You can’t keep on blaming the officials all of the time – City have not been good enough in their last two games.

[Nobody's Rep]

Sorry about that first sentence, I genuinely didn’t know whether you were referring to me or not.

👍

[Loramski]

If that's aimed at me, I took care to limit my criticism of Wednesday's game to when it was 0-0 because we defended appallingly during that time (if anything, I'd say we defended better when we were down to ten). I've also said that the really disappointing thing about that for me was that, although we've hardly been perfect, we've been pretty good defensively this season.

As for the red card, I don't think anyone bar the ref thought it was merited, but that had nothing to do with our defending for the incident. Armstrong's poor touch was taking the ball into Allsop's arms I believe and was the main reason why a penalty shouldn't have been given. So, I'm not convinced that there was any good defending involved on our part, but the contact between the QPR man and Simpson put it into the "I've seen them given" category for me. Armstrong's run took him past four of our players over a distance of about thirty five yards - I watched that under 21 game Loramski refers to as well, but it seems none of our defenders did based on how we coped with the situation.

I agree with your last paragraph completely though - there have been plenty of times when there seems to have been "interference from above" over the past dozen years, but, by contrast, it seems now as if the football side is just being left to get on with it. That may not be a bad thing under some circumstances, but there is a balance to be struck in how the owner/financial management side of things see their part in the relationship with the playing side and it often seems that Tan and co still can't get that right.

Just as a footnote to this, my youngest came home last night and I showed him the incident (he'd arrived late to the game on Wednesday). His reaction was 'is that it?', which should've been the ref's reaction too.

On a point of pedantry, Armstrong's run only took him past Ng and Kipre. Wintle was level until realising the ball's going to Allsop and he never gets past Simpson at any point. I've no idea why Armstrong goes down, I can't see any clash of legs until he's already started falling. Maybe it's a dive but it looks more that he stumbles trying to make an extra effort.

Being cynical, maybe Simpson should've thought like a striker and thrown himself to the floor first as soon as he felt Armstrong's arm on him. He was slightly ahead so had that option and he knows now that the ref was daft enough to have fallen for it.

I'm certainly not saying we're great defensively (as we're probably just about to find out) but I thought Tuerto's claim that Simpson and Wintle were 'a pair of clowns standing about with their thumbs up their arses' was ludicrous, even by this board's standards .

[Citizen's Nephew]

Just as a footnote to this, my youngest came home last night and I showed him the incident (he'd arrived late to the game on Wednesday). His reaction was 'is that it?', which should've been the ref's reaction too.

On a point of pedantry, Armstrong's run only took him past Ng and Kipre. Wintle was level until realising the ball's going to Allsop and he never gets past Simpson at any point. I've no idea why Armstrong goes down, I can't see any clash of legs until he's already started falling. Maybe it's a dive but it looks more that he stumbles trying to make an extra effort.

Being cynical, maybe Simpson should've thought like a striker and thrown himself to the floor first as soon as he felt Armstrong's arm on him. He was slightly ahead so had that option and he knows now that the ref was daft enough to have fallen for it.

I'm certainly not saying we're great defensively (as we're probably just about to find out) but I thought Tuerto's claim that Simpson and Wintle were 'a pair of clowns standing about with their thumbs up their arses' was ludicrous, even by this board's standards .

I happen to think your posts generally ooze smugness and snideness (I know I've been on the receiving end of them) so it's horses for courses I guess.