RateTheRef

Quote from: Skydank on Sat 23 Nov 2019 20:31

Mr.Finnie another official who decided he didn't like the new law at Peterborough today.

Allowed a Burton player to amble off from the far touchline without a care in the world and got animated when players pointed out he was 2 yards from the touchline

As pointed out above if they cannot enforce this simple law what confidence have you about anything else?

In the case of Mr.Finnie not a lot of confidence as he seemed to be manipulated by old pros from both sides, and although at times he looked ok, never have the crowd the confidence he was in control

I had some sympathy with Mr Finnie on this occasion.  Leaving aside the security aspect, it was clear that the player was injured (although probably only with cramp).  As he was near the halfway line, allowing him to limp the width of the pitch saved him from having to travel an extra 100 yards.  I was more concerned when, a little earlier, the same player received an accidental whack in the face but play was not stopped despite a clear head injury which had drawn blood.  When the player finally received treatment this extended to him being allowed to change both his shirt and shirts on the field of play before leaving it.  As an added time-wasting manoeuvre the physio managed to find more than one of each in his bag requiring him to decide which was the correct one.

Overall I was disappointed with Mr Finnie on my first look at him.  I found his decision-making rather puzzling on a number of occasions.  Burton's centre-forward Lucas Akins deserves a medal for not losing his rag after being persistently battered all afternoon by the Peterborough defence, especially Mark Beevers, without ever getting a free kick.

We had Mr Finnie at Pompey last night.  My thoughts have some similarity to the comments above.
He was puzzling at times, not endearing himself to either set of fans by not blowing for or ignoring obvious nailed on fouls/infringements with no advantage but then blowing for minor infringements that either broke up a promising play or disrupted the flow of the game when it was not necessarily required and that could have allowed a good advantage.

A number of times he was very pedantic over restarts, not allowing quick FKs because the ball was "not in the correct position", then allowing them to take/be re-taken from exactly the same incorrect position to an extent that it became annoying to players and fans.
He also took a noticeably long time writing one of the cautions into his book whilst standing over the ball, we thought that he was writing an extra chapter to war and peace.

Overall, it was as if he was deliberately attempting to continually slow down a game that was being played almost as a glorified friendly anyway. 
(we all know that it's an 'experienced/older' referee trick, but does he have a fitness issue?)