The Round Ball Game - II

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Fort William has now completed six games with cricket scores (for their opposition). Yet FW is one of the largest towns represented in the Highland League.

[johncorrigan]

Fort William has now completed six games with cricket scores (for their opposition). Yet FW is one of the largest towns represented in the Highland League.

I see Fort William are playing Strathspey Thistle on Wednesday, Eine - expect they'll lead FW a merry dance, and give them a reel doing.

[antongould]

Hangers 1 Chesterfield 0
Just when you thought it couldn’t get any better .....

[teamsaint]

Hangers 1 Chesterfield 0
Just when you thought it couldn’t get any better .....

Excellent.

Newcastle undone by a poor penalty decision yesterday

[johncorrigan]

Quite a tribute from fans in Genoa at the weekend, I thought.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/45319505

[zola]

Newcastle undone by a poor penalty decision yesterday

Erm...every retired referee pundit ( Hackett, Clattenburg, Gallagher ) said it was a penalty. Also that Giroud was fouled prior to the Geordies goal.

But we don't do tribalism on the Round Ball Game thread of course.

[teamsaint]

Erm...every retired referee pundit ( Hackett, Clattenburg, Gallagher ) said it was a penalty. Also that Giroud was fouled prior to the Geordies goal.

But we don't do tribalism on the Round Ball Game thread of course.

All right, the sort of penalty that big money clubs often get against less rich clubs.
Dubious,soft, and plenty of people saw it that way.

Chances of us getting a penalty for that at Stamford Bridge? Not very high.

Which is nothing to do with tribalism,obviously.

[zola]

From West ham supporting Martin Samuel.

"Some think Tierney did Chelsea a favour with the penalty but he certainly didn't do them too many over the other 89 minutes. Some of the treatment meted out to Hazard reminded of a Monday night against Stoke, under Jose Mourinho, when he was lucky not to be kicked out of the game entirely.

He needed two lengthy periods of treatment to make it through the first-half here, but a Newcastle player was not booked for fouling him until the 65th minute. Fabian Schar was the culprit and maybe that event was still on Tierney's mind when he sent Marcos Alonso tumbling in the area less than ten minutes later.

Maybe, too, Tierney had at last realised that Newcastle had been taking advantage of his leniency all game, and had been systematically targeting Hazard and others. They thought Chelsea could be roughed up, slapped back to London. They were proven wrong."

[zola]

Or from Keith Hackett.

(from today's Telegraph)

Chelsea were right to receive penalty - Fabian Schar felled Marcos Alonso with a very careless tackle.

Newcastle were extremely upset with Paul Tierneys decision to award a penalty for Fabian Schars challenge on Marcos Alonso, but I thought the referee got it right.

There was no doubt that Schar got the ball as he slid in on Alonso, but in doing so he also brought his opponent down with a scissor-like action that I felt was very careless.

The reason Schar was forced into making that type of tackle was because he was caught on the wrong side, rendering it impossible for him to touch the ball unless he made contact with Alonso. That basic fact that Schar took Alonso out with a sliding challenge from behind means Tierney was well within his rights to point to the spot. Getting a touch on the ball does not mean it was a fair tackle, and Newcastle can have no complaints.

Indeed, I thought Chelsea had more reason to be upset with the officials than Newcastle. I was surprised Joselus equaliser was allowed to stand because I thought it was a clear foul on Olivier Giroud by DeAndre Yedlin as he thrust his elbow into the Frenchmans jaw before sending in the cross. It seemed obvious to me and a free-kick should have been awarded.

I also had sympathy for Eden Hazard, who seemed to be on the end of a lot of rough treatment from Newcastle. The difficulty for the referee was that there were a number of offenders the team were almost rotating the strike when it came to fouling the Belgian. Tierney did issue three yellow cards in quick succession in the second half but I would have liked him to take a stand earlier by calling Newcastle captain Paul Dummett to him and making it clear he needed his teams behaviour to improve.

If their tactics had then persisted he could have issued cautions earlier and the game may have flowed better as a result.

I must say, though, that it is difficult when an entire team try to target one individual as it seemed to me that Newcastle did with Hazard. It is a tactic he is becoming ever more used to and is one referees are certainly aware of and will be watching out for.

[teamsaint]

From West ham supporting Martin Samuel.

"Some think Tierney did Chelsea a favour with the penalty but he certainly didn't do them too many over the other 89 minutes. Some of the treatment meted out to Hazard reminded of a Monday night against Stoke, under Jose Mourinho, when he was lucky not to be kicked out of the game entirely.

He needed two lengthy periods of treatment to make it through the first-half here, but a Newcastle player was not booked for fouling him until the 65th minute. Fabian Schar was the culprit and maybe that event was still on Tierney's mind when he sent Marcos Alonso tumbling in the area less than ten minutes later.

Maybe, too, Tierney had at last realised that Newcastle had been taking advantage of his leniency all game, and had been systematically targeting Hazard and others. They thought Chelsea could be roughed up, slapped back to London. They were proven wrong."

Samuel is not everybody's favourite pundit, ( by a LONG way).

It was a soft pen ( as even that nice Mr Samuels alludes to), and sometimes teams get a soft pen. Even my team once in a blue moon. Yes, there was the Jay Rod one at Villa Park a few years back. And one in the Championship against Brighton.

But the big money teams get them much more often.

Tell me again about Geordie/Hampshire tribalism though.

Danny Murphy says it wasn't a pen. Plenty of papers called it soft, controversial, and so on.

[zola]

"What am I like when Chelsea lose ?"

Philosophical ( apart perhaps from a certain Champions League semi final against Barcelona ) We were dreadful for much of the second half of last season and soundly and deservedly beaten by such as Bournemouth and Watford. But the way Sky manufactured a controversy and a sense of injustice for Newcastle in their coverage yesterday got under my skin. "He got a touch of the ball" does not mean anything in the way the laws are now interpreted and has not done for some years. But geniuses like Danny Murphy seem to struggle to get their head around that.

Anyway, perhaps we can agree on "why on earth hasn't the Premier League adopted VAR ?"

[teamsaint]

"What am I like when Chelsea lose ?"

Philosophical ( apart perhaps from a certain Champions League semi final against Barcelona ) We were dreadful for much of the second half of last season and soundly and deservedly beaten by such as Bournemouth and Watford. But the way Sky manufactured a controversy and a sense of injustice for Newcastle in their coverage yesterday got under my skin. "He got a touch of the ball" does not mean anything in the way the laws are now interpreted and has not done for some years.

Anyway, perhaps we can agree on "why on earth hasn't the Premier League adopted VAR ?"

Agree about VAR. As long as they actually test it out first, to get an issues smoothed out.
Maybe at a World Cup.

I didn't really hear /notice the Sky commentary, as I was catching bits of the game whilst doing other things. Commentaries often get under my skin too ( at which point I turn them off), and too often they look for a narrative that isn't really there. I didn't see enough to notice the apparent rough stuff on Hazard, but that shouldn't happen of course.

Anyway, superb performance from Spuds tonight.
and Hurrah ..... its the EFL cup this week. A chance for Sparky to try another formation .


Philosophical is good. Just not during the game.......

[zola]

Philosophical is good. Just not during the game.......

[teamsaint]

Likewise.

( We played Barca in a friendly once. We got hammered.)

[johncorrigan]

Is The Speshul One still the Speshul One does anybody know?