Michael Salisbury - Ipswich vs Millwall

[HChip]

Wow - what an atmosphere! The loudest we have had for a long while. A good end-to-end game, very fiesty and Millwall sure did put in a load of tackles.

I thought Salisbury put in a good performance. Gave himself time to think of some decisions. Exactly the performance I expected of an SG1 referee.

I thought Bennett wouldn’t make the start of the match. In the warm up he looked in a hell of a lot of discomfort, and didn’t seem to do much of a warm up and was also doing a lot of talking with Humphries.

[TA_Ref]

Taken a while to digest this one because I’m still a little bit torn on how to describe his performance.

In my opinion, I would say given that was Salisbury’s first game on return from injury I thought he put in a good performance but I didn’t necessarily feel like I was watching a SG1 referee. I don’t really know why - just my gut feeling.

I liked how he set about his business - he let the game be physical and let the game flow but there was some odd decisions along the way. There was a handball given against an Ipswich player in the second half of which from my vantage point looked incredibly harsh.

Correct decision to rule out Millwall’s goal direct from a corner. Attacker had a clear hold of Walton’s shirt.

Some people I know were saying Ipswich probably should’ve had a penalty in the second half for some shirt pulling from a corner. That was at the other end to me so I can’t provide an accurate opinion. What I will say though is that I’ve come to accept that no penalties will be given for such instances for the rest of the season. That’s the standard that PGMO have set and they now have to stick to it until the end of the season where a thorough review of set pieces is required.

Generally, an enjoyable game to watch but certainly a nervous second half as a Town fan. Certainly a game of two halves where Ipswich were miles better in the first half but Millwall were by far the better in the second with both showing their promotion credentials. A point in the end probably about fair.