RateTheRef

See Stockbridge becomes the third different referee appointed to Rochdale v Southend this season.

Hopefully it will start and finish this time, although there’s meant to be snow on the way next week…

Quote from: PhiltheRef on Mon 29 Dec 2025 21:17

He does however seem to tick the most important box for SKY.
He comes from the London area.

A comment so good, it was published twice!!

I thought Dermot lived in Oxfordshire??  Hardly "the London area".

Didn’t he mean Bothroyd?

I’m sorry, but to claim the performance was concerning and possibly inept just isn’t true.

I think you might need to watch back the second goal. There are a significant number of defenders in and around the penalty and goal areas and it's not clear cut at all as to how they align with TAR. There was limited concern from them as well.

The penalty shout in the first half was rather ambitious. I think the one in the second half was probably a foul and we were fortunate there, although there’s an argument we should have had a penalty for handball near to the end, albeit when the score was 3-0.

Corners were correctly awarded and it was generally a low key, non-invasive performance from Peter Wright, who was never one of my favourite officials in the EFL.

Due to being overseas for Christmas, I had to watch the game on DAZN, so arguably had a much better view of the aforementioned incidents than people at the game. The commentator hardly mentioned the referee.

You’re right, though, the referee and his assistants had no effect on the outcome. Five wins out of five over Altrincham in 2025, which is a new achievement for Dale.

Fair old trek that for Richie Watkins on the Tuesday down to Cornwall for Northamptonshire

He refereed Truro v Rochdale in September when the same comment was made.

Unless a load of referees from the South-West suddenly emerge, it’s going to be a bit of a trek for most officials.

Hopefully just a minor injury for Matt Corlett after he was also taken off the Wigan game last week.

And York v Rochdale on 11th Nov.

Valerien Ismael has come out post match firing on all cylinders about the standard of refereeing in the championship.

"Normally we should be talking about three points to enjoy, and I think the connection with the fans was really good tonight. But tonight, I can't not talk about the referee, because now enough is enough."

During the interview, he even pulled up a piece of paper which seemingly had all the ‘controversial’ decisions given against Blackburn this season.

I thought Oliver Langford did not put in a good performance but his performance probably matched the level of performance by the 22 players on the pitch. It was a poor game to watch all night and Blackburn would still have come out with 3 points if they had defended well for 20 more seconds.

(A bit more of the interview here

https://www.twtd.co.uk/ipswich-town-news/50867/ismael-terrible-decision-maybe-its-because-theyre-a-former-premier-league-club

I imagine a disciplinary charge will be heading his way).

He seems to have forgotten Blackburn are also a "former Premier League club."

in fact "former Premier League Champions."

Although, J Ashworth isn't that unusual a name, so it could quite easily be someone else.