RateTheRef

That is one of the best Championship games I've ever seen.  Ipswich were outstanding and Coventry were maybe a yard off it but you could see in flashes what a good team they were - I thought the towsiness came from the speed that the teams both played at rather than players naturally being at it.  The referee, who I've not really seen before, I thought was excellent.  He seemed in total control throughout and even when he missed something he never seemed flustered.  I think he was rewarded for a relatively high bar for a foul as the dissent wasn't bad.  Coventry will have better days but thought everyone on that pitch worked really hard to provide a spectacle. 

Steve Clarke said the referee said there was football contact that caused the handball but it wasn't enough for a foul.

For what it's worth, I'm not even convinced it was low enough on the arm to be a punishable handball. 

I think I'd have felt absolutely shafted if that was given as a red, fair play to Siebert for being strong as in the atmosphere in that ground and with his pal in his ear it'd have been easy to go red.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ojZSkWLwYzE&ab_channel=ScottishFA

Scottish FA May video attached!  Some good interesting offside ones at the start.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q8B-iFpyBtM

Today's review.

Sorry, I assumed the guidance in UEFA had been adopted in the EPL as it has in the SPFL and not used to watching games where that's not the expectation now.

I thought it was harsh on first viewing but having seen it again I think it's 100 percent a red. He could have easily prevented the contact or reduced the ferocity of it and he chose not to.

I've been really impressed with Willie Collum in general, he's mixed up the appointments a bit and he's added in this layer of transparency when mistakes happen.  A few things I like in this - one is that he doesn't name the referees so he's obviously trying to educate and explain rather than praise and or scapegoat.  I also like that he's looking at the onfield decision first.  And also liked that he was keen to play down the role of the KMI panel.

However on the field after a really good start there seems to have been a bit of regression in the last few weeks.  None moreso than the game I was at on Friday.

Chris Graham (who I've never really had an issue with before) had an absolutely shocking game the other night.  He gave Motherwell a free kick after about 30 seconds that was just never a foul and he spent the whole game blowing his whistle for what looked like normal football contact.

In the second half he had a big decision to make as there was a coming together between Andy Halliday and Brad Lyons - at the time he gave Motherwell a foul and in the ground he may well have been right.  But with the benefit of a TV replay, Lyons nicks the ball and Halliday cleans him out, it's an absolute stick on penalty to Kilmarnock.  His pal on VAR didn't engage at all.

Then the red card incident - Armstrong and Casey are a pair of tubes, they don't need to react but that is never violent contact.  He's trying to free himself with his hand on the boy's chest and it looks to me like the friction on the strip moves his hand towards the neck.  I can see why at full speed why he might have thought to send him off but to watch it again and double down is flabbergasting.

I think he spent the whole game world scared that something would happen and I've no idea why as there doesn't tend to be any needle between Motherwell and Kilmarnock. 

And if that didn't have Collum scratching his head enough, the Snedden and Aitken show in Dingwall yesterday seemed to miss two stick on penalties and give an incorrect red card.  If I was Willie I'd change my mobile number!

Pink and Turquoise too.