Pedagogue wrote:fensaddler wrote:Awful game, good result. Bad pitch, poor ref, cynical opposition. We definitely started to look a lot better when Nicholls and Taundry came on, and I think that says much for both of them. Nicholls in particular had perhaps the best spell I have seen him play - Taundry we already know is a class act, and looks at home in centre mid. Betsy didn't do very much for me - its early days, but I've seen Deeney play far better in that position - and Troy definitely had a bad one as striker today. Mooney likewise didn't get much joy, but he was poorly protected by the ref and continuously flattened, and needlessly booked when it looked like the oppo keeper had merely landed badly after a fair challenge - I'd appreciate the views of our resident refs on this guy's performance, because for me Betsy's booking was also tripe, whilst he let a lot of cynical stuff go completely unpunished. Anyway, whilst anything from Swansea would be a bonus, I'm expecting some useful additions to the squad before the month is out, and today was perhaps evening out Carlisle, where we played far better but got nothing.
Agree with all the football comments, there. Regarding the referee, I don't think that he was "poor". I have seen better but I have also seen a lot worse. The caution for Holmes was fully justified but the one for Betsy was not, imho, as he had not had chance to move away to allow the kick to be taken.
Mooney's caution was a "grey" area. He DID foul the 'keeper who, in turn, was GENUINELY injured when he landed awkwardly, as a result of Mooney's challenge. I do wish that certain WFC supporters could remove their blinkers when assessing referees and try to be impartial (fat chance!). Mooney is a classic case in point. Do our fans ever watch him closely? He is a crafty old fox who knows every trick in the book. Most centre-backs are very tall and Mooney clearly isn't, so he uses guile to overcome this. He leans low into his marker, often leaning forward slightly (calm down, YGA Saddler!). He then takes one pace smartly backwards, under the marker's centre of gravity, thus causing the marker to to appear to be "climbing all over" Mooney's back. Mooney does this, in every game that he plays, and it is amazing how many times that he gets away with it! Not only are referees deceived by this tactic but also many Walsall supporters. I just wish that they would remove their red-and-white spectacles, occasionally.
I agree with some of that.The ref wasn't the worst I'd seen.He set the agenda when he booked Yeovil's Church for standing over a Walsall free kick.After that ,the booking of Betsy was consistent.My objection to Mooney's booking was that he clearly was just going to play on with a free kick until it turned out that the keeper had got injured by falling badly,not as a direct result of Mooney's foul.That could have happened as easily had the challenge been fair or even if there'd been no challenge.