Oxford United ( Away )

Agree with a lot of your post, but interestingly I spoke to Oxford fans after the game who very much rated Chicksen’s performance.

For what it’s worth I thought the back 4, O’Donnell and Akpan has decent games.

Anderson had a poor game, no hiding from that, but to rate him worse than Clarke?? He’s another scapegoat on here already. Also at least the guy had the decency to applaud supporters at the end. It was clear he recognised he’d had a poor game and undercame a hell of a lot of abuse from some of our “supporters”’at the front. Completely unecessary.

 

Whilst it ultimately doesn’t matter, I may be changing my mind on the legality of the Oxford goal kick and what happened afterwards.

The relevant part of the laws (law 16) dictates a retake if opponents in the area try to play the ball/challenge an opponent. Whilst the law states procedurally that opponents should not be in the area, reading it I don’t think it demands a retake for that alone unless you interpret the ‘any other offence means retake’ comment in the laws as including the above.

The other point was whether the ball left the area before the Oxford player touched it (which definitely would be a retake). TV didn’t capture it so down to the City fans who were there to confirm.

If the ball left the area before the Oxford player touched it, then whilst the officials made a right old mess of the situation they may actually have got the decision right ultimately.

Apparently it was the assistant nearest our fans who drew the ref’s attention to something potentially being amiss but for some reason didn’t flag as soon as he spotted what he thought was the infringement - which would be standard protocol i.e. ref hasn’t seen something so bring his attention to it.

Doesn’t change the fact we were worse than awful and deserved to lose, but potentially not due to the refereeing error we thought it was.

 

I wasnt 100% sure myself but former premier referee Keith Hackett on Twitter last night confirmed all players must be out of the area for a goal kick, and that many referees neglect this rule for some reason.

 

I actually thought Chicken played well

 

Anderson had a terrible game. Couldn't pick a pass 3 yards away.

Yes he came over, which I do applaud, because the whole day was a shambles yesterday. However these "supporters" have every right to vent their frustration, on a day which has essentially taken us out of the race for survival.

There was no fight in the team yesterday.. and if Anderson wants to come over, being one of the worst offenders on the pitch, he's going to take the flack... given that the rest of the squad bottled it and pissed off down the tunnel.

 

So what happens when defender takes a goal kick?

 

Annoying that pro/former pro refs can’t agree on something that isn’t subjective. I’m a ref myself and knew the part of the law about all opponents out of the area and was also aware of the part about it being an offence for an opponent in the area trying to play the ball - but hadn’t twigged that the former isn’t apparently an offence in itself.

This morning I got pointed by a fellow ref to a part of law 13 on free kicks:

If, when a free kick is taken quickly by the defending team from inside its penalty area, any opponents are inside the penalty area because they did not have time to leave, the referee allows play to continue. If an opponent who is in the penalty area when the free kick is taken, or enters the penalty area before the ball is in play, touches or challenges for the ball before it has touched another player, the free kick is retaken

Which could be inferred to equally apply to goal kicks given the situation described is exactly the same - and is probably why IFAB are changing the law on goal kicks from next season to essentially align to the wording above (plus, defenders will be allowed to touch the ball before it leaves the area).

I still don’t understand though the process the officials went through to get to what was ultimately the right decision IF this was all to do with goal kick procedure, as that’s ridiculous.

If it was actually down to this suggestion of a penalty on LOB, for an assistant in the pro game to not apparently know that it can’t be brought back for that after the restart (the goal kick) is equally poor and through inaction at the time of the challenge has directly led to an alternative outcome i.e. Oxford goal rather than City penalty (accepting our subsequent defending of the attack was rubbish).

 

Key part is opponents being in the area, though see my above post why that in itself apparently isn’t a reason to retake.

 

We can all carry out post mortems on yesterday's goings on
But the truth of the matter is we are where we are because we are the worst team in the league
Our season has been disastrous for many many reasons there isn't space on this forum to list them all
I would like to see what the board have learnt and how they intend to get us out of this mess
20000 City fans roaring the team on isn't going to make one iota of difference in L2 it hasn't in L1
It's down to the club ( whoever may be in charge) to recruit players/ management with the fight and determination to restore our L1 status and get the long suffering fans backing the club again

 

i've never quite understood the whole, "pay your money, have a right to vent your frustration." if i don't enjoy a film, a gig or a sandwich i don't go and shout and abuse the person who made it or performed. you pay your money, you take the risk.

 

I also think that Lob said he missed the ball completely and a defender got a foot to it to put it behind for a corner - so it appears that was missed by the assistant ref too.

 

To be honest... my gripe is that some people think they are far superior by using the term "supporters" in that way.

Equally. They have paid their money to be there, and are free to act how they please.

Yesterday was a day fuelled on emotion. Every city fan I spoke to before the game said that we needed 3 points, anything less and we are pretty much down. So to see that performance just wasn't good enough. Forgetting about the ref and the decision at the end of the game.... we didn't deserve anything from the game yesterday.

And by the way, I was not one of those giving grief to Anderson... But I can understand why people did.

 

my point being, what in the supporter psyche makes them believe that they have the right to give grief to people simply because they are at a football match and they've paid to attend - there is only one thing that is consistent with third tier and lower league footballers and that's inconsistency. i've been to plenty of things i've not enjoyed but i haven't ever felt the need to go and shout grief at the person who organised it or took part simply because i parted with some money to attend, that's my risk to take.

 

That to me is the most important thing, how do you convince the referee there was an incident in the Oxford goalmouth that he saw but didn't think it was worthy of flagging for.

 

I think the fact the majority of oxfords bench harassed the nearest linesman who the ref consulted had a major factor. Why was the ref even talking to someone 100 yards who had been clearly swayed by Oxford. Does the FA do apologies?

 

No you're not allowed to say that when we've lost. Admin please take appropriate action.

 

As did O’Conner and Akpan.

 

He was fairly good defensively in all fairness. Still absolutely clueless with the ball at his feet though.

 

WHY? I have seen many games both at VP and Away, and on TV where the team that was awful have taken the points!! Yes by all accounts we were poor, but we have had rough justice yet again! How many points have we been denied this season by exceptionally poor decisions by the ref? If we add them all up we could have been out if the relegation. Please don’t tell me it evens itself out over the course of the season because it absolutely does not! Oxford won that yesterday not because the were fabulous, in fact they were poor as well, but because they were prepared to harangue the poor weak referee.

 

Absolute WINNER.