You heard right USA.... Full article courtesy of Football365

allan - http://www.samaritans.org.uk/

OK Rev, so I'll go with you on that. Tugay made (accidental) contact, therefore foul, therefore penalty. Denied an obvious goalscoring opp therefore red card. Reading defender (Sonko?) on Sat made contact, therefore foul, therefore penalty? If not, what's the difference (apart from a sensible ref)?

In the light of Benni's antics and the marvellous Messrs Poll and Gray, could have posted this in a few threads but plumped on here. Got this email this morning.........

edited

And add me to the list. Well done Mr Poll (now there are words that aren't heard too often). So to the key - consistency between refs.

Bloody hell, there aren't half some precious buggers on here having a pop at Neill - someone could be excused for thinking there are personal agendas. No question he's one of our better defenders so no issue that he should be playing. I personally bow to those who work with the players to decide who's best to captain the side. A bit like this after the Charlton game?........

Yep, that's one perspective Rev. Another is that these incidents get seen by the 'powers that be' and they wouldn't pay em much attention otherwise.

That's my impression too, and part of the reason why I left the ground feeling strangely optimistic. I'm sure I wouldn't if the halves had been the other way round! As mentioned on the Todd thread, the defence looked so much more secure with him there. For everyone having a go at Neill, lay off - yes, his forward passing was poor but a couple of times in the first half he was (rightly) having a right go at the players in front of him, I would guess cos they weren't moving and giving him a passing option. Certainly looked that way to me. Result - a lump forwards (pun intended) that the opposition pick up. To those saying the sending off didn't change the result, fair enough IMHO, like NNN says it might even have helped, but let's have a look at this season's reds.............. Neill at Portsmouth - can't complain Todd at Portsmouth - rescinded Tugay (h) to Spurs - iffy Henchoz (h) to News - iffy add that to the dodgy penalties against and tell me we've had a fair balance of decisions. Perhaps not every penalty or red card has changed a result but no question we'd have a few more points with even breaks. Makes a lot of difference when you're in the position we are.

Gord replied pretty well. If I may add just one point - how do you think season ticket holders would react? Few less next year? Reduced prices for this sort of game (not particularly attractive) will go a long way towards telling the powers-that-be how much effect ticket prices have on gates. Not as much as some posters think is my guess.

That's a fine analogy Philipl. One to be filed away, along with Colin's research about the cost of the Prem winning squad. Don't want to be picky, but does it take account of Burnley, Preston, and Blackpool (not to mention the small teams of Gtr Manc eg Bury, Rochdale, Oldham which aren't too far away)?

A talking horse

There was a cracking game in the 80s : 3 - 1. That was when we were mid-table in Div 2 and Everton were a top side in Div 1 (with Lineker et al). Think they got to the final that year. Seem to remember they went two up then we had a purple patch for 15 mins culminating in Windy skinning his full back, his cross met beautifully by Pat van den Hauwe (just ahead of SG I think) and bulleting into the top corner. We were optimistic for a few minutes after that till that bloody crisp advertiser got Everton's third.

Good thinking USAb. I'd be happy to make a contribution. Now it's probably a bit late for half season tickets this season, but if this goes well, how about extending the idea to schools? Maybe something like BRISA (with volunteers contributing as per this idea) buying say 10 kids STs or half season STs, and distributing these to say 5 primary schools around Blackburn? Up to the schools to 'manage' so one kid doesn't monopolise things, also perhaps a bit of scope for the club to do something to encourage the parents/adults from school with the youngsters.

January 2005 v Colchester?

A few random thoughts. Was in the ground fairly early yesterday - Todd, Matteo, and McEvely all appeared and jogged round the pitch a few times and did a bit of warming up (along with one of the coaching staff). Doesn't do the blood pressure any good, seeing Matteo in kit as though he's going to play. What was all that about, anyone any ideas? MGP - he puts in a fair shift and wins a lot of headers, even though attacking-wise he's nothing like as effective as last year. Yes, Peter might offer more going forward but from what I've seen he does very little defensively. Maybe that's part of the reason why MGP continues to start. Ref (Bennett) - shocker. Nonda - I thought his goal was entirely deliberate, think he was aware where the goalie was. So fair play (sorry jp10) for that, but he's this year's Kuqi. Has the occasional flash of ability but for the most part displays similar control and first touch as the flying Finn. Gray - continuing the decent form he's shown of late. Fulham were very poor, we didn't play any better than in the games against Bolton and Man Utd. About 150 from Fulham I was told by a steward. The family stand (BE Upper) looked much fuller than usual, was there a family/schools promotion? I actually thought the home crowd looked OK and looking at the Spurs attendance, the home support wasn't much different.

Correct Dave. Oh and by the way, you seem to have wasted too many words on a description of Vinjay earlier : The guy is clearly paranoid. One word would have done fine : Vinjay = deluded. Oh go on then two : mentally ill.

A thread resurrection that Smithy would be proud of............ Apparently PNE might be in lumber about this but quite amusing I thought ; from the Mail about our mate Uriah Preston dropped two precious points on the day they needed victory to go above Cardiff to the top of the Championship and now they face FA action over a few ill-chosen words dropped by an announcer about referee Uriah Rennie. The Sheffield official, one of the most experienced in the country, upset the home side and their followers with a number of decisions in the first half at Deepdale - most notably ignoring two penalty claims when Sean St. Ledger went down in the visiting area and producing a yellow card for Palace striker James Scowcroft when most of the crowd were screaming for red. One voice was raised too high in one sentence at the end of a series of half-time announcements over the public address system. I could hardly believe my ears when I heard: "Enjoy the second-half of the Uriah Rennie show." The authorities clearly take a dim view of such statements. An FA spokesman said: "We will be writing to the club asking for an explanation."

This is fast becoming the 'was it a pen?' thread. In an idle moment yesterday I was looking back at the pen decisions that have gone against us this season..... Todd v Portsmouth (a) : definitely not, fair tackle and red rescinded after the game Ooijer v Chelsea (h) : OK Khiz v Sheff Utd (a) : very questionable Neill v Sheff Utd (a) : definitely not, chest not hand Ooijer v Wigan (h) : OK Ooijer v Aston V (a) : definitely not, ball to hand from a couple of yards Tugay v Spurs (h) : OK * categories at the risk of incurring Le Chuck's wrath Are we being hard done by? I'd say so.

On the plus side, would almost exactly the same thing have been said about Nelsen a couple of years ago?

EiT, just on this point. Genuine question, do we own all the land at Brockhall? Even if we do, you suggesting we move out and sell it all? Yep we might make a few bob but we'd have to build training facilities elsewhere = cost. By the way, on the basic question of whether land around Upton Park might be worth much soon. Before Canary Wharf etc., bet the land around the Isle of Dogs wasn't too pricy. If the Olympics have a similar effect to Canary Wharf, wouldn't be at all suprised to see land prices in E London follow a similar path to those of the Isle of Dogs.

Money

First time I've been on here since the game, and saw the BBC highlights last night and wondered (like philipl, Simon and gumboots) what the hell Gavin Peacock had been smoking. The penalty - harsh pen and very harsh sending off but I could just about accept that : at a guess I'd reckon 5 out of 10 refs wouldn't have given a pen, and of those that would less than half would have waved a red card. As far as I'm concerned, that's down to refereeing consistency. Our pen claim - at the time, I really couldn't tell (I sit in the JW Lower, about half way between the BE and half way line, so not too dissimilar to the view the ref had). So to the TV highlights. JW angle camera - similar to my view 'live' it looked iffy but couldn't be conclusive. Riverside angle camera - pretty clear, outside chance it might have been chest (the lino's view). Blackburn End angle - nailed on handball, the ball clearly goes past Mido's body, he sticks an arm out and the ball drops in front of him. I wonder if him already being booked had a bearing on it - I would guess a deliberate handball would have meant a second yellow? For whatever reason, the BBC showed the three angles in the 'live' highlights but when Peacock gave us the benefit of his thoughts, didn't show the BE view (where it was blatent) and argued there wasn't enough evidence to give it. Imagine a court case where there are three pieces of evidence : the witness isn't 100 percent sure, the weapons evidence isn't 100 percent conclusive either, but we have DNA evidence that is clearcut. But let's ignore the DNA evidence. So, Jack (and congrats on a post on the footy board ), video replays might not mean having hundreds of cameras as this shows. I'm not the world's biggest advocate of live video replays being introduced but what about something similar to what was recently introduced in tennis where a player can call for something like two video adjudications per set? What about something like one video appeal for each team per half? So not as many pauses as American Football but hopefully improved decisions. EDIT - one final thing (since I've just been watching the video ) - Jol, who I did and still think of as a pretty honest sort, said after the game that Ghaly shouldn't have been sent off cos there was no intention. How does that stack up against Tugay's red then?

It's his second name (well, it might be Christophe) in the same way that Bert's second name is Michael.

Hmmm, 'finger on the refresh button'. Is that a euphemism?