RateTheRef

I was fortunate enough to be in the ground for this game.  It was one of the most entertaining I have seen for ages despite little goalmouth action.  Charlton's game plan was based around a high intensity press and they did it superbly.  When they couldn't tackle fairly they did it illegally and when they didn't like the outcome they moaned.  Boy did they moan.  Who would have thought a Lee Bowyer team would play like that!  They did it well but seemed to run out of steam on a very heavy pitch and a change of formation from Posh at that point exploited them to come from behind to win.

The problem for Sam Purkiss, in a very challenging game, was not the nasty tackles (although there were some from both sides) but the failure to address persistent fouling.  Darren Pratley in particular must be a smooth talker but Jake Forster-Caskey was allowed too many before he made it into the notebook.  The early penalty to Charlton was correct and given from an excellent position after a grapple by Ethan Hamilton.  Hamilton went on to commit many fouls, including one clearly in retribution for a previous tackle, without sanction before being wisely withdrawn.  Mr Purkiss also failed to sanction one clear yellow card offence by Charlton for breaking up a promising attack when, to my eye, he lost the offender (as did I!).  Chuks Aneke was very fortunate to escape a red card for a flailing arm - no foul was detected by Mr Purkiss or his well-placed assistant Damith Bandara.  Darren Ferguson received a yellow card for dissent when he came down from his place in the stand to berate the fourth official, Paul Evans.  He was fortunate not to to get another when his response to the card was audible all round the ground.  Time-wasting was insufficiently policed as was the not-so-surreptitious kicking away of the ball.  Throw ins were generally taken from anywhere as long as it was on the correct side of the ground apart from one occasion where Mr Purkiss, at great length, pushed the player all the way back to his own corner flag (correctly) before ignoring him stealing ten yards before he released it.

A cracking evening.  If there had been a crowd it would have been a real bear-pit and I would have been astonished if we had ended up with 22 players on the pitch.  I rather suspect if the game had been refereed to the book it wouldn't have been half as entertaining.