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#Post#: 101159--------------------------------------------------
Re: Sat 7th – Wed 11th FEB 2026
By: Ryanellis Date: February 7, 2026, 10:46 am
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[quote author=Ryanellis link=topic=7683.msg101069#msg101069
date=1770113024]
Crewe get Ben Speedie for the 12:30 game down south. A referee
we hadn’t had since 4th March 2025, where I described his
performance as inconsistent. Let’s see how he fares on Saturday
[/quote]
Last time I described his performance as inconsistent, today
consistent. He gave a lot of soft fouls but this was consistent
for both teams so I’m not particularly bothered. He disallowed
Crawley’s goal early second half for handball which is correct
although I’m not sure why the Crawley attacker handled it in as
i think it was going in anyway! Besides that, 2 standard
bookings for SPA, and a quiet game for the most part.
#Post#: 101178--------------------------------------------------
Re: Sat 7th – Wed 11th FEB 2026
By: elbee94 Date: February 8, 2026, 3:36 am
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Colchester United FC (First Team) v Shrewsbury Town FC (First
Team)
Football League 2
Referee: Oldham, James
Assistant Referee: Farrell, Conor
Assistant Referee: Bandara, Damith
Fourth Official: Whitaker, Ryan
Perhaps I gave James the kiss of death with my earlier comment,
I left this game happy with the win but unhappy with the
referee’s performance. When i’ve seen James perform well before,
he’s looked quite relaxed in the middle, officiating with a
smile on his face but yesterday he came across as very uptight.
Whilst no game is “easy”, this was a game that shouldn’t have
been especially testing for me, but I didn’t like the way James
went about it.
A good early yellow for Freeman was issued, I wondered if he
might get away with it being early but correctly issued. My 2
complaints in the first half were he should have done more to
hurry Colchester and, rather unusually, he blew for half time
with the ball dropping to a Colchester player less than 10 yards
from goal. You can make your own mind up whether he should blow
the whistle regardless of what is happening on pitch but i’d say
most referees wouldn’t do that. (As a related anecdote, Ben
Toner was going to blow for half time the other week but allowed
play to go on when he saw Colchester counter attacking and gave
us the best part of a minute to attack, win a corner and deliver
it).
In both halves, I felt he was a little on the whistle happy side
and lacked a degree of consistency.
Second half, he was much better at punishing Colchester’s
timewasting - but then, after 2 correct timewasting bookings,
made the mistake of booking Vincent-Young for not catching a
ball that went at least 2 feet over his jumping head! A comical
decision and, whilst i’m not accusing him of being arrogant, the
way he marched over to players when booking them came across to
a supporter as rather unenjoyable. He did also correctly book
Lisbie for throwing the ball a little too hard to a Shrewsbury
player but should have booked Boyle for me, who was in his ear
all game and regularly causing trouble before set pieces.
In a game of little drama and a dreadful second half by both
sides, James made a fairly straightforward game a lot harder
than it should have been in my view. He asserted himself at
times it wasn’t needed and didn’t when it was. Not a good
showing at all and unlike my previous positive experiences with
his officiating.
I do hope i’ll have a better report soon, it’s been a really
poor month of officiating for Colchester games!
#Post#: 101180--------------------------------------------------
Re: Sat 7th – Wed 11th FEB 2026
By: RCG Date: February 8, 2026, 4:31 am
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Thought the Cardiff Red by Stockbridge was very harsh - seemed
lots of other players in very close proximity- to use the
Scottish Collum test, would the next touch have been an attempt
on goal, probably not, YC seemed sufficient
#Post#: 101197--------------------------------------------------
Re: Sat 7th – Wed 11th FEB 2026
By: elbee94 Date: February 8, 2026, 9:40 am
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[quote author=RCG link=topic=7683.msg101180#msg101180
date=1770546687]
Thought the Cardiff Red by Stockbridge was very harsh - seemed
lots of other players in very close proximity- to use the
Scottish Collum test, would the next touch have been an attempt
on goal, probably not, YC seemed sufficient
[/quote]
I didn’t see it that way myself - I think it’s a hard argument
to suggest any of those covering defenders were better placed
than the attacker.
With the greatest respect, that Collum theory just isn’t
practical - Saliba’s red card at Bournemouth last season
probably the most extreme example
#Post#: 101241--------------------------------------------------
Re: Sat 7th – Wed 11th FEB 2026
By: Boz Date: February 8, 2026, 2:46 pm
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Gillingham FC (First Team) v Tranmere Rovers FC (First Team)
Football League 2
Referee: Hicks, Craig
Assistant Referee: Read, Greg
Assistant Referee: Finch, Stephen
Fourth Official: Norton, Matthew
I don't recall seeing AR Greg Read in action before. Having
already decided two Gillingham attacks were not offside, which
led to goal efforts, it was third time lucky for the hosts as
another ball forward from, saw Hale slot home, but my impression
both at the time, roughly in line with where the scorer was
stood and having viewed the match highlights was that the scorer
was in an offside position. While only seeing the two earlier
goal attempts once, they also appeared to be offside.
If the goal should have been chalked off, then Mr Read had a
more significant impact on the game than referee. Craig Hicks,
who was fairly unnoticeable for large periods of the game, which
is usually a good sign. I thought he should have had words with
the Gills scorer for going to goad the travelling fans after his
opener. Also having warned home keeper Morris about time wasting
, he didn't take any further action against the player when
appearing to continue. In fact the travelling fans started to
count to six when Morris was delaying taking his kicks, before
Mr Hicks did the hand-signals. Although 6 minutes time was added
at the end. These were fairly minor quibbles and overall Mr
Hicks had a reasonable game.
#Post#: 101250--------------------------------------------------
Re: Sat 7th – Wed 11th FEB 2026
By: Driver1123 Date: February 8, 2026, 9:14 pm
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[quote author=aaa link=topic=7683.msg101011#msg101011
date=1770048734]
Sat 7th Feb 2026
Bolton Wanderers FC (First Team) v Barnsley FC (First Team)
Football League 1
Referee: Oldham, Scott
Assistant Referee: Nolan, Oliver
Assistant Referee: Stonier, Paul
Fourth Official: Brown, Declan
[/quote]
As is often discussed, the standard of League One officiating is
poor and the team made several incorrect decisions and missed a
lot of things in favour/against both teams. At least that was
consistent. In fact, there was quite a lot that Scott Oldham
let go completely, again equally for both teams. There were, of
course, a couple of the usual "how come that was a yellow card
but an identical challenge the other way wasn't" as occurs in
every game. There was a rather bizarre drop ball for the ball
hitting the ref despite him ducking out of the way and it
clearly missing him.
The main talking point though was how Scott Oldham and Paul
Stonier (who was in line and looking straight at it) took no
action on the obvious out of the area handling by Owen Goodman
on 72 minutes where, with feet on and partially over the edge of
the line, he stooped further forward to catch and dive with the
ball.
[attachimg=1]
#Post#: 101402--------------------------------------------------
Re: Sat 7th – Wed 11th FEB 2026
By: TVOS Date: February 11, 2026, 6:40 pm
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Assistant Anthony Moore went off injured at Rochdale tonight,
replaced towards the end of the first half by fourth official
Darren Rogers.
#Post#: 101427--------------------------------------------------
Re: Sat 7th – Wed 11th FEB 2026
By: ajb95 Date: February 12, 2026, 2:10 pm
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[quote author=TVOS link=topic=7683.msg101402#msg101402
date=1770856802]
Assistant Anthony Moore went off injured at Rochdale tonight,
replaced towards the end of the first half by fourth official
Darren Rogers.
[/quote]
I know Anthony really well, and he’s struggled with injuries
quite bad these last 2-3 years and it has taken him the same
time to get back. Shame he’s injured again
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