Away at Alton, such fun.....

[Fuzzy Royal]

Well, the day didn't start well with my route choice leading to roadworks and long delays, maybe that was a sign to turn back, but we continued on and that was probably the highlight of our day out.

I had a chat with the groundsman and he was in two minds as to if the game should have been played, it certainly looked a little rough, but it was green and no standing water so maybe teh right decision. Well, the number of players slipping over and losing their footing on the surface maybe should have been an indicator for the quality of the game.

First things first, windsor did not look good, we had flashes of good football and good passing but not enough to justify a win in my opinion, in fact a draw was optimistic. But what of Alton...

 

Well from the off Alton decided late hard challenges and off the ball challenges were the way forward, and they were right. In the opening 20 mins there were two footed challenges, challenges right the through the back of the Windsor players and the ref decided this was all okay and let the game degenerate from poor to bloomin awful!! I fear the decision that will sit in most Windosr fans' minds is when George was clean through, round the keeper and was taken out, well of the ball, by the keeper and would have had a shot on goal against, at worst, one defender.

 

Now it wasn't a penalty and we accept that, but a yellow card????? Had we got a penalty, on recent form, we would have probably missed it (has that ball from the pen against Westfield even come down yet?) and that would probabaly not have changed teh outcome of the game. But losing a clearly very good keeper who did little wrong all game, and going down to ten men with an hour plus to play probably would have. Just very very poor officiating, but that was probably the ref's best bit of officiating as he actually gave the foul.

 

Apaprently leaving the air for a tackle, flying through said air and taking a player off a the knees does not deserve a card at all, but trying to get a ball back from the opposing team so you can take your own free kit or throw is.

 

His crowning moment was showing a red card to a player and then deciding that he does not need to leave the pitch, now that is incredibly incompetent whichever way you look at it. i would say he was cheating, but I am not sure he had the intelligence to cheat. 

 

My favourite comment from the Alton intelligentsia was the lady who got very irate at us asking the ref why the player shown the red card hadn't left the field of play. "It wasn't a red a card, it was pink, that's a different card, don't you know anything?" Sadly there was no irony or humour in this comment, but a genuine belief that because the card was slightly brighter than a normal red card it had different properties. I mean the magenta and the cyan cards given in the first half for existential and holistic challenges were fine bit this just didn't make sense.

 

Ultimately Windsor didn't deserve the points and that is two games in a row we have looked unable to deal with the poor pitches and physical approach of teams. We will not get out of this division without being able to grind these results out

[Rother]

I'm feeling angry now and I wasn't even there.

[Fuzzy Royal]

One last thing, after all the bad challenges, Hicks is carried off in a great deal of pain and looked in a bad way from a very innocuous looking coming together, not a foul from where I was. Really hope it isn't as bad as it looked, but i fear it is.

 

So today we had Ben having gone, no Sheehan and no Lucas, Laza looked lost on the left and our midfield just looked a little lost all round

 

I am sure Alton will say they deserved the points, and with us having one possibly two tame shots at goal in the second half and Alton dominating the attacking in the game I couldn't argue, but i would argue if anyone said it was a good game.

 

I'm not angry anymore just disappointed that we didn't beat a very average team because we outperformed them in below averageness and disappointed that kellogs are clearly still giving out refereeing badges in their cereal boxes

[Don't Blame Me]

Fuzzy. You have been way too generous on the performance of the referee and assistants. I have absolutely no intention of holding back on my appraisal of that incompetent idiot's performance.

 

According to the programme yesterday, the referee was Andy Mawby. I hope we never, ever see him again. He is the worst, most incompetent, inept and utterly useless referee I have ever seen. Throughout the first half, challenges were being made by Alton players that were late, dangerous and reckless. Not once did I see the referee actually bother to speak to any of their players regarding the nature of their play. The number of times they went straight through the backs of our players without any reaction from the pathetic excuse of the referee gave Alton all the encouragement they needed to kick us off the park.

 

As Fuzzy said above, the assault on Gouldy by their keeper warranted a red card for the challenge alone. If it was anywhere else on the pitch and by an outfield player, it would have been a straight red. The referees excuse for giving a yellow was because Gouldy was going away from the goal. That is a total irrelevance and clearly illustrated the weak and inept performance of a referee not fit to officiate a game of Subbuteo. The challenge was, at best grotesque and at worst, career threatening. 

 

As for the red card being shown in the second half, at that point I knew that we would never get anything from that clown. There was an assault on Kirbs in the bottom corner which had it occurred on a Friday night in Peascod Street would have resulted in a night in the cells and a visit in front of the magistrates in the morning. Not with that prick of a referee. Oh no. Let's caution both players and award a throw in. 

 

There were just way too many disgraceful challenges out there. I would be very interested in learning how many times that useless twonk of a referee has handled Alton's home games. Perhaps he may even be on the Alton committee which would explain his bizarre and completely biased performance. Perhaps he is a major club sponsor. Perhaps he could have been handed a hell of a lot more than the perfunctory match fees at the end of the game. His performance was THAT bad that I would not have been at all surprised if he had been bribed.

 

Will Windsor FC have the balls to submit an official report to the CCL regarding the shambles that was Mr Andy Mawby? I hope I never, ever see him at any other game that I go to.

[Bins]

Good summary Fuzzy. Without Sheehan in midfield and Lucas down the right we certainly lacked an element of the necessary ball control, although it's never pleasant watching opposition players racing to close a player down (and/or take him out) allied to physical determination. The pitch was poor, the 'referee' allowed far too much aggression to take place until it was too late whilst blowing his whistle far too often for minor issues, and the goalkeeper's attack on George was appalling. That incident and lack of a red card set the tone for the approach Alton adopted.

 

You're right in saying we don't seem to cope well against physical sides, but that's how it can be at this level. We rarely got any luck from their wild clearances, and our decent shots on target all went straight to their 'keeper. Still, I'd rather watch us play our style though. Hopefully, we won't lose more players to suspension, and we're still only a few points off the top of the table - with plenty of games to go.

[Rother]

FYI we had Mr Mawby on the 1st day of the season when we won away at RPV. He pulled up lame 5 mins into the 2nd half.

 

After Guernsey drew with Ash at the back end of last season, Aupostie said he wouldn't comment on the referee's performance or he'd get himself into trouble. 

[Don't Blame Me]

And to cap it all, When I looked at the programme that we got on the way in, it was for their game v Wembley on 7th December. Extremely unimpressed.

 

You know what Rother? I don't care if I get into any trouble regarding my comments regarding the disgrace of a referee we had yesterday. 

[Don't Blame Me]

Having checked my WRONG programme, I may have got the referee wrong. Apologies to Mr Mawby if this is the case. 

 

Did anyone else get sold a Wembley programme?

[Big J R]

Having checked my WRONG programme, I may have got the referee wrong. Apologies to Mr Mawby if this is the case. 

 

Did anyone else get sold a Wembley programme?

 

 

 

 

Sold a 'pup', more like !!!

[Don't Blame Me]

And don't start me on the out of date pork scratchings (November 2013) or the coke cans for sale clearly stating "Not to be sold separately"

[Mrs_Cat]

Firstly we got exactly what we deserved from the game, nothing. Alton looked hungry and put everything on the line to get the points, they deserve credit for that. Regardless of the cretin refereeing performance, I don't think you can begrudge Alton the 3 points as 11 v 11 they were better all over the pitch.

 

As for the ref....what can you say other than he was very very poor. There is no doubt we were on the receiving end of some appalling decisions. He seemed to set his stall out early on to award a free kick every time Alton asked for one whilst turning a blind eye to some quite over-zealous challenges from them (that’s not a criticism of Alton as anyone would do the same with such a generous ref).

 

The game obviously turned on the refs surprising decision to not send off the Alton keeper, regardless of where on the pitch the offence took place it was a poor challenge that probably warranted a red card on its own regardless of whether he was the last man or not, he made no attempt to play the ball, it was high, late, and cynical. A red card all day long.

 

The incident in the 2nd half where the ref first send off the Alton number 10 and then didn't, showed how inept he was. Firstly why was the reckless and quite frankly cowardly tackle deemed only worthy of a yellow card?? If the ref had known he had NOT already booked the no10 would he have pulled a straight red card out of his pocked?? We Will never know..

 

Anyway even if we had somehow got something from the game, if pales into insignificance compared to the effect Dan Hicks injury situation will have on the rest of the season, as without him I fear our chance of winning the league will take have taken a massive hit. On a personal level I hope he's ok as it’s not nice to hear somebody in such pain on a football pitch.

[Windsor_Sec]

 A balanced post from Mrs Cat which sums Saturday up just about correctly I think !

 

Dan's injury looks like a torn ligament in his ankle and we'll know more when the swelling subsides but it was an accident waiting to happen as he's been carrying a problem all season which despite various scans and medical appointments he'd not been able to get a proper diagnosis on.  It does now look like he'll be out for the season and Mick/Tony are looking to bring in a replacement at the earliest opportunity, maybe even by tomorrow night at Cove.

 

The good news is both Sheehan and Lucas are available again now having completed their suspensions and they're both the type of player who I feel can handle the physicality of some games, which is where we were lacking a bit on Saturday.

[Rother]

Seems bizarre that Kyle Lucas should have been suspended. Although yes, he seems able to handle the physicality, he has hardly made a foul or argued with a ref all season!