RateTheRef

I'd mentioned in the appointments section that I was a little surprised Mr Hicks had been given this game, as he doesn't appear to have had a stand out season and a lot was resting on the outcome for the visitors. It was settled by a quality early strike for Northampton, who got their automatic promotion as a consequence.

Mr Hicks was very inconsistent with foul detection. The big Northampton defender Sherring was manhandling Rovers' forward Hemmings throughout the first half and I don't recall any free-kick awarded, yet he was inclined to penalise more minor contact against Rovers' players, where the visitors made a meal of the challenge. There was one incident in the second half, where Mr Hicks appeared to signal for a goal-kick, but then changed to award a corner. I hope that was my misreading of the situation and simply poor signalling from the referee.

There was one strong shout for a Rovers penalty for handball, not given. Mr Hicks appeared to be well-placed to make the call, but have seen observations about his viewing angle. which might have made determination harder, while the AR was on the opposite side and couldn't help.

No issues with fitness and positioning generally, while he added ample time for stoppages. Overall, I wasn't wholly convinced by Mr Hicks' handling of this game.

Fairly underwhelming performance from Mr Coote yesterday. Two debatable foul throw awards against Silva and Zinchenko, a non-existent advantage when two City players were taken out in quick succession and the player finally with the ball had nowhere to go, while what looked like leading with an elbow on Bernardo Silva went unpunished. Wasn't sure about the push on Torres in the box, sometimes given, others not.

The football was pretty underwhelming too...

Any thoughts on Mr England on VAR not ruling out the Chelsea equaliser for handball?

I know Mr Whitestone is the blue-eyed boy of some on here, but today's performance matched the Boyeson's and Huxtables in terms of inconsistency. It was certainly the poorest I have ever seen from him.

The first half was relatively uneventful until a serious injury to Mark Ellis resulted in him being stretchered off, with 5 minutes added time, which was about right. Forest Green took the lead early in the second half. There was about a minutes worth of goal celebrations, 5 substitutions and the visiting keeper went down claiming cramp and was unable to continue for about 3 minutes. Along with other time-wasting tactics,which Mr Whitestone did nothing about, beyond ineffectually tapping his watch. By my calculations 7-8 minutes would have been a more accurate addition than the 5 he actually allowed.

Returning to the inconsistency, he appeared to allow Forest Green to take their free-kicks quickly, on a couple of occasions before the ball was actually dead. By contrast, he pulled back Tranmere free-kicks to mark out distances and was adamant one from the defensive area should be taken from a very precise location.

Worst was Mr Whitestone's failure to play advantage for a promising Tranmere attack where the ball actually ended in the back of the net, but after he'd blown up for a free-kick. Given he'd played advantage on other occasions where there really wasn't any, this was poor judgement from the referee whistling so quickly.

It is still likely, though not certain that Tranmere will make the play-offs. I would hope to see neither Forest Green or Mr Whitestone again this season.

A dreadfully inconsistent performance from Mr Joyce. He seemed to penalise minor contact with a foul, yet when Ishmael Miller was battling his way towards goal, a couple of more obvious contacts on him not penalised by Mr Joyce and arguably the failure to protect the player contributed to Miller going off with a hamstring problem shortly after. No errors in key match incidents save perhaps failing to give Adam Buxton a second YC in the 93rd minute, for what Mr Joyce adjudged a dive. My viewpoint had it as one player running into another and if Mr Joyce had been consistent with earlier decisions, might have given the free-kick Buxton's way! Felt the YC to the Swindon keeper at the end of the first half for time-wasting was a bit harsh, the player had gone to retrieve the ball from behind the goal himself, but didn't take the kick quickly enough for Mr Joyce's liking.

My first sighting of Mr Bond officiating. He tended to adopt a minimalist approach to the game, intervening fairly rarely. A couple of advantages perhaps should have been pulled back for free-kicks, a couple of free-kicks involving follow-through on an opponent arguably merited a YC. Of the two yellows he did show, the first he didn’t to get the best view, while the second was harsh with a Norwich defender holding his ground as the Swansea forward ran into him being cautioned. There were a couple of incidents when the nearside AR, Mr Jones(?) could have provided more assistance. Overall a reasonable performance from Mr Bond, though not suggesting he’ll make the next step up in the near future.