Looks a very good referee moved over here few years back from Australia and looking at his work background looks a decent man

Mate of mine, who's a Watford fan, was at the game. Said it was the worst refereeing performance he's ever seen in the Premier league. Lost control of the game within the first 10 minutes. Lacked any consistency and seemed to guess at more than half of his decisions. I watched him for years out here and he will get found out very quickly. Unfortunately the lad believes his own hype.
He was a bit of a golden child out here, but always seemed to make massive howlers (worse than Bobby Madley howlers!!!) in the big games - like Grand Finals. He got conned far too often by the more cleverer players!
The Aussie media went mental last week and splashed headlines everywhere that he was the first "International" ref in the EPL. I needed to remind them that Keith Cooper, Keith Burge, Rodger Gifford (& Dermot Gallagher) reffed the EPL in 92/93..... Some of them even changed their headlines to read "the first Australian ref in the EPL" - Love it!!!!

I'm sure it does refs no favours when they get spotted for advancement too young. The obvious example is Mr Coggins who I think is now one of the best at our level.

George Street-Bridge wrote:I'm sure it does refs no favours when they get spotted for advancement too young. The obvious example is Mr Coggins who I think is now one of the best at our level.

How did being spotted too young disadvantage Mr Coggins?

I saw the penalty decision. It was awful. But we only remember him because he gave that penalty against us. The same season County got a penalty at Sutton. Again it was an awful decision. It had the effect of earning the away side a point. But as the away side were us nobody on here remembers the ref's name. Come to think of it, whilst Mark O'Brien is a County legend, we equally owe our League status to the ref v Notts County who awarded a penalty for a foul that wasn't. Referees make awful decisions at all ages. Just like the rest of us.

And remember although young at the time Coggins was refereeing a Conference South game, not a League match.

Yes, I know it was Conference South and no, I wasn't thinking about any particular decision. Just a general feeling of several games refereed with no common sense. Probably because a very inexperienced ref only has being a stickler to the letter of the laws to fall back on. He once abandoned a CS game not involving us on 84 or 85 minutes because of waterlogging.

It's a disservice because it piles on pressure if you create a posterboy for young referees who doesn't then hack it. But as I said, for me he's now one of the best and I'm pleased when he's scheduled to do one of our games.

George Street-Bridge wrote:Yes, I know it was Conference South and no, I wasn't thinking about any particular decision. Just a general feeling of several games refereed with no common sense. Probably because a very inexperienced ref only has being a stickler to the letter of the laws to fall back on. He once abandoned a CS game not involving us on 84 or 85 minutes because of waterlogging.

It's a disservice because it piles on pressure if you create a posterboy for young referees who doesn't then hack it. But as I said, for me he's now one of the best and I'm pleased when he's scheduled to do one of our games.

That's interesting.

One of the things which strikes me, and why I find Robbie Savage amongst others so boring is that they demand both common sense and consistency from referees. Of course you can have either but not both.

The other one which gets me with savage is when he is critical of referees on the following basis. A player goes down in the area. The referee does nothing and Robbie's point is it's either a penalty or the forward should be booked for diving. Savage totally misses the point. If the referee only thinks but isn't sure it's a foul he can't give the penalty, likewise he can't book a forward whom he feels might well have been fouled.

But on our point. I do see your argument. However I think it's more down to experience than age. And some ref's are better than others. 9Like drivers) I suppose it's true about pressure but we ask 24 year old's to take penalties in European Cup finals.

bignbeefy wrote:Mate of mine, who's a Watford fan, was at the game. Said it was the worst refereeing performance he's ever seen in the Premier league. Lost control of the game within the first 10 minutes. Lacked any consistency and seemed to guess at more than half of his decisions. I watched him for years out here and he will get found out very quickly. Unfortunately the lad believes his own hype.
He was a bit of a golden child out here, but always seemed to make massive howlers (worse than Bobby Madley howlers!!!) in the big games - like Grand Finals. He got conned far too often by the more cleverer players!
The Aussie media went mental last week and splashed headlines everywhere that he was the first "International" ref in the EPL. I needed to remind them that Keith Cooper, Keith Burge, Rodger Gifford (& Dermot Gallagher) reffed the EPL in 92/93..... Some of them even changed their headlines to read "the first Australian ref in the EPL" - Love it!!!!

Seems strange how the premier League are taking him on then mate