Football

[SteveM70]

Fylde should win the league. Full time professional and a high coin level behind them.

Not quite as bad as Salford were at that level, but there’s some quite creative accounting going on with Fylde

 

[DarloRich]

Not quite as bad as Salford were at that level, but there’s some quite creative accounting going on with Fylde

Alleged creative accounting

No one is as coined up as Salford!

 

[SteveM70]

Alleged creative accounting

No one is as coined up as Salford!

Well yes, and yes. Salford made a mockery of it, paying Adam Rooney over four grand a week in non-league

The interesting thing about Fylde is the shirt sponsorship deal

 

[youngiecj]

Fylde should win the league. Full time professional and a high coin level behind them.

Agreed. One of those clubs I’m not keen on myself. To be fair, we were the better team for large majority of the match. Our rustiness of not playing for 2 weeks didn’t help. I fancy our chances ourselves this year. Best squad on paper we’ve had since being in non league and we don’t have the burden of 125000 rent anymore.. Good luck in the FA Cup today.

 

[DarloRich]

Agreed. One of those clubs I’m not keen on myself. To be fair, we were the better team for large majority of the match. Our rustiness of not playing for 2 weeks didn’t help. I fancy our chances ourselves this year. Best squad on paper we’ve had since being in non league and we don’t have the burden of 125000 rent anymore.. Good luck in the FA Cup today.

I would expect Boston to be in the playoffs.

Red button from 1315 ish for the darlo game. Also on bt sport i think

Well that was embarrassing: Bristol River 6 v Darlington 0. Entirely self inflicted. Shambolic.

 

[Bristol Rich]

Impressed with the forwards you have however the back 5 you have looked a total bombscare and after you went one down you completely lost the plot and that couldve been double figures.

All the best for the rest of the season but get it up you for the 'poor league one side' comment when the draw was made.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Congratulations to Marine for progressing to the 3rd round of the FA Cup.

 

[KashmireHawker]

Arsenal 1-2 Wolverhampton Wanderers

Our first win away at Arsenal, since September 29th, 1979 through two great team goals by Pedro Neto and Daniel Podence - which sends us 6th place and 4 points from the top.

Totally overshadowed however by a sickening head blow to Raul Jimenez, who is responding to treatment in a London hospital.

 

[DarloRich]

Impressed with the forwards you have however the back 5 you have looked a total bombscare and after you went one down you completely lost the plot and that couldve been double figures.

All the best for the rest of the season but get it up you for the 'poor league one side' comment when the draw was made.

Rovers are still a poor league one side and in worse form then when we played Swindon. However, they are a poor league one side who were not utterly shambolic (as Swindon were) and were handed 4 goals though cack handed defending. Rovers won 6-0 and did very little to actually have to win.

I thought we looked good until a calamitous first goal and then imploded defensively in 15/20 minutes of incredible incompetence. I don't mind getting humped by a full time league 1 side. I do mind it being almost entirely self inflicted and getting embarrassed.

Anyway we earned £32k which is what is important to us in the longer term.

 

[Jamesrob637]

Arsenal 1-2 Wolverhampton Wanderers

Our first win away at Arsenal, since September 29th, 1979 through two great team goals by Pedro Neto and Daniel Podence - which sends us 6th place and 4 points from the top.

Totally overshadowed however by a sickening head blow to Raul Jimenez, who is responding to treatment in a London hospital.

Besides the injury, and I hope Raul recovers, that was a pleasing result for many.

 

[DarloRich]

Besides the injury, and I hope Raul recovers, that was a pleasing result for many.

it looked very bad. The protocols for head injuries in football need looking at.

 

[SteveM70]

it looked very bad. The protocols for head injuries in football need looking at.

Indeed. Again football lagging behind both rugby codes. No way should David Luiz have been allowed to stay on the pitch.

 

[507021]

I think it's clear and obvious the VAR experiment has failed.

I'm at the point I don't bother celebrating whenever Liverpool score, because I expect it'll be ruled out because somebody was a millimeter offside in the build up.

 

[DarloRich]

I think it's clear and obvious the VAR experiment has failed.

I'm at the point I don't bother celebrating whenever Liverpool score, because I expect it'll be ruled out because somebody was a millimeter offside in the build up.

it is almost as if some of us said this was going to be a disaster and take so much of our enjoyment as fans away. it was brought in to keep people who consume football on TV and who are easily led by loud mouthed "experts" happy not fans who go to the games.

if we have to have the thing it should be a review screen for the ref to look at to help him decide. I said we shouldn't bring it and i think we should bin it.

 

[SteveM70]

I think it's clear and obvious the VAR experiment has failed.

I'm at the point I don't bother celebrating whenever Liverpool score, because I expect it'll be ruled out because somebody was a millimeter offside in the build up.

Clear and obvious doesn’t apply to offside. It either is, or isn’t. The fact that they’re able to make better quality decisions is a good thing, but there’s a massive issue about the way they demonstrate it to the fans

 

[DarloRich]

Clear and obvious doesn’t apply to offside. It either is, or isn’t. The fact that they’re able to make better quality decisions is a good thing, but there’s a massive issue about the way they demonstrate it to the fans

I honestly dont think it is. The narrative that we fans need that the ref/lino robbed us means we dont have to accept the horroble truth: our teams arent very good!

 

[scotrail158713]

Clear and obvious doesn’t apply to offside. It either is, or isn’t.

Spot on. I’m not the biggest fan of VAR, but accept it has got always decisions like offside correct.
I personally would prefer a review system where teams have an allocated number of reviews per game so it’s used when teams genuinely want it to be used - much like Hawkeye in tennis. Yes, you might miss the odd toenail offside, but it’s a price worth paying IMO. I’d be happy that officials might get the odd decision wrong - they are human - because teams requesting reviews would generally restrict it to “clear and obvious” errors.
No system is perfect though - whatever is done, there will always be those unhappy with some aspect of it.

 

[Darandio]

Regarding offside it's the armpit, testicle and shirt sleeve nonsense, generally not parts of the body or attire that you score with. Dermot Gallagher offered this today, I think it's possibly a way forward.

"Forwards curve their run where naturally their body comes forward, and a lot of the disallowed goals we've seen this season have come from the lines being drawn at the top of the body. But he's curving his run, and if you draw the line at where the feet are planted, many of these goals wouldn't be disallowed.

"I wonder if this is something worth experimenting with. By having a line from the feet, there would still be a yes and a no."

 

[507021]

it is almost as if some of us said this was going to be a disaster and take so much of our enjoyment as fans away. it was brought in to keep people who consume football on TV and who are easily led by loud mouthed "experts" happy not fans who go to the games.

if we have to have the thing it should be a review screen for the ref to look at to help him decide. I said we shouldn't bring it and i think we should bin it.

I thought after last season, we might see an improvement where VAR was concerned. I couldn't have been more wrong. It's completely ruined the game.

I'm seriously thinking about cancelling the sport package of my TV subscription.

 

[SteveM70]

Regarding offside it's the armpit, testicle and shirt sleeve nonsense, generally not parts of the body or attire that you score with. Dermot Gallagher offered this today, I think it's possibly a way forward.

But would it make a difference? I don’t think so - with any line decision, sooner or later an example will come up where the attacker is just the right side of the line, and one where he’s just the wrong side of the line. All Gallagher’s idea does is move the line a few inches.

Look at it another way - an attacker being offside is either poor play from him, or good defending. Most strikers don’t NEED to be that close to being offside. If they were a foot or two further back 99% of the time they’d still get to the ball first

 

[Cletus]

Marine v Tottenham
Chorley v Derby
Terrific FA Cup draws.

 

[Darandio]

But would it make a difference? I don’t think so - with any line decision, sooner or later an example will come up where the attacker is just the right side of the line, and one where he’s just the wrong side of the line. All Gallagher’s idea does is move the line a few inches.

Look at it another way - an attacker being offside is either poor play from him, or good defending. Most strikers don’t NEED to be that close to being offside. If they were a foot or two further back 99% of the time they’d still get to the ball first

I think it does, if only for using a more relevant part of the body to make the decision. We could always use the Dutch method of course, thicker lines....

 

[61653 HTAFC]

I remember similar reactions when the back pass rule was changed, and I'm told there were also objections to the change to three points for a win. I don't think anyone would seriously suggest reversing those changes now.

VAR certainly isn't perfect in the way it's being used, but give it five years and all this talk of "ruining the game" will be embarrassing to look back on.

 

[507021]

Clear and obvious doesn’t apply to offside. It either is, or isn’t. The fact that they’re able to make better quality decisions is a good thing, but there’s a massive issue about the way they demonstrate it to the fans

I know, my comment was tongue in cheek.

VAR has indeed helped to make some good refereeing decisions, but it's also been responsible for some equally shocking ones. In the most recent Merseyside Derby alone, Liverpool had a perfectly legitimate winning goal disallowed, and the shocking season-ending lunge on Virgil van Dijk went unpunished because the VAR operator was more interested in working out if he was offside in the build up.

It should be blatantly obvious if a player is offside, match officials shouldn't need VAR to tell them that.

I remember similar reactions when the back pass rule was changed, and I'm told there were also objections to the change to three points for a win. I don't think anyone would seriously suggest reversing those changes now.

VAR certainly isn't perfect in the way it's being used, but give it five years and all this talk of "ruining the game" will be embarrassing to look back on.

At the moment, it is ruining the game. The amount of legitimate goals which have been disallowed is ludicrous.

Maybe VAR will improve in time, but after how it's gone so far this season, I'm not going to hold my breath.

 

[SteveM70]

VAR is still being bedded in. Like a pendulum, the application seems to swing from over zealous to insufficient every few weeks. We saw it with the definition of handball being changed after a few weeks. But this is almost all the subjective decisions, not the objective ones

The biggest mistake they’ve made is having the bedding in period live, in public, and impacting games. They should’ve had a parallel dry run for at least a season, using ex refs to operate it, and ex managers and ex players and maybe some journalists to assess it. Then once the teething issues were ironed out it could be used in anger

The other massive failing is not having the ref and VAR mic’d up like in rugby union. That way the fans - who are ultimately paying the bills - at least get to understand the rationale for the decisions

 

[507021]

VAR is still being bedded in. Like a pendulum, the application seems to swing from over zealous to insufficient every few weeks. We saw it with the definition of handball being changed after a few weeks. But this is almost all the subjective decisions, not the objective ones

The biggest mistake they’ve made is having the bedding in period live, in public, and impacting games. They should’ve had a parallel dry run for at least a season, using ex refs to operate it, and ex managers and ex players and maybe some journalists to assess it. Then once the teething issues were ironed out it could be used in anger

The other massive failing is not having the ref and VAR mic’d up like in rugby union. That way the fans - who are ultimately paying the bills - at least get to understand the rationale for the decisions

I completely agree. I reckon this would have made the implementation of VAR a lot better than what we've seen so far.

However, until it can be used correctly and controversial decisions are explained to fans, I think it needs to go back to the drawing board.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Having seen Hyde United being "match-less" under the terms of the latest lockdown, I knew that they had qualified for the FA Trophy First Round Proper. I have just found out that their away match is scheduled for Tuesday, 8th December and their opponents are ..... Marine

 

[61653 HTAFC]

The other massive failing is not having the ref and VAR mic’d up like in rugby union. That way the fans - who are ultimately paying the bills - at least get to understand the rationale for the decisions

Thus I agree with. As much as Rugby (particularly the posh code with two too many players ) is about as interesting as an audio-only presentation on the history of the University Boat Race, it's remarkable to see players built like brick outhouses being put in their place by a referee who's about one third their size. Compared with the histrionics seen from top level footballers it's a much more civilised sport (until the game restarts, at least).

But a few questionable decisions don't "ruin the game", they're just part and parcel of the game, by nature of how the rules are open to interpretation. Before VAR there were still plenty of decisions that were obviously wrong with the benefit of TV replays- those decisions weren't "ruining the game" either, they were part of it. Implemented correctly, VAR should minimise those incorrect calls, but won't ever remove marginal calls completely. One thing I have noticed both from fans and even so-called experts seems to be an expectation that VAR would be a magic bullet for all contentious decisions. Such an expectation is always doomed to failure.

The question should be, how do we implement the technology without turning every decision into a controversy? When VAR was first mooted, I favoured an approach similar to elite Tennis, where players/teams have a limited number of appeals per half. The captain or head coach of a team can request that the VAR panel have a look at a contentious call, if the original decision is upheld the challenge is lost.

 

[DarloRich]

Thus I agree with. As much as Rugby (particularly the posh code with two too many players ) is about as interesting as an audio-only presentation on the history of the University Boat Race, it's remarkable to see players built like brick outhouses being put in their place by a referee who's about one third their size. Compared with the histrionics seen from top level footballers it's a much more civilised sport (until the game restarts, at least).

I hate the obsequious forlock tugging in rugby. It is all about master and serf and it is degrading. It is all part of the fake gentlemanly conduct beloved by Tories and spivs. Please, don't call the ref a chunt but lets not call him sir.

In football the conversations between the ref and the VAR man should be heard. The question should be like Rugby: I wish to award a goal. Is there any reason why i should not.

The explanation should be equally clear: red number 7 has handled the ball/ is offside/ has fouled blue number 4 etc

Also if we must have VAR the ref should be allowed/encouraged to watch a replay and decide for himself before phoning a friend in Reading. They should also show the replay on the screen so fans at the ground know what is going on.

But a few questionable decisions don't "ruin the game", they're just part and parcel of the game, by nature of how the rules are open to interpretation. Before VAR there were still plenty of decisions that were obviously wrong with the benefit of TV replays- those decisions weren't "ruining the game" either, they were part of it.

But having goals disallowed because a toe nail was offside is not within the wider "spirit" of the game. VAR is taking away that subjective part of the game and for me that is a big part. There are goals I saw 20 years ago that cost my team that I know were offside. I don't need to KNOW they were offisde. KNOWING ruins it. It takes away the victim of injustice narrative that all real fans love and need.

VAR is wrong and will be part of the reason top level football eats itself. This last 9 months has shown how out of touch, pointless, meaningless and deluded big football is.

 

[youngiecj]

Gloucester 0 Boston 0. Defences on top with this one. Not impressed with the streaming service only saw 45 mins of the match due to problems. First ever home match at our new stadium on Saturday to look forward to. Unfortunately we are in tier 3 so can’t go!