Stevenage build up, predictions etc

[malcolms]

He wasn't complaining about losing, though, he was bemoaning the tactics (and by implication the weak refereeing). I agree, we have seen it spreading like a rash the last few seasons. Maybe ECFC are too naive, but there has to be some sanction against this, it is clearly Unsporting Behaviour according to the Rules of the Game.

“We could hear them on the pitch, their players were saying, ‘It’s your turn to go down.’ ‘No, I’ve already been down.’ Then someone else would drop to the floor.

“This is a game of football. If you beat us on your day and you’re better than us, then fair enough,"

If this is true, and I was the referee and I heard that, I would stop play and give both players a yellow card for Unsporting Behaviour. Let the manager protest, I'd love to hear the justification.

They were better than them, they won 4 1...

 

[Snoop Fog]

They were better than them, they won 4 1...

Do you think if they were losing 4-1 they'd have still had all the injury breaks?

 

[Sexton Blake]

Not really. He's not complaining about the score he's complaining about the time wasting. Sounds like Stevenage were similar to Crawley. Its clearly a tactic and its $h!t. Fans pay their money to watch a game of football but instead watch a load of blokes being treated for fake injury whilst the rest of the team go to the bench area and have a drink. The player then hobbles off the pitch aided by the physio only to sprint back on when the refs calls him back into play. In the mean time 2 ot 3 minutes have passed and the momentum and flow of the game has been broken. 2 minutes later the whole thing happens again with a different player. It fooking stinks and is the most frustrating thing in football. I can accept the odd fake injury but when it happens over and over again its infuriating

May not be the total solution but unless a player is too badly injured to move take him off the pitch and and treat him on the touch line. Would surely go part way to curtailing it.

As an element of the modern game It has almost reached epidemic proportions and something needs to be done about it. I love my footie and ECFC but after the last few home games seeing the blatant way in which teams are cheating to force the referee to stop the game when we are mounting an attack or just to break play and kill the momentum generally I am having serious thoughts about whether I could put my hard earned to better use.

 

[CREDYGRECIAN]

Half of you have listened too tisdale too long and want to see 11 lovely blokes playing polite fair football and making sure it’s all played fairly and correctly in the right spirit and manner....hence the “proper chaps” embarrassing line

If we’re 1-0 up today and time waste or a player goes down to the ground “pretending” to be injured to help run the clock down and we end up winning the playoffs will anyone politely remind that player he wasn’t ethical ? Will you heck.

 

[elginCity]

....it’s all played fairly and correctly in the right spirit and manner....

You've said yourself it's 'right', and it is. Far more satisfying to win a game/competition in the right manner, the City represents the city, but yeah we'd probably take the success however it came.

 

[CREDYGRECIAN]

You've said yourself it's 'right', and it is. Far more satisfying to win a game/competition in the right manner, the City represents the city, but yeah we'd probably take the success however it came.

Nice try Elgin - nice try.

 

[Antony Moxey]

Players can roll around all they like, but unless it’s a head injury the ref doesn’t need to stop the game - I genuinely find it hard to fathom just how gullible they all appear. With play continuing the manager can froth and bluster all he likes - imagine that hysterical clown Warnock - but until the ball goes out of play the ‘injured’ player goes untreated.

Further to that, if his team mate puts the ball out I wouldn’t give it back at the resulting throw in, and despite the referee’s instructions, I would contest a drop ball should the referee stop the game in the middle of play. These things are possible for the team that doesn’t have the player feigning injury, there’s nothing the ref can do about it and nothing the opposition can either. Maybe we should give that a try?

 

[John William]

Players can roll around all they like, but unless it’s a head injury the ref doesn’t need to stop the game - I genuinely find it hard to fathom just how gullible they all appear. With play continuing the manager can froth and bluster all he likes - imagine that hysterical clown Warnock - but until the ball goes out of play the ‘injured’ player goes untreated.

Further to that, if his team mate puts the ball out I wouldn’t give it back at the resulting throw in, and despite the referee’s instructions, I would contest a drop ball should the referee stop the game in the middle of play. These things are possible for the team that doesn’t have the player feigning injury, there’s nothing the ref can do about it and nothing the opposition can either. Maybe we should give that a try?

Absolutely.

And as I have pointed out on these threads before, it is expressly forbidden by the Laws of the Game for the Referee to prevent a team from contesting a drop ball (until next season, when the new Laws come in). If they do, managers should protest long and loudly.

Law 8 Dropped ball
Any player may challenge for the ball (including the goalkeeper). There is no
minimum or maximum number of players required to contest a dropped ball.
The referee cannot decide who may or may not contest a dropped ball.

The rash of cheating is only partly the fault of cheats like Cowley, Ainsworth, Evans and others. The real problem is weak referees who appear to have never read the rules of the game they are supposed to be managing and are naive to the point of complicity in this systematic cheating.

 

[John William]

I didn't watch (no Sky) but the latest is apparently Burnley players going down with "cramp" to slow the game down.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/48018227

As if PL players would get cramp in normal circumstances, how often do you see that except in extra time or on a hot summer afternoon? Chelsea seem to be livid but nothing they could do about it as the ref allowed Burnley to do it.

 

[Antony Moxey]

Well, as I said, at the restarts after the Burnley players’ ‘cramp’, Chelsea were under no obligation to give the ball back from a throw in or not contest a drop ball.