Salisbury V Torquay United 13th April 2009

Well, I think Merse has saved me a lot of typing!

The game was, shall we say, interesting to say the least.

When I used to referee on a Saturday, I'd spend the 48 hours after the full-time whistle analysing my performance in my own mind. I knew if I'd had a bad day, but thankfully this wasn't very often. If - as Mr Merson describes - that ref wakes up this morning happy with his performance, then I am seriously worried about the future of our game!

I've always been one to back the referees because they get a lot of unfair stick in almost every game (see also players / manager / coaching staff), but this guy simply loved the sound of his own whistle.

I knew we were in for an interesting game when, at 0-0, Bittner came rushing out and headed the ball straight to Wroe who was left with the simple task of slotting into an empty net.

Don't be silly, of course the referee was going to blow up. Why? Because Bittner's eccentric antics had led him to collide with his centre-half.

And that was just the start of it. What followed was an extraordinary series of events.

Deliberate handball (or in this case: slam dunk) equals a caution. But we got the penalty so I wasn't complaining at this point. However, Sills smashed the ball against the bar and the defence cleared. Suddenly the Salisbury striker finds himself through on goal. Bevan saves and the clearance falls to Benyon, who then finds himself in a good position to score. The defender brings him down and another penalty is given, barely 30 seconds after Sills' effort crashed against the woodwork.

Unbelievable Jeff.

I must say, there was no way in my book that it was a foul on Benyon and it looked like it was outside the box. Again, I wasn't complaining and this time Carlisle coolly slotted home.

I think I should probably say - and Merse mentioned it briefly - that the award of our third penalty was a decent bit of refereeing.

Sills was upended and the ball fell kindly to Carlisle. When the flag was raised, the referee pulled it back and awarded the penalty. Again, a good decision was followed by a silly one because he didn't send the defender off.

The mind boggles.

It was easily the worst refereeing display I'd ever seen, which was a shame because behind it all wasn't a bad game of football.

Rather oddly though, I'd take 2-2, three penalties, a sending off and disgraceful officials over a drab, well-refereed 0-0 any day...

A quick note on the players:

Bevan - didn't have a lot to do. Still flaps far too often.
Mansell - in the words of Alan Pardew, he was absolutely raked ( ) for their second goal
Nicho - solid and dependable, as ever
Todd - not the Chris Todd I remember
Robertson - quality pass to the Salisbury striker for their first goal
Dsane - one of the best games I've seen him play
Brough - passed well but didn't put himself about enough
Wroe - non-existent until the last quarter of an hour
Carlisle - needs to take on his full-back more
Sills - good, solid display
Benyon - chased everything and looked up for it

One guy walked past me at 2-1 and said: "Buckle out."

I just looked at him and replied: "Yeah, second in the league, we should definitely sack the manager."

I'm not sure if he caught the sarcasm...

It seems never a game goes by now without me hearing either "Buckle out" or "Buckle's going" from people I know to be longtime supporters and even long time voluntary workers at Plainmoor and it's sickening me.

I've heard of player unrest from "supporters" who merely have a particular friendship with individual players or former players who they believe has been hard done by, and I've even overheard yesterday that "Hargreaves had stormed out of the ground when dropped" when the bloke (and he can't be THAT hard to spot) is sitting in the ruddy stand nursing a hamstring!

Is there any other club with such a percentage of bitter and twisted bigots who ought to know better? Is there any other club with such a percentage of "supporters" who can't wait for failure just so they can say "I told you so"?

I've said it before and I'll say it again..........................it is totally spoiling my enjoyment of being a lifelong Gull and totally re-assuring me that when I decided to end my own employment in the game thirty odd years ago it was absolutely the right thing to do..................who the feck would want to work on behalf of these fuckwits?

One defeat in a dozen games and the usual suspects are back on the HE site, insulting the manager and calling to question his integrity and professionalism.

What minuscule sized brain gets so drawn away from reality that he really believes that an association with a club twenty miles up the road really leads a manager or a player to the alter of disparaging remarks and uncalled for insults?

What really makes these sickos tick, do YOU know 'cos I bloody don't?

You go away from home and there's a strong wind blowing down a rock hard bumpy pitch which is slippery to the stud to add extra danger and so your team plays ultra basic and only struggles to win because of unbelievably stupid errors by individuals.........................two penalties missed, a ridiculously conceded red card; (a player opting NOT to put a ball into an empty net before the third penalty) absolutely criminal defending to concede a second goal and the worst bloody referee one could ever expect to suffer and THAT is the manager's fault?

Some supposedly mature people need to sit down at home and take a long hard look at themselves in my opinion.....................and then make the decision NOT to go to Stevenage on Saturday and gives us all a break!

Absolutely fantastic post Merse.......wish you wouldnt sit on the fence though ;D
It has really upset me lately that instead of willing the team on during the match, I have been more concerned with what follows on the abuse front to PB if the result doesnt go our way.
I have always felt we have to stick with our man through thick 'n thin and give him time.
So many teams are in such a bad state at the moment and we we should be delighted that we are involved at the right end of the table.
My glass is always half full but after many years of watching football think we all know no matter what you hope, you dont win em all.
Come on guys lets enjoy (probably wrong word) this run-in and all the twists and turns that follow.
Anyway once again great post....just gonna find the dictionary and look up that F word ending in wits ;D ;D

Reading this thread I got a far better idea how the game went, than I did trying to hear the action on the radio. Some really top match reports and all told in an honest how I saw it fashion.

I might not need to go to any more games if you keep up writing such top match reports on the forum, anyway just to say thanks your views are a pleasure to read.

Excellent. I love the bloke's "advice" to the ref.

If anybody's got Nicky Wroe's equaliser on video I would be grateful! Seeing I was having a much needed fume in the car park when it went in. ;D

One aspect of the 'three penalties' situation that nobody seems to have picked up on. The second penalty, that scored by Carlisle, only came about because of the first penalty miss. The ball bounced off the crossbar, up the field and after a pattern of play lasting a number of seconds, returned to the Salisbury penalty box whereupon the second penalty was given. It evolved directly from the first miss.
If Tim Sills had scored the first one the game would 've restarted as normal and the second penalty would never have occured. Therefore the scoring of the second one wiped out the miss of the first, as such only one goal was only ever going to be scored in that pattern of play.

Sorry David Grahams...

Yep, I saw that, what I was really doing was emphasising the point that actually the second penalty was purely a result of the first miss so we got the reward... We wouldn't have had the opportunity for the second penalty attempt had Sills scored as it was a direct result of missing the first, rather like a player scoring from the rebound when a penalty was saved. You can only have one goal from the situation!

It really was quite unbelievable, trying to explain the sequence afterwards to other people was impossible, truly one of those 'you had to be there' games...