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Messages - elbee94
Pages: [1] 2 3 4 5 6 ... 32
1
« on: Wed 28 Jan 2026 11:01 »
Colchester United FC (First Team) v Grimsby Town FC (First Team)
Football League 2
Referee: Atkinson, Ben
Assistant Referee: Cresswell, Alan
Assistant Referee: Evans, Robert
Fourth Official: Bonneywell, Daniel
Unfortunately, for the 3rd game in a row, i’m a bit disappointed with the officials, this time with Ben Atkinson in the middle. I have to say that was a tough game to officiate - it was physical, lot of fouls, a team who were up against it for the last 35 minutes and were determine to drain every second they could. Well done to the officials for adding that time back on though (timewasting, injuries and “injuries”), which totalled over 13 minutes before the final whistle went. There were also 3 big decisions to be made, but only 1 was made correctly.
Ben got most of the fouls right but did get some wrong too, but that was at an acceptable level in my opinion. He manages dissent quite well, with at least 2 yellow cards to players and 1 to the Grimsby coach from memory. I did think Khouri was a little lucky not to get booked for repeated playacting though. He also should have booked Tovide earlier for getting wound up and had 2 or 3 nudges/pushes off the ball before he was booked. Overall, there was a lot of one side winding the other side up and Ben should have got a handle on this earlier, which might have made life easier for him as the game went on.
As for the 3 big decisions, the first one to give Green a second yellow was correct for stopping a possible Colchester counter. His first yellow was for something he said so he’ll be annoyed with himself there. However Lisbie also should have been sent off for a very similar foul to Green, arguably more clear. The fact that his booking (dissent!) came just a couple of minutes earlier might have (unjustifiably) saved him.
The most crucial decision though was a failure to award a penalty to Colchester in the 88th minute for a pull on Williams by Lavelle, as Williams was chasing to get to a rebound. Definitely a penalty in my view, possibly a red card for DOGSO too, a decision that may have altered the result of the game. I hope Ben looks back and learns from that one, he seems well placed to spot that.
A difficult game but the officials, especially the referee, should have got some things right that he didn’t. Grimsby excellently defending their box after the red card and probably deserved the 3 points all things considered.
2
« on: Mon 26 Jan 2026 21:02 »
Seeing the replay again at half time, you can excuse the referee not seeing it but I’m pretty surprised the nearside assistant hasn’t caught that.
3
« on: Mon 26 Jan 2026 20:49 »
Norwich City FC (First Team) v Coventry City FC (First Team) Live on Sky Sports Football
Football League Championship
Referee: Kirk, Thomas
Assistant Referee: Bickerdike, Johnathon
Assistant Referee: Scholes, Mark
Fourth Official: Allison, Samuel
A really good first 30 minutes for Tom Kirk, I find his ability to not get fooled by playacting very good but a big black mark on the official’s report for a missed elbow by Thomas-Asante, which would have been a red card if spotted by Tom or Mark Scholes.
If you haven’t seen it, you haven’t seen it but potentially a very consequential decision.
4
« on: Sat 24 Jan 2026 20:43 »
Colchester United FC (First Team) v Fleetwood Town FC (First Team)
Football League 2
Referee: Breakspear, Charles
Assistant Referee: Read, Greg
Assistant Referee: Butler, Stuart
Fourth Official: Barnett, Craig
A refereeing performance that reflected the game from Charles today, a game of two halves.
He breezed through the first half with little involvement. Quite a lot of fouls committed by Fleetwood but he tidied up everything he needed to and despite the quantity of fouls (and his occasional nickname of card shark!) , I think he rightly kept his yellow card in his pocket. If anything, I think he could have given more fouls, it was pretty physical.
The second half from Charles wasn’t terrible by any means but I think it was a little weak, for two reasons. The primary reason being he was far too lenient to Colchester for their timewasting. Fleetwood improved massively after the break and Colchester changed their approach quickly, attempting to see out the game. Goalkeeper Macey and the corner takers both were lucky to escape in my opinion, although he did correctly issue a flurry of yellow cards in the closing stages, including one for Edwards for delaying the restart. The time was at least added on in 8 minutes of second half stoppage time
The controversial incident was a decision to not issue a second caution to Fleetwood’s Bonds, for a very similar incident to his first booking. It was a clear use of the belief that a second yellow card needs to be egregious - whether you agree with that mantra or not is another matter, but the Fleetwood captain can feel lucky to remain on the pitch.
It’s not a performance i’m going to remember in anger, but it’s also not one of Charles’ best displays in Colchester, of which he’s had a few. A banged up Colchester side a little lucky to come away with the win after a strong 2nd half from the visitors.
5
« on: Sat 24 Jan 2026 20:33 »
I’ve never particularly rated Tom Nield, but great comments above and looks like an excellent decision to issue a second yellow for a Bamford dive
6
« on: Wed 21 Jan 2026 11:14 »
Kizzi’s red card has been overturned for wrongful dismissal and with no mention of mistaken identity and/or reapplying this to Kanu. Correct decision for me and mistakes happen - but that was a really bad judgement from 4O and may have contributed to Barnet losing that game.
7
« on: Wed 21 Jan 2026 09:14 »
I imagine most officials are happy to have that fixture which is one sided with no major incidents.
However, are we really at a level when Norwich are 4 (four) - 0 up with 3 minutes to go, with the only WBA fans left are waiting to boo their team off, that the referee feels it necessary to book the Norwich keeper for time wasting!!
Is there someone somewhere who is actually going to mark him down for not doing it, or does he get a bonus mark for doing it. Are our referees really that rigid/robotic that they feel they have to do it? Oh for game management.
My immediate question would be why is the goalkeeper wasting time when 4-0 up! It’s like it’s engrained to push the laws/referee even when there’s no benefit!
8
« on: Tue 20 Jan 2026 10:56 »
I hope Mr Atkinson performs better at Colchester than he did at Peterborough, where he issued 11 yellows and a red in a game where many of both sides described his performance as the worst they have ever seen...plainly ridiculous thing to say, but it was a very bad and inconsistant day at the office
I don’t think you’re the first person to give him a critical review - i’ve seen him I think 3 times and generally, he’s been steady and not much to moan about. If both us and Grimsby win this weekend, it sets up Tuesday nicely for a pretty big game, even if still fairly early in the season.
9
« on: Mon 19 Jan 2026 16:34 »
Two safe pairs of hands in Charles Breakspear and Ben Atkinson for Colchester this week.
A little strange to see David Webb get back to back trips below the Championship. Top games for Howard, Duckworth, J Oldham, Corlett and Parkinson.
And a Double Dosage of Dutton for David at Doncaster!
10
« on: Sun 18 Jan 2026 23:18 »
If you watch closely the “fouled” player gets up to begin with but then decides to “die” and see what happens.
A bit of play acting I suspect
To Ollie’s point, i’m not sure on the review process - but I agree with you and to me, given Barnet played 80 minutes with a player incorrectly sent off and there’s no clear evidence of a red card offence on the footage, they should cancel the red card in my opinion.
11
« on: Sun 18 Jan 2026 21:36 »
I’m not sure whether it’s fitness, but he’s so far away from the play. Looks physically and mentally distraught, unsurprisingly.
12
« on: Sun 18 Jan 2026 13:17 »
Bristol Rovers (First Team) v Colchester United FC (First Team)
Football League 2
Referee: Toner, Ben
Assistant Referee: Cooper, Ian
Assistant Referee: Smith, Matthew
Fourth Official: Dowle, Kirsty
I made a comment recently about Scott Oldham, who from other posters and the appointments he receives, seems to be a well regarded official - but i’ve never seen the best of him and he always provides an average at best performance. I would say exactly the same about Ben Toner, who I thought was below par yesterday.
I do think Ben’s style of refereeing is really good - he always looks very calm and very in control, a great balance to find. His communication seems strong and it’s easy to work out his thinking behind his decisions, as he’ll often accompany this with a gesture. Both his assistants seemed to be fine, but I didn’t have a good seat to judge those decisions very well. Kirsty Dowle had a tough gig dealing with an unhappy home bench and unsurprisingly called Ben over to caution Steve Evans in the first half.
However, his fouls given or not given yesterday, I thought was quite far from the standard i’d expect. It was hard to know what his tolerance level was, as it seemed to fluctuate throughout the match and I was never really confident in what decision he was going to make. His decision to book or not book someone was worse - using the precedents he set, that game could have ended with 2 or 12 bookings. It wasn’t the best quality game and was quite scrappy, so it wasn’t the easiest to manage in terms of discipline, but I expect a referee of Ben’s reputation to do better.
Whilst my Colchester side probably got more of the decisions from Ben than the home team, I don’t think it was very far imbalanced and while the home crowd and dugout were unhappy with Ben at half time and full time, they can’t blame him for their team’s toothless display, as Colchester deserved the win with a strong second half and a peach of a goal to win it.
13
« on: Sun 18 Jan 2026 12:23 »
Thought this one deserved a thread as it’s quite a complex incident to break down. https://youtu.be/yYzyMbYoZtE?si=pfnDbek-j86pmeoCGrimsby have a promising attack - as the midfield player releases a pass to the wide player, he and Kizzi (30) get tangled up and the Grimsby player ends up on the floor. As Barnet 11 is running past, he possibly leaves something on the player too. The attack fizzles out and Jamie goes back to sort the situation out. Presumably 1 or more of his team have seen this happen and make the recommendation to send off Kizzi. To me, this is a terrible decision - without a close angle admittedly, my view of it is it’s just contact between players travelling in different directions. I don’t see any contact between legs or arms that isn’t accidental. Perhaps a yellow card for accidentally tripping him up, but even that would be harsh. Grimsby fans seem to think that this was mistaken identity and that Barnet 11 commits violent conduct by hitting the Grimsby player as he’s running past. The footage for me is inconclusive there. That’s my summary of how I view that incident but a lot to unpack. Barnet’s manager was also dismissed for the words that followed the decision. Difficult to be 100% sure with one camera angle but from what we can see, to me, that’s an awful decision to issue a sending off. Couple of follow up points - it was 4O Anthony Moore that made the intervention and it was the second incident with Kanu (11) that was considered the offence, so it’s mistaken identity at best.
14
« on: Mon 12 Jan 2026 18:11 »
Good set of fixtures this week, with David Rock, Scott Oldham, Alex Chilowicz and Charles Breakspear all getting good ties. Big one for Scott Jackson in midweek too.
Ben Toner for the U’s, his first game for us in a couple of years and as i’ll be attending, my first sighting of him since 2019 (he gave a howler of a penalty that day for a Cheltenham dive, so I wouldn’t be unhappy if it evens up!)
15
« on: Sat 10 Jan 2026 18:17 »
Did I read right Crewe had over 24000 there?
That is the officially reported attendance, must be an extra digit added accidentally 😂
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