Who is your favourite ref?

[Shaggy]

I used to love this on the Amiga:

Haha yeah

George Courtney from Spennymoor

Neil Midgley

[dom9]

Neil Midgley.

[murder_inc]

hayden pennyfeather. He lets me slide tackle and injure Messi without so much as a yellow card.
The man is a living(ish) legend.
Long live Pennyfeather.

[Fernandinho]

i always get the mexican referee on FIFA

[fatistuta]

Clive Thomas. Now that's a ref.

[Slinky Skills]

Halsey or Dowd.

Dowd has actually improved a lot as a ref.

The ref for the Utd - Leeds game was good I thought.

[Neil Young]

Halsey or Dowd.

Dowd has actually improved a lot as a ref.

The ref for the Utd - Leeds game was good I thought.

Wasn't it the same tw*t as we had on Sunday?

I could well be wrong as I didn't see the game but heard his name mentioned on the radio and it rang a bell from the Spurs game.

[Shaggy]

It was, yeah. He's ****e.

[Neil Young]

[calvoboy]

Not sure it was early 90s, more like late 90s I think, but I was at a Division Three game and he was running the line. The stick and abuse he got was unbelievable. It seemed bad to me at the time, but looking back it was seriously unreal. There'd be mass arrests now. One fella chucked an orange at his turban...hit him full on the side of the head.

Poor *******.

It was definitely early 90s that he was in Division 1/Premiership, as I clearly remember him being bloody awful at a couple of Forest games. Late 90s would be right for Div 3 though, as he was demoted from the top list and then eventually sacked. The racial abuse is/was unforgivable, but he truly was a **** ref, which is why I'm amazed he won his discrimination case. Brave bloke though to take the level of abuse he did and keep coming back for more. You'd hope it wouldn't happen these days...

[ronanm]

The Kop

[cled the red]

Would've said Clattenburg but then he screwed us at Stoke.

Dowd is generally alright, no?

Who can forget him last season with his arms folded as all hell broke loose against the Mancs!!

[Slinky Skills]

Wasn't it the same tw*t as we had on Sunday?

I could well be wrong as I didn't see the game but heard his name mentioned on the radio and it rang a bell from the Spurs game.

Christ was it!

He was quite good last night I thought considering there were some bad tackles being made.

There was an awful tackle by Snodgrass on Park and I'm sure it went unpunished. Considering the frequency he was dishing cards out on Sunday I'd have thought he'd be a bit more card happy.

[Neil Young]

Yeah, well, Mike Riley didn't instruct him to be harsh on Leeds so it wouldn't look like he'd been influenced. It's a conspiracy.



Basically though you were happy with his performance because he let Snodgrass hack a Manchester United player.

[PTP]

one of my lowest/funniest points involving a referee was a sunday league match..

deary me i've seen some shockers but one in particular stands out.

I was player manager, and we were playing a team we knew well but had a bit of a rivalary with.

Referee turns up, tall skinny bloke with glasses, he turns up with his wife.

He calls me and the other manager over and introduces himself.

His opening line was...

"hi guys (who the **** calls two hungover sunday league footballers "guys"!) - right, this is my first game in charge ever, i was never very good at football and never played but i see this as my chance of giving something back....so if you could go easy on me that would be great"

- poor ******* was dropped right in the thick of the **** - so far out of his depth it was untrue....within minutes both sets of players had clocked on to how inept he was, i tried but was powerless to stop it and he just got ****ing slaughtered, sometimes funny, sometimes the players were in the right and sometimes it was just so ****ing harsh - and all in front of his wife.

He should never ever have been put in charge of any mens sunday league game

After the game, i went to see him, pay his fee etc - he was shaking, virtually in tears tears and just in a mess.....it was weird, it was funny to see a grow man like that, but at the same time it was harsh...so i talked to him for a bit, told him not to worry about it or take it personally it happens to all referees but that it would be like that most sundays and he'd be better off trying to get involved with the kids leagues to gain some experience. Also told him that they league should never have dropped him into that game and that i'd give him a decent rating and get the other manager to do so as well.

don't know what ever happened to him - but never seen him referee in that league since