Swindon v Hartlepool Matchday Thread

[Crozzer]

This is a joke, the technical offenses are indirect freekicks, the punitive offenses are direct free kicks. 

For misconduct an indirect free kick may be awarded in the event that there is not a punitive offense as part of the misconduct, and the ball is not out of play.  An example would be two team mates engaging in a fight.  The restart of play would be an indirect free kick to the opposing team, after the fighting players had been awarded red cards.

Answers on a postcard please, when was the last time a penalty was awarded for dangerous play in a professional game of football.  Alternatively, the Guiness Book of Records should be contacted.


Yes, I am a referee.

[DMR]

Beeb says it was Andy Hall reffing, is that the shortish ginger chap? He's usually alright.

[Bob's Orange]

my dad's match report via text. 'final score 0 1. Dreadful game lacking any football, skill, passion and to cap it all the ref awarded them a penalty in injury time for foot up outside the box we think'.

Woke me up at 3.30 ish this morning and ruined my evening.

[Batch]

Ask the ref and he's bound to say he's given it for attempting to kick a player. Or similar. Clearly bollocks, we all know that.

I hope the asseser in the stands sees the correct decision was not made

[overthehill]

We were awful, and you can't blame the ref for all the failures that were wearing red shirts last night.
WTF are Kanyuka & Amankwaah doing in midfield?

[normy]

The first half was two rubbish but solid teams with little creativity and skill, except for some good bursts and crosses from Amankwah. What worried me most was the way we played second half, most passes and headers misplaced, dropping further and further back, and Ifil went to pieces even before the so-called penalty. This was real relegation form i'm afraid.

[Batch]

WTF are Kanyuka & Amankwaah doing in midfield?

Physical presence to protect the back 4. Ain't pretty but has worked at the expense of a bit of craft.

The first half was two rubbish but solid teams with little creativity and skill, except for some good bursts and crosses from Amankwah. What worried me most was the way we played second half, most passes and headers misplaced, dropping further and further back, and Ifil went to pieces even before the so-called penalty. This was real relegation form i'm afraid.

Totally agree with all of this. Even more worrying is a) Hartlepool were just as bad as us and were there for the taking, b) We have done well against the top teams, but signs so far are we don't have the stomache for the battle against the teams around us. Just have to hope that yesterday was an isolated shitfest.

[pumbaa]

There was a 10 second clip on SSN this morning. I refuse to call it highlights. From what I saw:

- Ifil's foot was high - head high on the striker - but he clearly made contact with the ball first. The striker put his head in, but wouldn't have seen Ifil's foot as he was doing so.
- Ifil's standing foot was definitely in the area.
- Not much in the way of appeals from Hartlepool.
- Didn't see where the ref was in relation to the incident to be honest.
- Poor penalty that squirmed under Brez's body.

Of course that is just my opinion based on what I could see on TV. Poor decision IMHO.

Moving on, we need a result Saturday, but more so next Tuesday. If we can't beat Cheltenham at home, we deserve to go down.

[Bennett]

oh another point i'd like to make - kanyuka plays holding midfield? why when we have the ball does he bomb off up front to leave timlin as the person who gets to the second ball? surely it should be the other way around?

[pauld]

On reflection after a night to sleep on it, what really worries me about last night is the lack of energy. Now I'm really hoping that's just the usual complacency/failure to get up for lower sides etc, but with at the start of a run of back-to-back Tuesday/Saturday games, I'm worried it's just that they're not fit enough to play two games a week. So for once I find myself hoping that they just weren't good enough/couldn't raise the interest, because if it is lack of fitness, we're going to be proper in the crap come the end of March.

[Peter Venkman]

Welll my that was pretty crap TBH.

Our Defence didnt look like we were going to concede but our attack didnt look like we could have scored if we played all night.

Cox looked up for it, as did Macca when he came on, Manks....1st half looked good running at them 2nd half we never used him at all.

Greer looks confident and Vincent looked settled, Smith had little to do all game.

Ifil looked calm and good most of the game and won most of the balls in the air, a big improvement over the old Jerel last time I saw him a few months back.

Timlin, some great tackles some dire misstimed tackles and passes.

Paynter looked good early on till he got kicked and then couldnt get back in the game.

Kanyuka, I know hes been playing well recently but to me yesterday he looked lost in midfield, won very little and was not first the the loose ball which a good defensive midfielder should be.

Robson-Kanu.....my first sight of the lad..plays for himself not the team, has no interest in playing in better positioned players when hes within 40 yards of goal, cant cross but has good quick feet and a few tricks....Macca is better IMO and by a long way, Kanu can go back to Reading and play for a place there cos hes not good enough for us and if hes playing to be spotted by another scout then hes doing it all wrong by being bloody greedy when he should pass....but saying that his crossing and delivery is as poor as Ricky Shakes.....that says it all.

Peacock looked eager when he came on and had our best chance, Macc looked up for it and did some good runs/crosses but always had 2 players on him.

Allen, the lad was chucked in a bit out of his depth and looked like a boy among men.

Overall.....Hartlepoo were shit and there for the taking ..........IF.......we kept the ball on the floor and ran at them and got crosses in...but no...we hoofed the ball up and it never worked...poor tactics or poor player? dunno but it was shit.

Refereeing....one of the worst overall ref performances, didnt see what was wrong even if Jerels foot was high, very poor penalty, not the worst I have seen but one of them.

End of the day.....we werent good enough to beat a crap team.

Must try harder.

[Don Rogers Shop]

oh another point i'd like to make - kanyuka plays holding midfield? why when we have the ball does he bomb off up front to leave timlin as the person who gets to the second ball? surely it should be the other way around?

because timlin seems to drop short at every opportunity

[red socks]

I have been to two games this season, Brighton at home and last night. I thought first half we did ok, Amankwah looked a threat with the ball at his feet and tried hard (there was some twat in the DRS slagging him off after 5 minutes) generally thought he, greer, vincent, and cox obviously looked good the rest of the team were not filling me with confidence.

Referee was the worst I have seen, hope his car broke down on the way home - cunt

So in summary, I am clearly jinxed and will stay well clear from the CG till we are "safe"......

[chalkies_shorts]

Well, that was bad, bad, bad. Both teams completely inept. Hartlepool came for a point and got 3 but they had more desire and were quicker in the tackle and attacked the ball whilst we watched it. Paynter was useless and his booking in the first half was absolutely pointless - a bit like us at the endo f the night. Timlin was doing stupind petulant little tackles. The number of free kicks we gave away on the edge of the box was annoying and asking for trouble against a team who were looking to nick it.
Robson-Kanu - worst game for us so far and was very selfish. Ifill was crap all second half. Hartelpool had done thier work as in the first half the long ball was going to Greer who mopped it up - in the 2nd they sent it Ifill's way.
We just weren't at the races yesterday.
We do seem to struggle against crap sides and a lot of the games to play are against this type of team.

[THE FLASH]

Just managed to get back online...

How fucking deflated did i feel last night as i avoided the bloke with the camera and cut across the magic roundabout.

I was amazed how many people blamed the ref for the defeat.  He was shit and didnt give us a bean but we had more than enough chances to win...Coxys header wide was woeful.

Hartlepool had a game plan called project Stiffle and they snuffed us out and didnt really look to create anything themselves...they waited for a break and unfortunatly for us the Ref gave it to them.

Why didnt the Town players take heed of a ref who had a whistle glued to his teeth waiting to give free kicks? DONT FUCKING LUNGE IN TO TAKLES AROUND THE BOX!!!!

Pools recognised what was happening and just got into areas and waited for the 'foul' and went to ground.

I was in the Townend and the pen did not look a pen....Town players didnt expect it and Pools players never appealed for it.....i will need to see it again to be sure but it seemed the ref waded through the players and pointed to the spot?

Timlin was brought down moments later on the edge and was waved away.....to me that was a freekick.


McNamee has to beat players and then cross it not beat them three times and then give away poccession......another Ricky Shakes without the physical prescence im afraid and a luxtury player that we can do without in a scrap.

It boils down to this:  Hartlepool didnt deserve to win that game anymore than we did.....we have to beat these 'lowly' teams to have any chance of avoiding the trapdoor - drawing at Leicester will not save us!

Cheltenham next week has turned into our biggest game of the season so far..............

If we can get anything at Tranmere i will be happy.