Ref Watch OUFC V Northampton Town League 1 15/12/2020 Declan Bourne

How did last nights referee fare

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    Votes: 2 6.9%
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    Votes: 2 6.9%
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    Votes: 7 24.1%
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    Votes: 7 24.1%
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    Votes: 9 31.0%
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  • Total voters
    29
  • Poll closed .

Sarge

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Declan Bourne is yet another match official in his first season a an EFL (lower league) referee

In the main I thought he let the game flow reasonably well, that said Bourne is like many EFL lower league referees last, and more evidently this ,campaign too, he seemed oblivious to constant shirt pulling, niggly elbowing/ ankle-tapping, blatant diving, and kicking/ throwing the ball away dished out by the opposition.... yet doled out 3 (?- possibly more) yellow cards to Oxford players. The FA powers that be IMO need to tighten up on shirt pulling and the like that is rife this season, yet appears to go unpunished
Holmes, Hoskins and Smith notably, but not exclusively, IMO should have been yellow carded early in the first half ( for constantly doling out all of the aforementioned elements of the dark arts) , but they weren't!

Another noticeable 'blindness' was evident from the Assistant referee ( in front of East Stand end of SSL) who by nature of his title, is supposed to, presumably assist the referee. All manner of dark arts happened in front of him in both halves of the match, yet he either did/said nothing - or was overruled by the inexperienced Bourne? Either way, it wasn't right.

How Northampton's keeper wasn't red carded after raising his hands and pushing Matty Taylor after an attempt on goal when the U's were 1-0 up was a strange decision too

Maybe Bourne prefers a 'calm it down' word - so how come Oxford players were cautioned for nothing challenges then?

Apart from not picking up on the dark art tactics of Curles's donkeys - as has been the case with most officials in L1 games - where shirt pulling and the like is ,apparently, acceptable and goes unpunished, and despite N'ton's aim to stop- start the game at every opportunity, Bourne did, in the main, attempt to let the game flow IMO
Im probably being extra generous in giving Bourne 5/10 , 'influenced' by the euphoric high of seeing my team play fast flowing football , scoring 4 in the process, against a shower of anti footballing cloggers
 
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I actually thought he was reasonably consistent in his decision making but some of those decisions were overly picky such as just jumping near a keeper (he did it for both keepers).

His real problem was that he let Northampton manage the 1st half with chirping at him, cynical little fouls, kicking the ball away and picking the ball up when they decided they'd been fouled. For example, Sam Hoskins picked up the ball deciding he'd been fouled, the Ref disagreed giving us a free kick; Hoskins then proceeded not to give the ball back and when he was called over by the Ref, he kicked the ball away and he wasn't, amazingly, booked. 2nd half, Ricky Holmes did similar and he wasn't booked either. As a result of his not cracking down I think players pushed it a bit which it led to the game getting a bit feisty especially for Northampton when we got on top. On another day that could have easily turned into a nasty game with bad fouls etc due to the Ref letting things slide in the 1st half.

Fortunately, in the 2nd half we stepped it up tempo and attitude wise so that the game management became irrelevant.

I will say the Ref was spot on to book Matty Taylor as that was a stupid thing he did, plain stupid. And he might have been pinged earlier on a couple occasions as he was definitely looking for a battle throughout the game. Possibly his frustration at the season so far etc but Matty does need to control himself better as opponents will pick up on this.

Ricky Holmes as mentioned above was lucky not to get a 2nd yellow for the handball/subsequent shenanigans and their keeper should have got a yellow (but don't think it was a Red) for pushing Matty Taylor over.
 
He somehow managed to combine being lenient with being fussy, remarkable really.

Plenty of worse mind.
 
I don't think I should let the result of the game affect what mark I give him.

I thought he was very average, and was in danger of letting things spiral by not being strong enough, letting things go unpunished etc. I don't mean everything ought to be punished with a card, but stopping the niggly ones early on with a word would have perhaps cut them out somewhat. I was glad to see that he eventually punished Northampton for ignoring his instructions at the throw in - but then he failed to do it again when they repeated the offence!

Having said that, he was far from the worst we have seen this season. I wonder if watching on iFollow puts a bit more of the spotlight on the refs than watching it in person?
 
I thought his decision making became far stranger in the second half. His liking for letting the game flow meant that he let a lot of niggly fouls go unpunished and, when the opportunity arose to pull play back following no advantage, appeared to lack any conviction in his own ability to do so. Allowing the Northampton keeper to push Matty Taylor go unpunished was poor.
However, he did make his point, eventually, that stealing the odd yard (or 10) at throw ins was not going to go unpunished.

It must be difficult for newly appointed officials to get to grips with the higher leagues. Hopefully, they get plenty of feedback and training. It just annoys me that, when watching some of the Premiership officials, the difference in standards is remarkable. Surely, if the rules are the same, then the officiating decisions should follow? It appears that what constitutes a foul in the Premiership is not necessarily so in League 1.

I gave our man a 5 - average but, could do better.
 
Not the right sort off official in his first season to handle a game like that with the tactics Northampton employed, a lot of what they did should have been stamped on straight away, throw ins were a laugh with the extra yards they got away with, and thats without the fouls committed. Hope he will learn. 3 from me
 
A greenhorn who got sussed by our senior players quite early on. Should have sent their keeper off for his push on Taylor. Kept missing obvious fouls and seemed to be frequently behind the play . failure to stop Cobblers stealing big yards at throw ins.

Kept the game moving in the second half though, which clearly suited us.

Very unimpressive.
 
Standard slightly below par performance, missed a bit but got the majority right and tried to keep the game flowing, which was difficult with a niggly opponent. Keeper should have been booked, think a harsh word with Taylor would have done when we were already 3 or 4 up.
I do think the RadOx boys should button it a bit when it comes to their astonishment at relatively routine things, you can see that they don't have refereeing experience.
 
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