfer embargo that might rule them out of the running for Luke Beckett. Keep an eye out later this week for a post on last season’s stats and what they mean.