RateTheRef

The sad reality is that at least 2 of Madley, Jones and England won’t get a single play off game, yet they are head and shoulders above those appointed. Hopefully his outing at the Stadium of Light will be Woolmer’s swan song and he will gracefully leave the game as clearly his most recent injury has hampered his movement around the pitch.

As for the league 2 appointments, an excellent way for Matt Donohue to end his first season on the list - he must’ve had a fantastic season. Also a good game for John Busby after the recent praise he’s had on here. Might the match for Eddie Ilderton mark the end of his illustrious career with another ground ticket off? A great game to get following his recent injury troubles!

People can only base their opinions on what they have seen and if Busby, for example, performed well on that day then that is the basis for their view.
Unfortunately we do not get to see the FL guys that often, unless we support a team in Lgue 1 or 2 so dont have a wealth of "insider" knowledge
Football is political, hopefully less so in this country, so appointments will always have some form of bias

On a separate note pleasing to see a number of first year referees involved in the play offs (before SG2 they would have had a few Championship games by now)

My negative opinion of John Busby relates exactly to the reasons you weren’t impressed with him.

Extremely lenient and lacks authority. I saw him on the Charlton vs Accrington game this season and some of the disgraceful things the Accrington players did was quite shocking, hence why there were ugly scenes both during and after the game. His assistant bailed him out for the penalty but he allowed virtually every single player to confront and surround his assistant for well over a minute and didn’t even show one yellow card to a player and allowed the same at the final whistle.

His coach is Dermot Gallagher apparently, says it all then really.

Quote from: Proudgayref on Wed 08 May 2019 02:12

My negative opinion of John Busby relates exactly to the reasons you weren’t impressed with him.

Extremely lenient and lacks authority. I saw him on the Charlton vs Accrington game this season and some of the disgraceful things the Accrington players did was quite shocking, hence why there were ugly scenes both during and after the game. His assistant bailed him out for the penalty but he allowed virtually every single player to confront and surround his assistant for well over a minute and didn’t even show one yellow card to a player and allowed the same at the final whistle.

His coach is Dermot Gallagher apparently, says it all then really.

I saw him at Rochdale v Portsmouth in September and he was excellent.

Mr. Busby had a bit of a shocker early in the season when he failed to clamp down on Fleetwood's persistent fouling and spoiling tactics. However, he recently refereed our game at Luton and got quite a bit of praise. I think he's typical of a number of NG referees in that if two teams try to play football he can handle the game perfectly well and indeed can enhance the spectacle. However he struggles badly if he's given a "difficult" game where some strong sanctions are needed to maintain control.

Quote from: TVOS on Wed 08 May 2019 08:19

Quote from: Proudgayref on Wed 08 May 2019 02:12

My negative opinion of John Busby relates exactly to the reasons you weren’t impressed with him.

Extremely lenient and lacks authority. I saw him on the Charlton vs Accrington game this season and some of the disgraceful things the Accrington players did was quite shocking, hence why there were ugly scenes both during and after the game. His assistant bailed him out for the penalty but he allowed virtually every single player to confront and surround his assistant for well over a minute and didn’t even show one yellow card to a player and allowed the same at the final whistle.

His coach is Dermot Gallagher apparently, says it all then really.

I saw him at Rochdale v Portsmouth in September and he was excellent.

Mr. Busby had a bit of a shocker early in the season when he failed to clamp down on Fleetwood's persistent fouling and spoiling tactics. However, he recently refereed our game at Luton and got quite a bit of praise. I think he's typical of a number of NG referees in that if two teams try to play football he can handle the game perfectly well and indeed can enhance the spectacle. However he struggles badly if he's given a "difficult" game where some strong sanctions are needed to maintain control.

JohnCoyle's comments highlight why Mr Busby is a bad selection for the play-off leg at Tranmere.  If they play like their last visits to Tranmere, Forest Green will use cynical time-wasting tactics, feign injury and unless action is taken at an early stage by the referee, there is a risk of him losing control. Forest Green will play decent football in their home leg which is likely to be a better spectacle and given his refereeing style Mr Busby would be better suited to that game.

Would be delighted to be proved wrong of course.

Donohue replaced by the card shark Breakspear.

I tend to agree with the comments about Andy Woolmer. I wonder whether this will be his swan-song after 14 years on the list. Ditto Eddie Ilderton after 16 years (with a break). Long-serving Nigel Miller also bowed out after a playoff semi at Blackpool. I can think of no other reason why Andy should have secured this appointment.

These matches are very important to the clubs involved.

They should not be given as a farewell gift to under-performing referees way past their best.

Donohue replaced by the card shark Breakspear.

Injury ?  Illness  ?  Anyone know why ?  Thanks.