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#Post#: 102727--------------------------------------------------
Re: Fri 13th – Wed 18th MAR 2026
By: Driver1123 Date: March 13, 2026, 2:36 pm
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[quote author=Driver1123 link=topic=7798.msg102649#msg102649
date=1773173336]
[quote author=elbee94 link=topic=7798.msg102585#msg102585
date=1773086200]
[quote author=Driver1123 link=topic=7798.msg102579#msg102579
date=1773079816]
The two games this week for Bolton both have Assistant Referees
as fourth official again. This means four consecutive league
games where the "eyes from the side" and, should it be needed,
the backup ref, have been AR level. I know they're still
trained and qualified officials and can referee at lower level,
and we've had AR as 4th for the EFL Trophy group stage games
(But not the "more serious" FA Cup or Carabao Cup fixtures).
But until 28th February, every league fixture had a National
List /SG2 referee, two assistants at the corresponding level and
a National List referee as fourth.
When we played the teams around us at the top of the table we
had either SG2 or, at least, very experienced National list
officials. Obviously because of the gravity of the fixture. So
why have we switched to using ARs as 4th suddenly for the last
few games now as we head towards the 'business' end of the
season? For matches involving teams like us being in the mix at
the top of the table - and equally for matches requiring key
decisions to affect the bottom of the table too - surely an
official at referee level should be in that support role for the
league games?
Since the merger of the lower steps and the incredibly long
National List nowadays there is no way we can be short of
qualified and experienced officials, is there?
[/quote]
I don’t see this as an issue myself - I haven’t checked back but
feels to me like a mix of AR/refs as 4O’s this season. And
whilst the referee is the senior figure, you’ve got double the
chance of needing a qualified assistant rather than a qualified
referee. If a game ends up with an assistant in charge and given
that nearly all of the most important games have a back up
referee assigned, I think you can put that down to bad luck. As
I say, if a referee acting as an assistant makes a bad call in
an important game, that’s also a foreseeable scenario.
[/quote]
I think it's a commonly forgotten point - even amongst officials
themselves - that a fourth official is not just a plinth to
support a numbers board, or a school type prefect telling
squabbling people in the dug out to stand in single file and
shut up. Nor are they only there "just in case" they need to
replace an AR or the ref.
They are, as the title suggests, a fourth match official
alongside the other three. On the pitch or not.
In a league where VAR does not exist, nor does goal line
technology (something else that would have been very useful in
the Bolton-Wycombe match on Saturday.....), the eyes, training
and experience of the fourth official are the only pitchside
resource that the referee - and also the clubs and fans - can
turn to and rely on to help and ensure the correct decisions are
made and the game is managed correctly. As I say, it rarely
happens that they submit any input, and I don't know why - such
as when a player gets fouled on the right side of the half way
line and, despite being less than 6 feet directly in front of
the 4O, he/she does not inform the referee who is still running
over from his/her viewpoint of it 30 yards away, or the
opposite: when a ref blows for a foul when none was committed,
the player won the ball fairly and the 4O clearly saw it. Or
even simpler than that, when the AR1 has clearly no idea whose
leg the ball came off for the throw-in and uses pure guesswork
over which arm to raise the flag in. A lot of the time it can
clearly be seen (from my seat in the stand behind the benches)
that the fourth saw it, and has even been seen to agree with the
relevant team manager when approached about it.
They are all mic'd up. They can all communicate. They need to
do so. And the right level of experience, confidence and
knowledge of what to look for is essential. The gameplay, pace
and flow of matches varies between divisions.....League One/Two
are a totally different game to the PL/Championship. This has
been seen both ways: When the newbie lower level officials
joined the National List and started appearing at matches higher
than they were used to, they struggled, and also when SG1/2 have
been allocated to League One/Two and have a different working
environment - without the previously mentioned tech backup and a
totally different standard of football, they also perform
differently.
Aside from any of that, of course, is the fact that there ARE
more experienced and senior officials available. A significant
number of them. If not injured or working their day job,
possibly sitting at home watching Sky Sports+, probably also
wondering why they're doing so, having been overlooked in favour
of those in a more junior lower level position. Or has the
season's budget been spent by this point and the lower ranks are
cheaper?....
As I say, apart from this run of 4 games (last two and next two)
we have had a referee as 4O for every other league fixture this
season. And it was the same for last season where a referee was
4O for every league game except the final day of the season, by
which point the final league positions of both teams had already
been confirmed so the result wasn't as important. So, since the
lists were merged and expanded from August 2024 up until 28th
February 2026, there was a referee on the sidelines for 79 of
the 80 league fixtures. That's not luck. So why have an AR for
fixtures 81-84 and possibly beyond?
[/quote]
The fact that Darren Drysdale was replaced last weekend by his
Fourth Official, Richard Carter (AR) highlights my point very
well, especially as Mr Drysdale is supposed to be the ref at our
match on Tuesday evening with another AR as his 4O.
#Post#: 102739--------------------------------------------------
Re: Fri 13th – Wed 18th MAR 2026
By: Sean43211 Date: March 14, 2026, 8:21 am
---------------------------------------------------------
Happy also with Paul but few times I’ve seen him he’s been not
what I’ve thought he’d be like but today’s game I will see what
he is like
#Post#: 102742--------------------------------------------------
Re: Fri 13th – Wed 18th MAR 2026
By: Ryanellis Date: March 14, 2026, 10:54 am
---------------------------------------------------------
Crewe Alexandra FC (First Team) v Walsall FC (First Team)
Football League 2
Referee: Parkinson, Stephen
Assistant Referee: Smith, Daniel
Assistant Referee: Guest, Danny
Fourth Official: Mustafa, Zharir
It’s only half time, and already an extremely poor half by all 4
officials. The Walsall goal was at least 2 yards offside - I was
directly in line with it. Then the Walsall penalty was a
fantastic tackle by our keeper, thank god it was saved. Never a
pen. Only 1 min added was extremely poor too. Considering how
long the pen took to take and then the Walsall goal including
time wasting, I expected 4.
Needs to be a much better half as Crewe’s faithful are already
extremely annoyed.
#Post#: 102748--------------------------------------------------
Re: Fri 13th – Wed 18th MAR 2026
By: Sean43211 Date: March 14, 2026, 12:11 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
Well I needing have posted as Mr Marsden another bad game,
missed an obvious red card for me but yellow was given. At some
point I felt he couldn’t control the game for both teams he
seems very indecisive on handing cards out wonder how he got
marked but the assessor in attendance
#Post#: 102764--------------------------------------------------
Re: Fri 13th – Wed 18th MAR 2026
By: Sean43211 Date: March 14, 2026, 2:05 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
I generally don’t know how he can get games, although speaking
to our fans they were seemly in agreements of Paul’s
performances from today and past ones. How many demotion can one
referee have I wonder
#Post#: 102765--------------------------------------------------
Re: Fri 13th – Wed 18th MAR 2026
By: Ryanellis Date: March 14, 2026, 2:08 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
[quote author=Ryanellis link=topic=7798.msg102742#msg102742
date=1773503644]
Crewe Alexandra FC (First Team) v Walsall FC (First Team)
Football League 2
Referee: Parkinson, Stephen
Assistant Referee: Smith, Daniel
Assistant Referee: Guest, Danny
Fourth Official: Mustafa, Zharir
It’s only half time, and already an extremely poor half by all 4
officials. The Walsall goal was at least 2 yards offside - I was
directly in line with it. Then the Walsall penalty was a
fantastic tackle by our keeper, thank god it was saved. Never a
pen. Only 1 min added was extremely poor too. Considering how
long the pen took to take and then the Walsall goal including
time wasting, I expected 4.
Needs to be a much better half as Crewe’s faithful are already
extremely annoyed.
[/quote]
This trend continued in the second half, absolutely woeful. Such
a stop start game all caused by him. Every time someone went
down he gave it. Didn’t cut down on any time wasting whatsoever,
and let Walsall players walk from one side of the pitch to the
other for a sub.
Crewe had 4 corners all game, and all 4 he gave a foul against
us. One of them all Crewe players were stood there so confused,
I certainly hadn’t seen anything!
Something Stephen needs to learn is that football is a contact
sport and isn’t netball therefore not every bit of contact
results in a foul.
There’s a lot more things I could say….
Abysmal is not even close. A generous 2/10 because had a whistle
and didn’t wear y*llow!
#Post#: 102770--------------------------------------------------
Re: Fri 13th – Wed 18th MAR 2026
By: Acme Thunderer Date: March 14, 2026, 2:40 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
[quote author=Ryanellis link=topic=7798.msg102765#msg102765
date=1773515305]
[quote author=Ryanellis link=topic=7798.msg102742#msg102742
date=1773503644]
Crewe Alexandra FC (First Team) v Walsall FC (First Team)
Football League 2
Referee: Parkinson, Stephen
Assistant Referee: Smith, Daniel
Assistant Referee: Guest, Danny
Fourth Official: Mustafa, Zharir
It’s only half time, and already an extremely poor half by all 4
officials. The Walsall goal was at least 2 yards offside - I was
directly in line with it. Then the Walsall penalty was a
fantastic tackle by our keeper, thank god it was saved. Never a
pen. Only 1 min added was extremely poor too. Considering how
long the pen took to take and then the Walsall goal including
time wasting, I expected 4.
Needs to be a much better half as Crewe’s faithful are already
extremely annoyed.
[/quote]
This trend continued in the second half, absolutely woeful. Such
a stop start game all caused by him. Every time someone went
down he gave it. Didn’t cut down on any time wasting whatsoever,
and let Walsall players walk from one side of the pitch to the
other for a sub.
Crewe had 4 corners all game, and all 4 he gave a foul against
us. One of them all Crewe players were stood there so confused,
I certainly hadn’t seen anything!
Something Stephen needs to learn is that football is a contact
sport and isn’t netball therefore not every bit of contact
results in a foul.
There’s a lot more things I could say….
Abysmal is not even close. A generous 2/10 because had a whistle
and didn’t wear y*llow!
[/quote]
I'm entirely in agreement with your assessment of Mr Parkinson.
I could not believe it when the 1st Walsall goal was allowed, it
looked oh-so-offside, but it was down to AR2 Danny Guest to
raise his flag, and the lack of protest from the Crewe players
seemed to suggest that I/we were missing something or maybe the
Crewe players were too shell-shocked to protest. The Walsall
penalty was frankly a joke in my view, the Crewe goalie had his
hands on the ball for goodness sake. 2nd half Mr Parkinson was a
bit better, but some of his decisions were still frankly soft or
a mystery to me. One positive, I thought the yellow cards were
all justified and I liked the colour of his shirt. Mr Parkinson
can't be blamed for Crewe's abject performance but I was hoping
to see better from him this afternoon and in this, I was
disappointed. PS I got soaked on the walk home, so not a good
end to the afternoon!
#Post#: 102783--------------------------------------------------
Re: Fri 13th – Wed 18th MAR 2026
By: Ryanellis Date: March 14, 2026, 4:36 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
[quote author=Acme Thunderer link=topic=7798.msg102770#msg102770
date=1773517203]
[quote author=Ryanellis link=topic=7798.msg102765#msg102765
date=1773515305]
[quote author=Ryanellis link=topic=7798.msg102742#msg102742
date=1773503644]
Crewe Alexandra FC (First Team) v Walsall FC (First Team)
Football League 2
Referee: Parkinson, Stephen
Assistant Referee: Smith, Daniel
Assistant Referee: Guest, Danny
Fourth Official: Mustafa, Zharir
It’s only half time, and already an extremely poor half by all 4
officials. The Walsall goal was at least 2 yards offside - I was
directly in line with it. Then the Walsall penalty was a
fantastic tackle by our keeper, thank god it was saved. Never a
pen. Only 1 min added was extremely poor too. Considering how
long the pen took to take and then the Walsall goal including
time wasting, I expected 4.
Needs to be a much better half as Crewe’s faithful are already
extremely annoyed.
[/quote]
This trend continued in the second half, absolutely woeful. Such
a stop start game all caused by him. Every time someone went
down he gave it. Didn’t cut down on any time wasting whatsoever,
and let Walsall players walk from one side of the pitch to the
other for a sub.
Crewe had 4 corners all game, and all 4 he gave a foul against
us. One of them all Crewe players were stood there so confused,
I certainly hadn’t seen anything!
Something Stephen needs to learn is that football is a contact
sport and isn’t netball therefore not every bit of contact
results in a foul.
There’s a lot more things I could say….
Abysmal is not even close. A generous 2/10 because had a whistle
and didn’t wear y*llow!
[/quote]
I'm entirely in agreement with your assessment of Mr Parkinson.
I could not believe it when the 1st Walsall goal was allowed, it
looked oh-so-offside, but it was down to AR2 Danny Guest to
raise his flag, and the lack of protest from the Crewe players
seemed to suggest that I/we were missing something or maybe the
Crewe players were too shell-shocked to protest. The Walsall
penalty was frankly a joke in my view, the Crewe goalie had his
hands on the ball for goodness sake. 2nd half Mr Parkinson was a
bit better, but some of his decisions were still frankly soft or
a mystery to me. One positive, I thought the yellow cards were
all justified and I liked the colour of his shirt. Mr Parkinson
can't be blamed for Crewe's abject performance but I was hoping
to see better from him this afternoon and in this, I was
disappointed. PS I got soaked on the walk home, so not a good
end to the afternoon!
[/quote]
Ironically, as I work at Crewe, I was directly behind AR2 when
the Walsall opening goal went in. He was not even in line! 100%
offside. A very very poor decision that set the tone for the
rest of the game…
I also got soaked on the way home! Considering no rain was due
😂
#Post#: 102785--------------------------------------------------
Re: Fri 13th – Wed 18th MAR 2026
By: TheThingFromLewes Date: March 14, 2026, 4:49 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
Crewe are awfully inconsistent at the moment….
#Post#: 102788--------------------------------------------------
Re: Fri 13th – Wed 18th MAR 2026
By: TheThingFromLewes Date: March 14, 2026, 5:13 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
[quote author=Sean43211 link=topic=7798.msg102748#msg102748
date=1773508295]
Well I needing have posted as Mr Marsden another bad game,
missed an obvious red card for me but yellow was given. At some
point I felt he couldn’t control the game for both teams he
seems very indecisive on handing cards out wonder how he got
marked but the assessor in attendance
[/quote]
Sounds like a standard performance. He was demoted in the olden
days and now in the new age of things still gets decent games.
I’m baffled.
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