The Round Ball Game - II

[gurnemanz]

Well the Hammers' fans must be really delighted if the news is correct about their new (not so new) managerial appointment, Alison.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/50938924

Palace via Ayew's wonder winning goal (sorry, couldn't help mentioning) will have helped to send Pellegrini down the road.

VAR denied Palace a goal by an infinitesimal margin yesterday. We shouldn't complain too much. Over the season VAR has done us quite a few favours and is one reason for our unaccustomedly high league position. In the end a draw was probably a fair result with Saints coming good towards the end after having no shots on target for most of the game.

[Stanfordian]

AFC Fylde 1 Stockport County 2 Sorry Stan,just 5 points off top spot now

It was a most exciting match full of end to end action. Little between the teams. County looked very dangerous.

[cloughie]

Well the Hammers' fans must be really delighted if the news is correct about their new (not so new) managerial appointment, Alison.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/50938924

Just think what he may have rebuilt in the time since his sacking, they wanted their jam tomorrow, instead of next year!

[johncorrigan]

Nice wee three points v Killie to take us out of 2019 and into the winter break, even if the other results didn't do us lots of favours. Six clear of bottom spot, nonetheless. Happy New Year to one and all.

[teamsaint]

Nice wee three points v Killie to take us out of 2019 and into the winter break, even if the other results didn't do us lots of favours. Six clear of bottom spot, nonetheless. Happy New Year to one and all.

Nice way to end the year, JC. Enjoy the winter break.

A tough old game at Anfield today, with Liverpool doing what they needed to against a fired up Wolves. I though both the VAR. decisions were correct, but these marginal offsides really do need dealing with better, somehow or other.

[cloughie]

Nice wee three points v Killie to take us out of 2019 and into the winter break, even if the other results didn't do us lots of favours. Six clear of bottom spot, nonetheless. Happy New Year to one and all.

Well done jc, Owls spent the first ten minutes letting goals in and the rest firing blanks!

[jayne lee wilson]

Nice way to end the year, JC. Enjoy the winter break.

A tough old game at Anfield today, with Liverpool doing what they needed to against a fired up Wolves. I though both the VAR. decisions were correct, but these marginal offsides really do need dealing with better, somehow or other.

Souness suggested that if any part of the player is onside, the goal should stand i.e the reverse of the present rule. You'd probably get more goals, yes, but there would still be marginal decisions to be made in a similar way....not so different from the current VAR POV then....

I'm afraid I feel fans have to learn to live with this, easier for a TV fan than one in the stadium, of course...but football is quintessentially televisual now, and I rather enjoy the tension of the VAR-timeout ....

And more commentators/pundits should remind us, more often, of just how bad an obviously wrong decision could feel in "the good old days"...that was so much worse.

[teamsaint]

Souness suggested that if any part of the player is onside, the goal should stand i.e the reverse of the present rule. You'd probably get more goals, yes, but there would still be marginal decisions to be made in a similar way....not so different from the current VAR POV then....

I'm afraid I feel fans have to learn to live with this, easier for a TV fan than one in the stadium, of course...but football is quintessentially televisual now, and I rather enjoy the tension of the VAR-timeout ....

And more commentators/pundits should remind us, more often, of just how bad an obviously wrong decision could feel in "the good old days"...that was so much worse.

Yes, I agree about the obviously wrong decisions. I want VAR. to stay, but offside needs re examining in the VAR environment.

[jayne lee wilson]

Yes, I agree about the obviously wrong decisions. I want VAR. to stay, but offside needs re examining in the VAR environment.

The main complaint seems to be that awaiting VAR takes the heat out of the moment, i.e. spoils the excitement. So we need a way of speeding that up....only thing I can think of is a supercomputer...a virtual ref to keep up with play in real time and make a quick decision. Think of those overhead shots of neck&neck finishes in sprints. But even there, usually there's a wait for a human judgement. So a fast foolproof virtual ref and - implicit trust in it by all of us.

We could still yell at it if we wanted to....

[johncorrigan]

The main complaint seems to be that awaiting VAR takes the heat out of the moment, i.e. spoils the excitement. So we need a way of speeding that up....only thing I can think of is a supercomputer...a virtual ref to keep up with play in real time and make a quick decision. Think of those overhead shots of neck&neck finishes in sprints. But even there, usually there's a wait for a human judgement. So a fast foolproof virtual ref and - implicit trust in it by all of us.

We could still yell at it if we wanted to....

I still think that if the decision cannot be made within,say, 30 seconds then the original decision made onfield should stand - there were four or five decisions at the weekend all of which favoured the defending team by a few cms, and I do think favour should go to the attacking team in these situations. I was interested to hear the opinion on 5 live today that VAR decisions had, in the opinion of the commentating team, negatively affected the performance of the referees subsequently in the game. But I take your point, jayne...it is a TV drama thing...punters can probably bet on the outcome of the VAR these days, given how long it takes for decisions to come through.

[BBMmk2]

Good win for Brighton yesterday. Iir last time, my other team Newcastle, were beaten by Bournemouth.

[Stanfordian]

I'm off later to see AFC Fylde play at home against high flying Barrow. Fingers crossed but it's hard to see anything but a win for top of the league Barrow.

[teamsaint]

Saints well and truly turned up for todays game ,as they have been most weeks recently, with the exception of the West Ham game.

We took the game to Spurs from the off, and the threat level gradually increased until Ings scored with a fine Le Tiss style effort. We absolutely tore into them in midfield. Somebody has been working on JWP,as he has turned into a hard tackling ball winner all of a sudden. Hojberg also had a terrific game . He’s a good footballer who sometimes makes the odd poor decision, but today he played a real captains role. Lots of threat from our front four and from Long and Obafemi off the bench , and the settled back four has now conceded just 1 in three games against top 8 sides.

The usual VAR stuff , the oddest one being the disallowed Spuds goal, which the lino had flagged for immediately. Sad to say, Delle Alli and Mourinho were made for each other. Ali was pretty disgraceful,with a really petulant display of diving, whining, moaning at the ref, the whole range of poor behaviour . It’s disappointing for he is such a talented footballer.
Never mind, it was our day, and the happiest I have seen our fans in a long time.

[LMcD]

I still think that if the decision cannot be made within,say, 30 seconds then the original decision made onfield should stand - there were four or five decisions at the weekend all of which favoured the defending team by a few cms, and I do think favour should go to the attacking team in these situations. I was interested to hear the opinion on 5 live today that VAR decisions had, in the opinion of the commentating team, negatively affected the performance of the referees subsequently in the game. But I take your point, jayne...it is a TV drama thing...punters can probably bet on the outcome of the VAR these days, given how long it takes for decisions to come through.

I'd always understood that one of the best things about the 'beautiful game' was that play was basically continuous. Technology has proved less disruptive for rugby union and tennis fans because they're used to waiting for scrums to be set or for players to sit down and have a drink and a banana. In the case of tennis, the fact that the number of challenges is limited is a good thing IMHO.

[Alison]

Saints well and truly turned up for todays game ,as they have been most weeks recently, with the exception of the West Ham game.

We took the game to Spurs from the off, and the threat level gradually increased until Ings scored with a fine Le Tiss style effort. We absolutely tore into them in midfield. Somebody has been working on JWP,as he has turned into a hard tackling ball winner all of a sudden. Hojberg also had a terrific game . He’s a good footballer who sometimes makes the odd poor decision, but today he played a real captains role. Lots of threat from our front four and from Long and Obafemi off the bench , and the settled back four has now conceded just 1 in three games against top 8 sides.

The usual VAR stuff , the oddest one being the disallowed Spuds goal, which the lino had flagged for immediately. Sad to say, Delle Alli and Mourinho were made for each other. Ali was pretty disgraceful,with a really petulant display of diving, whining, moaning at the ref, the whole range of poor behaviour . It’s disappointing for he is such a talented footballer.
Never mind, it was our day, and the happiest I have seen our fans in a long time.

Always enjoy your match reports Sainty. It’s good to see Ralph looking so happy and upbeat in post match interviews having looked a forlorn figure a few weeks ago. Quite a turnaround for you.

New manager bounce wearing off pretty quickly for The Hotspurs.