For those who had to work ...

[Graham S]

... 3 video clips of the action:

 

Charlie takes a tumble

 

Then dusts himself down & puts us ahead

 

Some good Fleet attacking play

 

 

I felt Westley realized at half time that, with the team he had available, their only chance was to come out after the break & be fierce & physical, knock us out of our stride, get an early goal & try & seize the initiative. Made for a combative & quite engrossing 2nd half, though we could have done without the couple of ugly flare ups & all the card waving.

 

Graham S

[Alan W (GNFC)]

Not sure the "tumble" clip shows whether it was a penalty or not - the one thing it does emphasize is that the ball was well out of range - and since Hatswell was determined to keep it that way, he was asking for trouble in my book.

[Unrecognized Genius]

The clip is inconclusive, yes.

 

However, I had a good side on view of the incident & was not surprised that a penalty was given. The initial contact was outside the box & was obstruction rather than a foul. The ref could see that Charlie still had a decent chance of making something of the occasion, so rightly played on to see if advantage was gained. As Charlie began to get ahead of Hatswell, he leaned on him harder and Charlie went down, quite clearly, imo, under the weight of the challenge, not because he felt he might win a penalty.

 

The know all pundits on tv castigate defenders who simply place a hand on a forward, who then collapses in a heap, saying that it's a fact of life that forwards will go to ground as soon as they feel contact. I disagree with this philosophy & see it as cheating, but I am convinced it is not what happened yesterday.

 

As for their shout for a penalty in the 1st half, I thought we won the ball & their player tripped over the outstretched leg with the tackle already won. The ref was also very close to the incident & reacted immediately in waving it away. Having said that, if I'd been Westley I'd have reacted as furiously as he did, to the fact that ours was given & theirs was not. We all have our judgement shaped by our loyalties. It's inevitable. Great moment when, with all his arm waving he almost laid out the 4th official - though to give him credit, for once, he handled it well & saw the funny side despite his frustration.

 

EC

 

 

[Ian_D]

From where I was with the drum, their penalty looked blatently a penalty.

 

You win some you lose some. There is no greater saying than that as far as penalties are concerned!