Swindon v Hartlepool Matchday Thread

[RobertT]

on the penalty, the laws of the game do allow for a direct free kick or penalty to be awarded for high feet, just not very often (in fact today being one of a handfull of instances I've ever seen).  That mere possibility makes Ifils challenge just as stupid as his general play for the entire 2nd half where he was a clueless fuckwit.  Giving a ref who was intent on penalising eveything, any opportunity to award in the box was asking for trouble.

deserved to be 0-0.

Brezovan's goal kick cause us a real problem, which became very evident in the 2nd half.  They have no distance and float so the defence can set themselves to attack the ball and flick ons from our players become next to impossible and even if we do win the ball the lack of pace on the ball means our touch sends the ball straight back up in the air.  It caused us to be on the back foot so often tonight.  Such a simple thing, that shouldn't have such an impact, but with a team their size we struggled in that 2nd half to get the ball under control and out of our half.

Kanu was rubbish tonight but he wasn't helped at times.  McNamee cut right across him, bringiong 2 more defenders in towards Kanu and cut off every angle.

[Rich Pullen]

Bring last Saturday evening back please.

[Nemo]

If ever there was a game in which both teams deserved 0 points, that was it.

That penalty decision seemed bizzare at the time, but I'll watch a replay before commenting further. Although the fact that not one Hartlepool player appealed doesn't look good for Mr. Hall.

[Iffy's Onion Bhaji]

Bring last Saturday evening back please.

Bring back last season i say. This one has been a total nightmare.

[Scot Munroe]

With Brezovan kicking he does not put his foot through the ball. He kicks under the ball which lacks distance but not height.

[DiV]

from a Hartlepool fans posting from his mobile

great result and a much improved performance. We had all the possession in the last 30 mins without creating too much and then the softest penalty in the history of the game won us the 3 points. A raised foot on four foot and 7th choice striker Sir David Foley which was a free kick at best on the edge of the box, the ref gave us everything and i will love him forever for that!

[Batch]

on the penalty, the laws of the game do allow for a direct free kick or penalty to be awarded for high feet,

Where, or are you interpreting it as "kicks or attempts to kick an opponent" or "strikes or attempts to strike an opponent". I think that would be an extremely harsh interpretation and I genuinely believe the ref has got the rule wrong or cheated.

edit: unless you are saying there was contact, which I did not see - and would have been self inflicted by the attacker rather than the other way around.

[STFC_Gazza]

Shit game really.

Was bored most of the time. First half was ok. The second half was shit. Kanyuka was piss poor so understand bringing on Allen but he just isn't going to get balls that are hoofed down the field. We always passed the ball to Macca when Hartlepool had 2 players marking him the whole time. Peacock is shit and needs to go now, he offers nothing to the team. Super Hamdi Razak should have come on, if not for a bit of physical prescence. Amankwaah was ace today. Robson-Kanu I didn't think he was that bad but he cannot shoot and sometimes gets a bit greedy. 0-0 would have been a fair result. The ref was clearly in their pocket to be honest and neither team had any quality about them today. Hey ho, we move on Roll on Tranny!

[Simon Pieman]

Hard to pick out decent performances from that. Greer was solid at the back and I do like the way he looks for the ball. Just a shame it was often wasted when played out from the back.

Amankwaah had a decent game. He looks like he is slow and trudges around, but is deceptive because he does have the pace to beat players (and did). Put some good balls in, so well done Kevin, you did well.

Cox ran his arse off and looked like he gave a fuck. Unfortunately that sort of meant he ran around too much and was hard to find on the pitch.

Other than that, some pretty stinky individual games. Central midfield did not look urgent and looked scared to bring the ball out. Kanu on the right did not work as well as Kanu on the left. McNamee had three men on him as soon as he got the ball (and thus highlighted the lack of midfield support).

Jack Smith didn't look confident, Vincent had the touch of a rapist and the delivery of an English seamer. Paynter couldn't get in the game and I think he should have held the ball up for support more.

Why am I saying this and not slating the ref? This is what I would have typed had we got  the draw. Bit of a nothing game we should have got three points from. Given our lack of anything and the referee's silly decisions, we've got fuck all.

I hope this gives us a kick up the arse for the games against other lowly teams.

[Rich Pullen]

Bring back last season i say. This one has been a total nightmare.

Especially between the 85-95 minute

Ho hum. Whether or not we stay up will be largely determined between 17/03/09-25/04/09... But if we can't beat teams like Hartlepool at home (dodgy decisions or not) before then, well - It's possibly back to the Deva Stadium next season.

Blind faith or not, I still think we'll stay up*

* Decision may change if we fail to beat Cheltenham next week.

[RobertT]

Where, or are you interpreting it as "kicks or attempts to kick an opponent" or "strikes or attempts to strike an opponent". I think that would be an extremely harsh interpretation and I genuinely believe the ref has got the rule wrong or cheated.

edit: unless you are saying there was contact, which I did not see - and would have been self inflicted by the attacker rather than the other way around.

Doesn't have to be contact to change it from Dangerous Play, it can be a direct free kick if the Ref believed the player to know the opposition player was in proximity.  It's hardly ever given, but I have seen it before end in a direct free kick.  As I said, if the ref is giving everything it doesn't take a genius to understand you stop commiting any borderline fouls.  Not saying it would be given as a penalty ever again, but Ifil was playing into his hands.

[Div]

on the penalty, the laws of the game do allow for a direct free kick or penalty to be awarded for high feet, just not very often (in fact today being one of a handfull of instances I've ever seen).  That mere possibility makes Ifils challenge just as stupid as his general play for the entire 2nd half where he was a clueless fuckwit.  Giving a ref who was intent on penalising eveything, any opportunity to award in the box was asking for trouble.

Wrong, only obstruction in the box can be classed as an offense that can be a pen in the box but an IDFK elsewhere.

only becomes a direct offense if he makes contact with the attacker in which case it changes to kicking an opponent.

Doesn't have to be contact to change it from Dangerous Play, it can be a direct free kick if the Ref believed the player to know the opposition player was in proximity.  

thats still dangerous play, or else every high foot with players 10 mts away would be given on that description

[janaage]

Who gives a fuck about the fucking ref?  We were completely and utterly shit that deserved absolutely nothing out of the match.  Hate the way the crowd were blaming the ref when the players needs to start carrying the can.  We've had three managers this season who have got the same mediocre to shite results out of these unless fuckers.

I'm not having a go at Wilson, don't think Sir alex could work with the useless bastards we have as a first team squad.  Only a handful should survive the cull in the summer.  I haven't been this pissed off after a match for ages.

Oh and my god Hartlepool were awful - and they won - laughable really.

[Batch]

Yes we were shit. But we were worth 0-0 given Hartlepool were also as shit.

[Bennett]

you'd think some sort of motion towards the ball and offending high foot would have to be brought it to change it to dangerous play...