SKELMERSDALE UNITED 1 GRANTHAM TOWN 2

[Kev Panther]

WEAK REFEREE WRECKS SKELMERSDALE HOME RECORD

SKELMERSDALE UNITED 1 GRANTHAM TOWN 2

By Neil Leatherbarrow
An inexperienced referee who clearly couldn’t cope with the pressures put on her by a Grantham Town management who at the very least could be described as extremely unethical in their approach to the game, probably cost Skelmersdale United all chance of retaining their unbeaten home record against the relegation struggling side from Lincolnshire, who would in normal circumstances would have received many plaudits for achieving a shock victory, but got none at all from Skelmersdale.
Skelmersdale didn’t play well, but they didn’t play that badly either. Grantham went into a 2-0 interval lead and Skelmersdale set about the second-half looking like a team that was going to pull the margin back. However, the more the more the game progressed, the more bizarre Grantham’s tactics became. Constantly intimidating the assistant in front of their dug-out, using time wasting methods that became a mockery, all resulting in play spending more time stopped than it did in motion. But referee Helen Byrne did virtually nothing about it, failing to protect her assistant, doing nothing about a member of the Grantham coaching staff who pushed into the crowd to threaten a spectator, and finally adding insult to Skelmersdale’s injury by not even playing the full five minutes allotted added time at the end, time that was far too short in relation to the time wasting anyway.
Grantham started sharply and almost grabbed the lead after 75 seconds, breath was held all around the ground as a Paul Grimes shot went inches wide.
Gradually Skelmersdale got going and Grantham goalkeeper Dan Haystead made the first of a number of great saves, when thwarting Connor McCarthy with a dive at his feet in the eighth minute, before another fine stop from Ashley Dunn in the 11th minute.
Play was evenly balanced for a while. A Sean Miller cross fizzed across the Grantham goalmouth, then at the clubhouse end Zac Hibbert saved from a Lee Ridley shot.
A crucial couple of minutes started in the 25th minute. First McCarthy saw his shot hit the foot of the post, and then Grantham had a bit of luck. After some short passes Gregg Smith lofted the ball from the right-wing over Hibbert into the top corner, whether he meant it was open to debate, but on the face of it, it looked a superb effort.
Play tightened up, Grantham understandably went more defensive but they broke away in the 41st minute. A cross went to the far post from the right-wing, Lewis Field had defenders on both sides of him and appeared to be pulled down by the one behind him, however, the referee gave a penalty instead of a free-kick to Skelmersdale. Grimes converted from the spot.
Skelmersdale started the second-half well. Adam Morning was only denied by a last ditch tackle after only two minutes, followed soon afterwards by a header that went just wide.
Chris Simm was kept out by some good defending in the 62nd minute, before five minutes later Skelmersdale got their breakthrough. Neil Prince hoisted a cross to the far post; McCarthy ran in and got above a defender, sending a dropping header inside the far post.
The last twenty minutes saw that much timewasting and breaking up of play it was insulting to any fair minded football person. Time and again Grantham players went to ground, time and again balls were kicked away, and substitutions were made of players who had clearly gone to the far side of the pitch first to make them take time, no move being made to hurry them up. The Grantham goalkeeper Haystead was booked for time wasting, but continued to do it and in one incident after a foul the referee had to walk 25 yards to have words with a player after he refused to move towards the referee. The referee completely lost control and as a direct result went any chance Skelmersdale had of saving the game.

SKELMERSDALE UNITED: Hibbert, Field, Holden (Prince, 57), Hardwick ©, Wylie, Dunn, Miller, Burton, McCarthy, Simm (Astbury, 81), Morning (Ince, 81) Subs (not used) Jackson, Carden

GRANTHAM TOWN: Haystead, Purcicoe, Ridley, Meikle, Lister ©, Lewis, McGovern (King, 90), Towey, Grimes, Smith G. (Walker, 80), Potts Subs (not used) Lacey, Smith K., Hawes

Referee: Helen Byrne (Manchester) Attendance: 237

[Gingerbread Dave]

What a load of old tosh! You lost fair and square-learn to lose instead of blaming the ref!!

[Owd Skemmer ( Tony Brown)]

Blinkers

[G-Town DAP]

Yawn! Yawn! Yawn! Who's the joker who writes all this garbage??? Moan, moan, moan, whinge, whinge, whinge!! You Lot 1, Our Lot 2!!! Deal with it and accept it-you can't win 'em all!!

[Owd Skemmer ( Tony Brown)]

For fear of repeating myself

Blinkers

[St Albans GTFC]

I assume you mean you have the hold on the truth here and 'blinkers' refers to those who disagree? I've followed Grantham home and away since the late 60s, not that gives me anymore valid an opinion than anyone else but there is something to be said for experience and level headed response. All fans are biased. There are three ways of watching a game, as fan of either team or a neutral. The three could write a report on most matches and a reader would think they were three different games…to the writers I guess they are. Fans make plenty of mistakes in reviewing a game…confirmation bias (they see what they want to see, the things that support any previously held argument e.g. Grantham are a dirty side…Chorley are top of the league for good reason). They rely too much on the league table as an indicator and ignore competitive balance (all teams in the league are pretty much as good as each other, obviously this season Droyslden have done their best to disprove that but even they have improved recently). I'm more than happy to concede when we are beaten by a better side (Hednesford away last year) or when luck has favoured us (Blyth at home) so try to keep my natural bias in check. Even so I was almost apoplectic when I read this match report, not least because it figured on an official site and contained quite accusatory language to say the least.
I thought the patronising tone taken about referee Helen Byrne was a disgrace. This is a young woman in her early 20s who has officiated at this and higher levels and proven to be worthy of it. Imagine how hard it is as a teenage girl trying to progress in a completely male dominated world, and a world that would offer plenty of stereotypical responses. Of course we won, we had a penalty, I'm bound to say that aren't I? Well no. We'd all agreed before the end of the game that she's had a really good game regardless of what happened from then on in..had we lost to two late dodgy penalties I would have been aggrieved but don't think I would have blamed it on her being a woman or inexperienced. Indeed the comments I heard from the bar behind me in the first half belonged in the 1970s and were pretty shameful.
As for constant incitement…I'm really at a loss to see where that was and the said altercation really was nothing…I hope you never play Nuneaton away if you think that was intimidating! All football clubs, including yours, do all things to win or protect their win…they dive and cheat and time waste at ALL levels so there really is no moral high ground. I'm sure if I had video footage of your 2-1 win at the Meres I would find plenty of agonisingly slow goal kicks and throw ins during those last 10 minutes.
We won partly because the league table can and does lie and we're not that much worse than you, we're as good as you on our day and we worked damn hard to get a result we really needed. We stopped you playing but then why should we allow you to play the way you want? All in all a great day but was very disappointed to read such a report.

[wilko]

I reckon you'd get those comments about the ref in every ground in the country,or maybe the birthplace of "St Margaret" is a truly enlightened town.