Thetownend.com

Boss sees the funny side of Digby spat
           
           


  MARK Cooper was quick to laugh off the incident which saw goalkeeping coach Fraser Digby sent to the stands during Swindon’s 5-2 win over Port Vale.

           

http://www.thisisswindontownfc.co.uk/news/headlines/10782043.Boss_sees_the_funny_side_of_Digby_spat/?ref=rss
           
           
           

Fraser Fraser Digby

Lee Hughes is a prick

On the other side of the coin, least he showed the commitment trying to get the ball.

Fraser can at least sleep soundly at night knowing he's never killed anyone.

Not sure that he should really see the funny side. If one of my staff were 'brawling' with others in the office I wouldn't be expected to see the funny side!

The comments about the fine helping the Xmas do are fine, but I thought at the time when I heard the interview that the other part about livening the day up was unnecessary.

Digby quite clearly let the ball get trapped under the seat. Hughes was overly aggressive in getting the ball back. Both should be punished - Digby sending off and fine plus a Hughes yellow seem fair to me.

(Stands back and waits for a torrent of abuse)

I don't see how anyone can think Hughes should have been allowed to stay on the pitch. Or allowed on the pitch in the first place. Or to be out of prison for that matter.

Not abuse, but certainly a correction. If Digby gets sent off then so should the.murdering twat for the same offence.

1. A football pitch is much much different to an office environment.

2. Is letting the ball go under your seat really a sending off offence these days? I know football's broken but jeez.

I think Digby started it by stopping Hughes get the ball. I think Hughes retaliated. Digby then continued it. That's why I think it fair that the punishments are different.

Was Digby supposed to allow Lee Hughes to get down between his legs and grub round to get the ball or should he have tried to get the ball for him, which seemed to me what he did.  And then Hughes got all shitty.  He shouldnt have gone into the Swindon technical area and certainly not right into the bench.

But whatever you think, he has done his time. The court sentenced him, he went to jail. He is now out of jail. The courts should have given a longer sentence.

Yes he did a bad thing, but a lot of other people have done worse and paid less for their crimes.

I think Digby should have stopped the ball going under the seat and kicked it out of the technical area in Hughes direction.

Whatever.  Just reading it differently.  Digby was a keeper.  His ball control wasn't good enough to stop it going under the seat.  But really its not that important.  We won.  

But Hughes is a bit of a twat isnt he.  Almost a kind of 'why always me' character.  The answer to which is 'Because at some stage you must have to take some responsibility for your actions and accept that you are being a bit of a twat'.

Ha ha.

Digby was sitting back with his hands in his lap and gets blamed for instigating it.

Really?

So Hughes kick out at Digby, and not just the once, is not a sending offence? Doesn't matter what Digby did, retaliation is not an excuse and Hughes got off lightly. He should've walked.

Oh come on Tails. Letting the ball go under your chair is a far greater offence that kicking someone!

As I said in the MTD, if he had done that to someone laying on the ball in the middle of the pitch he'd have walked*.

* with a normal ref who doesn't run up to him and offer to swap shirts at the end of the match.

I hate the smug grin the murderer has! Should have been sent off as well IMO!

We seemed to have gone away from the point. It was Cooper's reaction that I was criticising.

Those who have argued with me have argued whether Digby should have bee punished or not and whether Hughes should have faced capital punishment.

So what do you want him to do, sack Digby? Kill him? Hand him over to Al Qaeda?

It was just a bit of a ruckus and it was dealt with, slightly unfairly on our part. Think it's just a way of showing Hughes up and not giving him the attention he craves (Despite Adams doing his best in the 'He's the real victim here' interview). Obviously now it's just a talking point but had Vale got a 3rd I think a lot more attention would have been drawn to it, especially as Hughes got their second.

Apparently so although not as bad as condoning it.

No abuse from me. The ball got caught up under the physio's foot and then got lodged under Digby's. Hughes came steaming in and all Fraser did was grab his leg and said "you ain't going anywhere" all falling over like a comedy sketch.
Digby sent to stand, Hughes booked a fair outcome.
Even a few Vale bench warmers were smiling.

No. I think in public you either don't comment or act apologetic and seeming you toe the FA line by saying that Digby did wrong and he will be punished appropriately. In private, you take the p*ss out of him and give him a minimal fine or make him sort out something for the Xmas party. I don't think it was a big deal, I just don't think it was very professionally handled.

Or you could stop taking everything so fucking seriously

I think Cooper's reaction was 100% correct.

Yep...he sort of blamed them both!
As much as i am not a fan of Hughes i feel one of our players may have done the same if we had been losing.

This!

Me too. Shows he has a bit of personality. No harm was done so don't really understand the problem to be honest. If Diggers had smacked him then I'm sure he would have acted differently. As it seemed a bit pantomime and both benches seemed to take it as such surely it would be a bit two faced to come out with the "professional" stuff.

Pretty much agree with DRS.

Meh, Cooper was just poking fun at the ludicrous farce it was. Next.

Would love to have seen the acres of pompous press coverage had this been Wenger and Rooney....but this is the beauty of League 1 and I think Cooper treated the incident with the gravitas it deserved - none at all

Closest precedents for me would be Eden Hazard and the Swansea ballboy (red card) and Matt Ritchie and the scummer ballboy (yellow card)

I was baying for a red (as I did more succesfully when Cantona stamped on Moncur all those years ago) but surely we can all see that, purely limited to his on pitch antics, Hughes made the perfect pantomine villain as we head towards Christmas.

The zombie-like atmosphere was shocking and 5-2 and the bench handbags was a lot more bang for your buck than a clinical 3-0.

And Fraser does deserve a fine if he can't even defend a tiny gap between two bench legs - exactly the same sort of form that saw him lose his place to Calamity Hammond in the past.

I could, but if everyone did that then noone would post anything on a forum would they?

Tell you one thing having spent some time with Cooper Saturday. He is decent lad and has a great sense of humour.
One thing I was really impressed with was the respect he has with most people behind the scenes.
The players certainly respect him including some difficult personalities lets say :)
Equally not shy at discipline either but does it respectfully.

My thoughts after Saturday were that he could be a good up and coming young English Manager.

Difficult personalities? In what way?

Are you happy now with the construct/intentions of the board Banbury, or more cautious/cautiously optimistic?

We've got Nile Ranger on staff for goodness sakes! Decent footballer but I don't think there's much evidence of him being a model pro!

Good question. Have to say I believe the intentions are more honourable than before. Still concerned though with any long term plans and still believe the club will be sold in the not to distant future.
Saying that I believe again the intentions here are that we won't be dropped in the shit without any notice.
This though based more on opinion and not through previous information.

It's fair to say we all feel happier than we did 6 months or so ago.
Jed to be fair just loves his football and being connected to STFC.
Certainly not like your "normal" football chairman and have to say I have warmed to him.
Spent some time with us all Saturday and was well received.

Mind you we are not like a "normal corporate" match sponsor either so a good match.

Bullseye.

Thanks Banbury, I think that echoes a lot of my thoughts too. Though I've formed my opinion on how things are seemingly going (well), never met the man myself.

Surely 25% correct 80% bollocks?

Hang on pal! 'Some' implies more than one. Now, unless DoB was implying that Ranger had multiple personalities (which is potentially true) I think I had a valid question. So, hang fire with your exclamation marks!  :wink: