RateTheRef

Good evening everyone,
                                   When listening yesterday to the pre-match build up of Shrewsbury and my side Sunderland on BBC Newcastle our match summariser and co-commentator Gary Bennett mentioned how he had spoken to the referee assessor at a game recently [ the identity wasn't given, but it was someone Benno knows well] and he came up with a very interesting statement from said assessor.
 Now as a club we are what we are and in League One, and without any disrespect whatsoever to other clubs in League One we are still attracting approximately 30,000 for our home games and all of our seven away games so far have been a complete sell-out to the away following [ an example of this was 5000 at Coventry City on September 29th] which in turn has led to the host club [ quite rightly] raising their game accordingly and maybe pushing things to the absolute limit.This of course has led to a match atmosphere that is a little out of the ordinary for the League [AS I SAY NO DISRESPECT INTENDED AT ALL] and of course there isn't a game without a referee.
 To be honest [apart from the less than impressive performance by David Coote against Peterborough a few weeks ago] I cannot really remember so far this season anything controversial at all other than normal for and against decisions , however what this assessor said was that Sunderland AFC are being used to give referees at League One level a chance to perform at a "higher profile" occasion at a Premier League Stadium in front of a partisan and boisterous crowd or at a ground where the expectation from the away support coupled to a motivated home side and support and to see how they handle such an occasion with a view to eventual promotion to a competition where there are larger and more passionate crowds than they have previously been used to.
 I gave this some thought and I suppose I should take this as some sort of compliment and I wonder what the thoughts of other contributors may be.

Good evening everyone,
                                   When listening yesterday to the pre-match build up of Shrewsbury and my side Sunderland on BBC Newcastle our match summariser and co-commentator Gary Bennett mentioned how he had spoken to the referee assessor at a game recently [ the identity wasn't given, but it was someone Benno knows well] and he came up with a very interesting statement from said assessor.
 Now as a club we are what we are and in League One, and without any disrespect whatsoever to other clubs in League One we are still attracting approximately 30,000 for our home games and all of our seven away games so far have been a complete sell-out to the away following [ an example of this was 5000 at Coventry City on September 29th] which in turn has led to the host club [ quite rightly] raising their game accordingly and maybe pushing things to the absolute limit.This of course has led to a match atmosphere that is a little out of the ordinary for the League [AS I SAY NO DISRESPECT INTENDED AT ALL] and of course there isn't a game without a referee.
 To be honest [apart from the less than impressive performance by David Coote against Peterborough a few weeks ago] I cannot really remember so far this season anything controversial at all other than normal for and against decisions , however what this assessor said was that Sunderland AFC are being used to give referees at League One level a chance to perform at a "higher profile" occasion at a Premier League Stadium in front of a partisan and boisterous crowd or at a ground where the expectation from the away support coupled to a motivated home side and support and to see how they handle such an occasion with a view to eventual promotion to a competition where there are larger and more passionate crowds than they have previously been used to.
 I gave this some thought and I suppose I should take this as some sort of compliment and I wonder what the thoughts of other contributors may be.

It is not a Premier League Stadium, it's a very fine League One stadium.

 Well as I say apparently this came from the lips of the assessor at a recent game.
  Now I think I am right when I say that assessors are not necessarily former or retired referees, and I have to say that it took me a bit by surprise at the time.

 I could of course relate the story from 2004 when  a bridge near our stadium that was not built to carry the excesses of a fully laden coach full with passengers became stranded before a particular game after a Satnav sent the driver over the particular bridge which then caused chaos to both match and non-match traffic.

  This was a coach carrying neither home or away supporters who would all have been in contact with Police beforehand...…….what this coach was carrying was the friends and family of the match referee [ who shall remain nameless] who had never officiated in a 40000 + capacity stadium before, and due to safety concerns the game came very, very close indeed to having the kick-off delayed.

 But as I say  [ in my opinion] so far, so good with those we have seen this season and a new and interesting name popping up this coming weekend with a Mr Robert Lewis.

 But as I say  [ in my opinion] so far, so good with those we have seen this season and a new and interesting name popping up this coming weekend with a Mr Robert Lewis.

Not that new ........ think Pedro Mendes, Roy Carroll and a distance of around two metres !

Rob Lewis - one of the smallest refs on the League list and prone to injury, although not so far this season it seems. If he survives to the end of the game v Southend, he should do OK, but probably nothing more. I still recall sitting with the Palace fans at the Stadium of Light watching the Sunderland fans drifting off home.... at half time! Presumably that's stopped now.

Wow, that's impressive apathy - all the more so since Sunderland have never been behind against Palace at half-time at the Stadium of Light !  Even that 1-4 was goalless at half-time. They must have been leaving in disgust at Kettle's refereeing a couple of years earlier.