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#Post#: 111420--------------------------------------------------
Tom Reeves - Norwich v Birmingham
DIR By: carrowman
Date: September 9, 2026, 4:54 pm
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Another poor performance from the referee at Carrow Road this
season.
How can you create more problems with the 5 second countdown at
throw ins? You wait 5 seconds hoping the thrower is going to
take the throw, realise he isn't and then start counting.
Telling players where to take throw ins from and when they then
take another 5 yards and does nothing.
But the main problem, he was so inconsistent, booking Norwich
players for shirt pulls, but not Birmingham players for the same
offence. Totally lost control at the end when Norwich had the
ball in the corner, allowed Birmingham to be very physical but
let them get away with it.
Possibly two penalties not given and the AR giving offside for a
Birmingham "goal" which probably was onside.
#Post#: 111428--------------------------------------------------
Re: Tom Reeves - Norwich v Birmingham
DIR By: carrowman
Date: September 10, 2026, 4:29 am
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[/quote]
Would you like me to state that they were definite penalties
when they were up the other end from where i was sitting. The
fact that those sitting closer including the press believe they
were.
May i suggest that if that is the correct way to control throws
then yet again the powers that be haven't really improved the
situation and will just get the crowd frustrated with the
perceived time wasting.
Even the Birmingham manager said that in 118 games he has never
been so disappointed with the officials.
Perhaps we should just not bother making any comments, it will
soon become a very boring forum.
#Post#: 111429--------------------------------------------------
Re: Tom Reeves - Norwich v Birmingham
DIR By: ShoeRef
Date: September 10, 2026, 4:59 am
---------------------------------------------------------
--- Quote from: carrowman link ---
>
> [quote author=ShoeRef link=topic=8389.msg111427#msg111427
date=1789030105]
>
>
--- End Quote ---
Would you like me to state that they were definite penalties
when they were up the other end from where i was sitting. The
fact that those sitting closer including the press believe they
were.
May i suggest that if that is the correct way to control throws
then yet again the powers that be haven't really improved the
situation and will just get the crowd frustrated with the
perceived time wasting.
Even the Birmingham manager said that in 118 games he has never
been so disappointed with the officials.
Perhaps we should just not bother making any comments, it will
soon become a very boring forum.
[/quote]
There are plenty of fans forums for rose tinted opinions of
referees. My understanding (although a mod may correct me) is
that this forum is for honest opinions on refereeing
performances (which I agree aren't always good) coming from an
unbiased perspective involving correctly applying the laws as
they're asked to be implemented. If that's not your thing, then
maybe it will be boring to you, but to others, it's interesting.
#Post#: 111437--------------------------------------------------
Re: Tom Reeves - Norwich v Birmingham
DIR By: elbee94
Date: September 10, 2026, 7:14 am
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I watched most of this on iFollow, I think Tom Reeves got some
things right and some things wrong - i’d describe it as a mildly
poor performance. Thought he got the Schwartau dive correct,
most yellows were correct by law but think he could have saved
himself a few bookings by not going to his pocket so early. He
was definitely too slow to start the countdown, especially on
Norwich goal kicks and Birmingham attacking throws. Mistake by
AR2 to disallow Birmingham’s goal and a missed penalty on Makama
at the end.
Tom Reeves was one of my favourite referees when he first joined
the EFL list, but I do feel he’s declined in recent times,
despite a promotion. He looks a lot more fussy than he once did
and perhaps a little more stern.
I will add to Shoe’s comment though and say that every Norwich
report I read on here seems to be a critical one. We never seem
to hear about good refereeing performances at Carrow Road, which
can have an impact on the reliability of a match report. In this
case, I agree with some of your sentiments though.
#Post#: 111439--------------------------------------------------
Re: Tom Reeves - Norwich v Birmingham
DIR By: ShoeRef
Date: September 10, 2026, 8:49 am
---------------------------------------------------------
--- Quote from: elbee94 link ---
>
> I watched most of this on iFollow, I think Tom Reeves got some
things right and some things wrong - i’d describe it as a mildly
poor performance. Thought he got the Schwartau dive correct,
most yellows were correct by law but think he could have saved
himself a few bookings by not going to his pocket so early. He
was definitely too slow to start the countdown, especially on
Norwich goal kicks and Birmingham attacking throws. Mistake by
AR2 to disallow Birmingham’s goal and a missed penalty on Makama
at the end.
>
> Tom Reeves was one of my favourite referees when he first
joined the EFL list, but I do feel he’s declined in recent
times, despite a promotion. He looks a lot more fussy than he
once did and perhaps a little more stern.
>
> I will add to Shoe’s comment though and say that every Norwich
report I read on here seems to be a critical one. We never seem
to hear about good refereeing performances at Carrow Road, which
can have an impact on the reliability of a match report. In this
case, I agree with some of your sentiments though.
>
--- End Quote ---
My comment, in fairness, wasn't a defence of Tom's performance,
which I haven't seen. I don't think I've ever actually seen him
referee, but it was just pointing out some issues with the way
the report reads and the fact that, as you say, the original
poster never reports on a good refereeing performance at CR.
#Post#: 111442--------------------------------------------------
Re: Tom Reeves - Norwich v Birmingham
DIR By: Acme Thunderer
Date: September 10, 2026, 9:44 am
---------------------------------------------------------
I've liked both of the first two posts, although I don't like
the ref to 'I've learned not to give too much credence...' That
may seem a bit odd but that is surely what this Forum is all
about, differing views which we may not agree with but can
'like' for being made as the poster sees it.
#Post#: 111447--------------------------------------------------
Re: Tom Reeves - Norwich v Birmingham
DIR By: rustyref
Date: September 10, 2026, 10:21 am
---------------------------------------------------------
People mistakenly think the 5 second count is from when the ball
goes out of play, it isn't and rather is from the time the
referee believes the taker has unfairly delayed the throw. So
your criticise of Tom Reeves in that respect is unfair as he is
doing exactly what the new law says, as below, if you are going
to criticise a referee you really need to know the law that you
are saying he messed up.
[I]If a player is unfairly delaying the taking of a throw-in for
their team, the referee will whistle and signal the start of a
five-second countdown.[/i]
#Post#: 111449--------------------------------------------------
Re: Tom Reeves - Norwich v Birmingham
DIR By: carrowman
Date: September 10, 2026, 10:50 am
---------------------------------------------------------
--- Quote from: rustyref link ---
>
> People mistakenly think the 5 second count is from when the
ball goes out of play, it isn't and rather is from the time the
referee believes the taker has unfairly delayed the throw. So
your criticise of Tom Reeves in that respect is unfair as he is
doing exactly what the new law says, as below, if you are going
to criticise a referee you really need to know the law that you
are saying he messed up.
>
> [I]If a player is unfairly delaying the taking of a throw-in
for their team, the referee will whistle and signal the start of
a five-second countdown.[/i]
>
--- End Quote ---
I and I think most of the crowd know it's not when it goes out
and is in the throwers hands and it should be like when the
goalkeeper has the ball under control. They don't get any
further allowance. As stated I think there is no need to wait
before starting the count it just creates an unnecessary
problem.
#Post#: 111450--------------------------------------------------
Re: Tom Reeves - Norwich v Birmingham
DIR By: elbee94
Date: September 10, 2026, 11:02 am
---------------------------------------------------------
--- Quote from: rustyref link ---
>
> People mistakenly think the 5 second count is from when the
ball goes out of play, it isn't and rather is from the time the
referee believes the taker has unfairly delayed the throw. So
your criticise of Tom Reeves in that respect is unfair as he is
doing exactly what the new law says, as below, if you are going
to criticise a referee you really need to know the law that you
are saying he messed up.
>
> [I]If a player is unfairly delaying the taking of a throw-in
for their team, the referee will whistle and signal the start of
a five-second countdown.[/i]
>
--- End Quote ---
I don’t think the rule was misunderstood by me or Carrowman.
For Birmingham attacking throws, it was taking the striker about
10 seconds to get to the touchline and then another 15 seconds
to throw the ball in. A process that could have been completed
in under 10-15 seconds overall, so I would say he’s wasting at
least 10 seconds on each long throw, but Tom rarely had started
the countdown by the time the throw was taken.
As for Norwich goal kicks, I clocked onto a tactic that Norwich
appear to use the whistle to start the countdown as an indicator
to play the ball. Yesterday, this was usually after about 10
seconds of having a goalkeeper and 2 defenders standing in the
box ready to play a short goal kick.
In my view, Tom’s management of restarts wasn’t applying the new
laws forcefully enough.
#Post#: 111451--------------------------------------------------
Re: Tom Reeves - Norwich v Birmingham
DIR By: rustyref
Date: September 10, 2026, 11:31 am
---------------------------------------------------------
--- Quote from: carrowman link ---
>
> [quote author=rustyref link=topic=8389.msg111447#msg111447
date=1789053701]
> People mistakenly think the 5 second count is from when the
ball goes out of play, it isn't and rather is from the time the
referee believes the taker has unfairly delayed the throw. So
your criticise of Tom Reeves in that respect is unfair as he is
doing exactly what the new law says, as below, if you are going
to criticise a referee you really need to know the law that you
are saying he messed up.
>
> [I]If a player is unfairly delaying the taking of a throw-in
for their team, the referee will whistle and signal the start of
a five-second countdown.[/i]
>
--- End Quote ---
I and I think most of the crowd know it's not when it goes out
and is in the throwers hands and it should be like when the
goalkeeper has the ball under control. They don't get any
further allowance. As stated I think there is no need to wait
before starting the count it just creates an unnecessary
problem.
[/quote]
That isn't what you said though ...
--- Quote ---
> You wait 5 seconds hoping the thrower is going to take the
throw, realise he isn't and then start counting.
--- End Quote ---
5 seconds isn't an excessive amount of time, so waiting 5
seconds before starting counting is literally what the law
expects the referee to do. The law change was because players
were taking 30+ seconds, even longer in some cases, to take the
throw.
It is totally different to when the keeper has control, as that
starts from when they pick it up unless someone is preventing
them from releasing it. Allowing 5 seconds for someone to pick
out a team mate to throw the ball to doesn't feel excessive to
me, and I very much doubt the law makers were looking at as low
as 5 seconds when this law change was made.
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