The Voice - Match preview Bradford City vs Swindon Town Tuesday 25 October @ 7:45pm

As you had such a good view (?) were such sitting amongst the Swindon fans?

 

I have only seen the angle on this thread. I'm trying to understand the furore on here. Is the issue...

a) the ball didn't hit his arm?
b) the ball hit his arm but it wasn't intentional?

 

He's another player who's been blighted by injury since he arrived and has missed more than he's been available for. He's a massive miss but as you it might take a few sub appearances before he starts games. Maybe early December.

 

The part of the laws I don’t see being referenced here is “deliberately touches the ball with their hand/arm, for example moving the hand/arm towards the ball”. The next point is then about unnaturally bigger.

Halliday looks like he leans a bit towards the ball as it comes in. If it’s then hit his arm, even if by his side, that’s handball given in theory he’s far enough away for it to avoid his arm - really difficult to tell from the TV angle though if that’s definitely what he does.

Wasn’t there last night but from memory the assistant in that half is typically on the other side of the pitch to this. What I would say is the ref is some way outside the area, looking through at least 1 player at this. If the assistant on (presumably) the other side hasn’t seen it clearly - and I’m wondering how they could TBH - then how the ref has seen it to give it, given its on the side of Halliday’s body the ref can’t physically see, is beyond me.

Was it the correct decision in the end under the laws? Possibly.

Could the officials clearly see the incident to be certain? I don’t see how that’s possible based on the above. Happy to be corrected though re the assistant.

 

Definitely couldn't have seen it, therefore a guess, therefore extremely poor and weak refereeing.

 

I've read plenty of comments on Twitter from Swindon fans, saying we are a really good team. Not the first opposition to say that about us this season, I find it is often reassuring to get a perspective of BCAFC from other fans, despite the meltdown from many of our own

 

I went for a leak during the break in play around the 70th minute (Midland Road stand). I walked past 6 stewards, stood in a circle having a good laugh and messing about. They were still there when I walked back...including the "senior" steward, the short lad who normally hovers up and down E block steps telling our fans to sit down and stop goading the opposition fans and the same lad who eventually rugby tackled the pitch invader. The stewards are often a pointless entity and wouldn't have a scooby do what to do in an emergency situation. In fact another of the group chinwagging was the huge asian lad who waddled towards the pitch invader

 

A steward near A block in the midland road stand celebrated the swindon goal .

 

If scoring isn't coming naturally and with regularity then we need to address this issue in January if we can. Goals win games but we need to be more potent up front, because,if Cooke is snuffed out our main hopes lie with Wright mainly. Defensively we've improved a lot but cannot hope for a shut out every match.

 

You said that we wouldn't find a single one. I did, in about 3 minutes.

 

Why? Does a protest often get decisions overturned?

 

True. I over reached a bit. You'd be lucky to find better than an 80/20 split on a neutral poll. Maybe I'll put it to the test.

 

Come on now the reactions of the players is very telling. Its a fairly well known meter by which to measure whether a decision is unreasonable or not.

 

I don’t like it but by todays interpretations it was a penalty. Very unfortunate but still a penalty

 

Do you think it was intentional?

 

As a ref, when doing initial training you’re told its basically a case of you need to be certain and not be ‘guessing’ - obviously linked to guidance around positioning etc on the field to make sure you have a view of the majority of incidents.

Otherwise you need to be honest and say you couldn’t see the incident properly.

My assumption here is the ref can perhaps see (at least some of) the ball touch Halliday, Swindon players go mad so gives it. If so, that’s really poor.

I’m usually one to defend refs and try to understand how they’ve arrived at
a decision - but with this one I genuinely can’t, based on ref’s apparent view of the incident and positioning.

 

Witnessed a Swindon fan driving on Midland Rd around 22.10 windows down, stereo blaring and racist sing lyrics and language heard aimed at Bradford City and local population. Only regret I didn't get chance to video him. Anyone else witness him. It was a small 4x4 like a suzuki. Swindon need to turf out this sort of supporter ....

 

Watch the slow motion a few times and step it through a frame at a time. It drops sharply as if it hit his arm that he pulls backwards a bit, away from the ball - but arm contact is only after it comes off his chest first. I'd scream for it against us but it's not a penalty for me if arm contact comes second. The ref would struggle with this even if he could see it well, but I suspect he was placed where he could not see the chest contact first.



I'd still rather have controveries like the ref getting this wrong rather than VAR delays and refs still getting them wrong!