The Voice - Match preview #7: Bradford City vs AFC Wimbledon Saturday 21st September 2024 3:00pm

But, as I said in my reply to your previous post, it’s not the grappling in the area we were complaining about on Saturday. We’re talking about players who were running with the ball in open midfield play who were being constantly pulled back by grabbing of the shirt or of the arm. There was no element of our players being involved as they were trying to run away from their opponents, not engage with them.
As @Bronco said above, the foul count at halftime was 10 - 2 and many of those were for pulling back our players. And that’s on top of the several identical offences that the ref didn’t even penalise, let alone give yellow cards for. It was happening time and again in plain view and the ref often just ignored it.

There’s no excuse for this. It wasn’t tit for tat as it often is in the box at set pieces. It was blatantly premeditated cheating designed to slow down our midfield runners, and also Richards, and the ref simply stood by and let them get away with it. It was terrible refereeing.

 

I think this has got worse over recent times. Hanson used to get more fouls given against him than given for, but I don't remember the absolute wrestling matches going on and nothing given to either side. Something changed in the last 5 or 6 years, whether that is the referees deciding to let the game flow or a rule change I'm not aware of. I was of the understanding that they were clamping down on this, maybe I'm wrong.
What you see in the box is the main attacker being blocked or held back from jumping. The refs usually call them together but then does nothing or gives the foul against the attacker. Very rarely you'll see a penalty given.
As Alexander says, he's at a loss as to what to tell his players and this can't be good for the game. It was bad before but it's now getting to McArdle levels of wrestling.

 

Does GA not think our defenders do the same to opposition strikers at corners then?

Time to stop blaming refs and find a way to beat all teams, whether they are a MK Dons type footballing side or a big spoiling side like Wimbledon.

 

Of course our players do the same. I can understand why refs don't penalise the wrestling as it usually is 6 and 6, also we do the pulling and deliberate fouling, hence the phrase "he took one for the team". You are right; we have to find our own ways to overcome the tactics but we also need a ref to do his basic job. To some teams, continuous stop and start is an advantage and refs shouldn't just ignore it and allow it to continue as Saturday's ref did for what it ultimately did was for us to pay to watch lousy "entertainment".

 

This is league 2,and you won't get out of it by being Mr nice guy.City have got to meet fire with fire.It may not be pretty,but needs must,If Smallwood had put in that hard tackle earlier in the game,it would have fired up the crowd,and shown Wimbledon they were going to get as much back as they were giving out.They won't be the only team who come and play like that,so City have got to learn to deal with it.It.

 

Where will it all end if we continue down this road?

You are correct though, two wrongs don’t make a right. As a spectacle it’s rediculous and the ref is the person with the tools to stamp it out. I’d much rather he blew up, gave a warning then booked the person if it continued, and that goes for both sides. Maybe then we’d see something resembling a football match.

 

I'm not unduly worried because he certainly doesn't look out of place. I'd argue that he's probably offered as much as any of the 10s (maybe bar Walker) so far and given that the team as a whole has been very up and down it probably mirrors every individuals performance.

 

Shepherd saw it because he was in the referees face pointing at him immediately after the Smallwood tackle and I'd guess that he was telling him that the tackle and resulting melee was completely his fault as he'd not controlled the game at any point which led to the frustrations boiling over.

 

If I was the referee, I'd firstly pull both players together after watching them wrestle and tell them both " right lads, if this continues, I'm going to give either a free kick or a penalty, it's up to you"

 

Speaking of which, does anyone have any footage of the tackle? Just wondered if it was a bad one or just a strong tackle? He had his back to me as I sit in MR so difficult to tell given that Hippolyte likes to roll around in agony at even the slightest hint of a touch.

 

I thought it was a bad tackle from side on from the kop viewpoint. Seemed to go in two footed. Said at the time it was a possible straight red

 

Well if a challenge that would normally get a yellow got nothing, I suppose it made sense a red card challenge would get a yellow with that referee.

From Midland Road side it looked clumsy and ugly, thought for sure he'd walk.

Funnily enough someone was calling for Richie to crock Hippolyte

 

Certainly a red could have been given without many complaints from us.
Their 33 seemed to lunge at Shepherd during the scuffle which with VAR would also have been a red. It was right in front of the lino anyway so maybe they just weren't in the mood for handing out reds on saturday, or stamping any authority on the game for that matter.

 

It used to happen to big Jim every game and he never ever seemed to get a free kick. In fact I remember times the defender would get a free kick for grappling him and trying to drag him down! It got past the point of being just poor decisions and felt more like an agenda against big centre forwards, the same happened to Cook and Oliver saturday. The defenders don't even look at the ball, their only aim is disturbing (fouling) the striker

 

Bang on mate, if it's in the penalty area it's either a foul to the defending team or a penalty hardly rocket science, just do you job referee that's the whole point of you being there.

 

I made that comment in a previous post, the linesman was stood a yard away and clearly saw the incident.

 

My first game in over a month, spoiled by their shithousing.
We needed to do more, but in the first half in particular our players were being constantly pulled back, its hard to run with a 6 foot plus ars--ole holding your shirt. The ref was weak and totally at fault for the mellee at the end, for which both clubs will be fined no doubt.

 

Bit of Karma today for the wombles,

Their pitch is flooded out so the players can do all the diving they like

Miss out on a chance to make a splash against the saudi geordies this week

 

Not sure how it is karma, it will cost the club a lot of money to replace the pitch as well as any damage to the surrounding area. It's going to cause them fixture issues as well as financial ones. I'd imagine this will take a while to fix and it could have long term issues when trying to relay a pitch after flooding in Autumn.

Their match against Newcastle has been switched to St James' next week so they'll actually get more money from it but I'm sure that will be swallowed up by the repair costs. Their home match next week against Crewe has been postponed because of this and they are due to be at home to Accrington on Saturday so that will either have to be reversed or postponed.

 

The can always move to Milton Keynes. Oh wait….