RateTheRef

An interesting article on Arthur Jones, thanks LF. A few points:

- like Eric Garner, Arthur rued not being able to referee the Mersey derby. However, to my mind, the Mersey derby was the one League game that Arthur (and Eric) could have refereed as local refs, assuming they didn't support either side. Arthur refereed the Manchester derby in Sept 1976 and there is a good sighting of him at 1.24 on the Youtube film (Man City v Man Utd 1976/77). The linesman on the right at the KO looks a bit like Gwyn Owen of Anglesey who became a supplementary ref that season.

- professional refs, Arthur questioned whether they would be any more dedicated than the FL refs were at the time. Not sure on that one but I am certain that full time professionals were needed as the game developed, particularly in the PL.

- moving free kicks 10 yards forward, I thought this was tried but not sure whether it was at the top levels.

- deflections by defenders playing forwards onside. This was never my understanding and I was always taught that forwards could only be played onside if it followed a back pass, however unintentioned.

I love Arthur's uniform, definitely old school as I think Arthur was!