RateTheRef

I only saw the Ireland Scotland match. With my usual caveat of not being competent enough to make a judgement on technical decisions, I must say I thought Luke Pearce put in a brilliant refereeing display. His communication skills are second to none and the way he conducts himself is exemplary. For my money is is by far the best English referee, way ahead of Carley and Dickson and has the edge on Ridley. Quite why the powers-that-be don't agree with my assessment is a mystery to me. Either they perceive something lacking in his technical decision making or, as I suspect, it's something about off the field politics.

Barry Knight - Ipswich v Bolton play off semi final second leg. An otherwise fine referee had about 5 head losses in a single half. That’s the one that sticks out and I have no connection to either team.

Let me put it in a more discreet way. Keith Hackett was not known for an especially quick turn of speed or for covering every blade of grass on the pitch when he was refereeing.

I'm not really one for making New Year Resolutions but may I suggest that the marvellous RTR community makes a collective one for 2026; no mention at all of Keith Hackett. Not that I'm trying to censor lively debate of course

Quote from: Whistleblower on Sat 27 Dec 2025 13:37

And the referee in the perfect position to see; it makes one wonder what goes through a referee's mind to make such a spectacularly bad decision. No doubt James Bell will have the opportunity to explain it to an Observer.

One hopes it’s a learning curve for him too, particularly as he is appearing as a VAR in some games, even though this is an EFL
contest.
I do often contemplate whether acting as a VAR affects your on field performance.

In no way am I claiming that officials who act as both VAR and on field officials are becoming less observant or lackadaisical on the field, but I do wonder whether the flip flopping between roles is a factor, particularly for EFL SG2 who do both.