RateTheRef

Bobby Madley with another comeback with a huge game between Barnsley and Derby. Bolton's 2 derbies this week all SG2 and Drysdale with a huge game at bottom at port vale

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The Bobby Madley appointment has caused some controversy (mainly amongst the Derby fans) since it emerged that in his youth he was a member of Barnsley's Academy.

So is bobby Madley doing the Pompey game because Andrew kitchen was meant to be doing our game against Charlton

So is bobby Madley doing the Pompey game because Andrew kitchen was meant to be doing our game against Charlton

Yes

Barrow v Bradford called off by Tom Nield at 2pm. I haven’t seen any footage, but sounds like both managers think it could have been played.

Barrow had a training session on it with Barrow fans invited to watch. Sounds a shocking decision.

A good display from Ben Speedie and team yesterday at Sutton. I think he tends to like to let a little too much go for my liking, but he was relatively consistent and didn’t do so to an extremity. Very good decision on the penalty, not the clearest of handballs but I had a great view of it from behind the goal and was spot on. My only negative marks would be he didn’t do a great job of clearing the box once the penalty had been given and there were a lot of Colchester players hanging around and getting in the Sutton taker’s ear. There should have been at least one yellow card for me. He also refused Fevrier treatment prior to the penalty when he had been limping for a few seconds before the penalty was awarded, presumably he thought he was faking it to delay the taking but he definitely was injured and did then receive treatment and hobbled off after the penalty save.

Not wishing to point out that a few on Pyramid Patrol gave RR the thumbs up a few years ago. The great Ceasar from Brighouse, he say yeah! What more does anyone need

Farai Hallam had a good game at Walsall v Accrington last night.

Fitness was good (noticably tall and very slim, if that counts for anything!), foul detection was very good and consistent, if maybe not quite so consistent with issuing of YCs. Two given for Accrington were for 'tactical' rather than nasty fouls and the two for Walsall in injury time for blocking a throw in and the old pretending you've not heard the whistle a couple of seconds ago and 'passing' the ball 40 yards away, all 4 YCs issued nailed on. Having earlier cautioned for those tactical fouls stopping promising situations, he could have issued 2 more for very similar types of challenges in the last 10 minutes (1 for each side) plus the Accrington keeper holding on to the ball for a good 5 seconds or so after Walsall's first goal was also probably worthy of a YC.   

Of the major KMIs, he gave a penalty to Accrington. Deep cross, attacker jumps to head ball back across goal, hits defender's arm a yard or so away, above shoulder height in a totally unnatural position. One of those that in years gone by may well not have been give as unintentional but that's the risk if you jump like that now, so was definitely a pen for me.

Another ball over/not over the line debate, you get none for years and then 2 in the space of 3 home games! This time AR1 would have had a perfect, unobstructed view and was bang on the goal line to judge, with the ball being his side of the goal. Didn't give the goal although it does look over the line from the photo attached, noting the position of the ball in relation to the back leg being a fair bit behind the front knee which is on the goal line, albeit obviously not from the angle AR1 would have had and that you can never really be 100% sure from still photos.

Overall, I'd say a good performance that was probably just shy of very good. Will be interesting to see how he follows that up with his next game at the weekend.