Rival Watch

[royalp-we]

So to the final matchday of 2020, we may be a few places shy of the playoffs after tonight’s fixtures...

[Hound]

We may well do but if we miss out by a point or two then, so far, the 2nd half horror show at Bournemouth or the failure to beat 10 man Brumby including missing a pen would be just as culpable.

Agree, unless you miss out on something after winning every other game, it’s hard to justify pointing at poor performance from a referee in one game. It could also be argued that we didn’t create that many decent opportunities in that half, anyway.

If we miss out narrowly then if we are really honest we should actually be massively pleased with how close we came !
If Paunovic does manage to take a team that had looked more like relegation contenders than promotion chasers for several seasons and without spending any money , and with a horrendous injury list, got them to the point where we can even think one refereeing performance ‘cost’ us then that would be quite incredible.
Disappointing, but pretty impressive.

Yeah that

[URZZZZ]

I’m seeing this -

We didn’t deserve to win because we didn’t create enough chances
Yes we did we should have had 4 penalties
Penalties given or not aren’t chances
Yes they are because without the foul we would have scored

FWIW I think we did more than enough to win and most independent observers think we should have had at least 2 penalties, maybe more.

So we can rightly feel robbed and justified in pointing to this game and that ref for our failure to get promoted !!

The 4th point is the weak one.
As I’ve said I reckon in general many penalties are given for things that weren’t chances. How that works for the 4 in question I don’t know.
I’ll blame Joao if we miss out by a point, even if he scores 30 goals. That missed pen against Birmingham was unforgivable....

That’s the pertinent thing though isn’t it?

The handball is almost as clear cut as you can get, I almost think the punishment for those should be a penalty goal in the mould of rugby’s penalty tries. If they hadn’t cheated we would almost certain have scored, barring a wonder save.

Then there was a foul on Richards as he got in behind, a foul on Laurent in similar circumstances, and a kick on Baldock as he tried to control a high ball. I certainly don’t think we were likely to score from the Baldock one, and the Laurent one was middling, but Richards was one-on-one albeit from a narrow angle. We certainly created enough chances to score two goals only for the opposition’s cheating to cost us.

Highlights including the four appeals available here if you’re interested: https://youtube.com/watch?v=8mXWdVHtepc

Laurent's shot for the handball wouldn't have gone in, aside from a keeper blunder

Not that it particularly matters, because a foul is still a foul, but only one of the three penalty decisions that should have been given (the one on Laurent wasn't a foul), was likely to have caused a chance of us scoring (the one on Richards)

[URZZZZ]

Hate to say it but I think we’ll be bringing up that Oliver Langford sh*tshow come May.

We may well do but if we miss out by a point or two then, so far, the 2nd half horror show at Bournemouth or the failure to beat 10 man Brumby including missing a pen would be just as culpable.

Agree, unless you miss out on something after winning every other game, it’s hard to justify pointing at poor performance from a referee in one game. It could also be argued that we didn’t create that many decent opportunities in that half, anyway.

Arguably, we had the rub of the green refereeing wise against:

Barnsley
Middlesbrough
Birmingham
Luton

It's said rather a lot but decisions do tend to even themselves out, even if not perfectly accurately

[tidus_mi2]

Reminder that we lost to oxf*rd Birmingham

[Hound]

Reminder that we lost to oxf*rd Birmingham

Yep just thinking the same. They are utter toss. That first half against us was clearly totally extraordinary

Reckon Karanka might be on his bike after this

[Mid Sussex Royal]

Reminder that we lost to oxf*rd Birmingham

Yep just thinking the same. They are utter toss. That first half against us was clearly totally extraordinary

Reckon Karanka might be on his bike after this

Three goals all gifts too - why couldn't they play like that against us?

[Hound]

Reminder that we lost to oxf*rd Birmingham

Yep just thinking the same. They are utter toss. That first half against us was clearly totally extraordinary

Reckon Karanka might be on his bike after this

Three goals all gifts too - why couldn't they play like that against us?

Derby had 14 shots to their 2 in that first half

[bcubed]

It was said, at the time, that Birmingham won't have a better half all year

[Pepe the Horseman]

Have Derby got a manager yet? Or is Rooney still caretaker?

[Hendo]

Have Derby got a manager yet? Or is Rooney still caretaker?

Still Rooney. I think he’ll probably get it full time now, he’s done pretty well so far.

[Pepe the Horseman]

Have Derby got a manager yet? Or is Rooney still caretaker?

Still Rooney. I think he’ll probably get it full time now, he’s done pretty well so far.

Yeh, surprised it's taken them so long.

[Hound]

Sheff weds 2 nil up

That’d be a nice little bonus if boro drop points - wasn’t expecting them to

[Hound]

More comedy keeping from Samba

[royalp-we]

Grabban must have got a shout from Samba there, should have just headed it away

[Zip]

Barnsley currently one place below us in he table.

[Stranded]

Barnsley currently one place below us in he table.

Playing very well too. We played them at a very good time.

[AthleticoSpizz]

Barnsley currently one place below us in he table.

yes and?

We have a game in hand and are still two points ahead...it’s crazy Shep

[Hound]

Would have to give their manager plenty of credit. Too inconsistent I think to make the play offs though

[Zip]

Reminder that we lost to oxf*rd Birmingham

I blame Hound who was at the game and was a curse. What a bloody disaster that game was.