General Observations from the Spurs game
Wednesday, January 28, 2009 at 12:20PM Mike Riley. Is atrocious too harsh of a description for this alleged Premier League referee? Personally, I think I'm being a little too kind. His pièce de résistance was a delightful moment of decision making that saw him hold his hands out to signal play to continue when a foul was committed against us in a rather tasty area of the field to allow for advantage. When advantage was more than evident, he blow his whistle. Staggering. Since when was stopping play, taking play back to where the foul was originally committed and taking a free kick from there more viable an option than allowing for advantage to proceed?
Riley is obsessed with his whistle. Minimal contact? Blow that whistle. Not a foul? Blow that whistle. Anything that is borderline controversial or requires a professional unbiased viewpoint and decision, the whistle stays firmly away from his mouth.
Zokora committed one or two fouls last night and yet inexplicably got away with it.
If you want a ref who does his best to stop the game from flowing and gives about 80 decisions out of 100 the wrong way and enjoys blowing his whistle for no apparent reason, then Mike is your man.
He belongs in a rave.
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David Bentley. Not too shabby again yesterday. Not brilliant by any stretch of the imagination. If there is one thing that will improve his performance by about 60% its the removal of the flicks and showboat attempts. David mate, stop trying to get onto Soccer AM. When a simple control of the ball and pass is the best option, use it.
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Dawson. Yes he made a boo-boo that led to Stoke's goal, but how great has he been in recent weeks? Once upon a time it always seemed like he could only play if he had Ledley King by his side. Even looked like he would be shifted out of the club at one particular point. Great to see him grow in stature and confidence. Still needs Woody and King to lend a helping hand with his concentration and composure. Apparently, Daws is inseparable from Ledley (they sit together on the team coach, share rooms, probably even swap mp3's). Bless. If Ledley doesn't ever make it back full time, then I hope he can continue to inspire Michael.
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Chimbonda and Palacios watched the game from a box. Rumours Fred was also hiding somewhere within the ground, looking on. However, according to Harry, the player failed to turn up yesterday. Not sure if this one has any legs in it. Wondering if we should have made a cheeky bid for that young lad Heskey who joined Villa and scored on his debut.
Reader Comments (16)
Sorry, this comment is unrelated. But can everyone boycott reading the Daily Mail, both paper and online. All they do is link our players away with no basis. It's Modric today. BOYCOTT THE MAIL.
Agree with you Mal! BOYCOTT THE MAIL!!!!!! they have an agenda against Spurs, they have always published the worst stories imaginable and rely on unfounded rumours. Also.......... who wrote in the independent that we will offer Pool £11m PLUS Lennon OR JJ???? Considering Pool still owe us £10.5m from the transfer would that not be ludicrous???
I agree , it was a good performance , if anything showing we have the capability to create.Presuming that Palacios is going to come straight into the side who is going to make way?I saw someone say that its going to be Zokora and Palacios sitting with Jenas and Modric going forward.??A win away at Bolton would set up us well for a victory next Sunday.
The Daily Mail is an abomination. You may as well read In the Know info found in any random Spurs message board where their info is based on what some bloke in a tree overlooking the Lodge allegedly saw.
Broadsheets are also guilty of publishing utter utter pish. Lennon for Robbie Keane? Honestly, only Rafa would think thats a viable swap.
DOWN WITH THIS SORT OF THING.
Riley and the Daily Mail. Mediocrity at its very finest.
Totally agree with the post, especially Bentley trying to be Messi or Ronaldo, it doesn't always work for them, it's rarely going to work for him!
*I can think of about 100 reasons to boycott the mail
Why is it as a spurs fan I can get tickets easy for the man utd end for the cup final but no chance for the spurs end cos of a club hirachi. How are fans ever going to see a game when you have to be a season ticket holder but yet there is a 35'000 waiting list. So please rembrr when sending abuse there way a few of us may be secret yids.
How many season ticket holders to we have? 22,000?
Basically, they won't go on general sale because all season ticket holders and then members will eat them up. I'm sure we have well over 20,000 members.
I got my ticket within 40 mins which was shocking considering last year it took someone (bought in bulk) 5 hours to log in successfully.
How are Utd allocating them then?
dos Santos wants to stay. Hopefully Harry can start using him as a late sub more often.
As for the Daily Mail. It's good for a laugh. Nothing more. There front page stuff is far more entertaining than their attempts at Sports journalism and 'breaking' stories. They obviously use a script/template to produce their non-event headlines.
Enjoyable read. Interesting tongue in cheek blog. I'll look out for when you burn your ticket in protest.
Riley is a Dick
Appiah D-Day tomorrow. Harry will watch him in a reserve game against Wigan. Hope he proves he has the fitness to play in the Prem otherwise won't be worth the gamble.
After a month with Spurs he'll be gutted not to get a contract. And we'll be gutted if joins another club and plays well for them.
You've finally sussed the Mail!!?
Yip, they reckon Lennon, Jenas, Gomes, BAE, Dos Santos, Bentley & Bent are all on their way.
The Mail have a history making upstories going o way back when...
Mike Riley certainly excelled last night! Even Jeff Winter in his final season didn't manage to get as many decisions so obviously wrong. Neither did Uriah Rennie with his inflated ego courtesy of his agent.
So Oh Crikey please hang up your boots before its too late and your errant decisions proves too costly.
If you think Riley was crap last night did anyone see Styles doing the Manure game. If that guy is not on the take from the top 4 I am a monkeys uncle!
Spooky, I don't know how they ( utd) allocate, I just ring a guy and the ticket comes LOL