Saturday Adventures

In my last blog article, I wrote about some of the Everton 'characters' and wondered if they'd all be there. Well, the ones I listed were all there and what a day it was for one of them: 'Referee Hater'.

The man seems to love hurling abuse at anyone who wear the referee's uniform, no matter who it is or how they're refereeing the game. What a day he must have had. He must have got home and his Mrs said 'Good day?'

RH* replies 'Yes, fantastic.'

Mrs RH responds 'Oh good, they won then?'

'No we lost' he says.

'Well why so happy?'

'The referee had a shocker!' He answers with a huge grin on his face. 'Can't believe it, that was the worst refereeing performance since Clattenburg in '07!'

Because let's face it, Martin Atkinson had a shocker. I very much enjoyed the eagerly anticipated (by me) Merseyside derby but I can't help but think it would have been better, with a better final result had the 'ref' not sent off Jack Rodwell for an excellent tackle on Luis 'DivesALot' Suarez. I expect it would have at least finished in a draw, with Everton the more likely to have won, judging by how the first 20 minutes panned out before the sending off.

The point is that the rules on football have gone loopy. Whenever a player's foot leaves the ground for a tackle nowadays he's sent off, even if he does win the ball. It's ridiculous. It spoils games and ruins one of the arts of football: tackling. It additionally punishes players who are good at this art. It's got to stop otherwise the game will not be as good anymore, and we'll get more and more games with less than 11 players on the pitch for each team.

It was however, like I say, an enjoyable day that just missed the more ideal result of Everton winning. I'll look forward to the next Goodison Park Merseyside derby. Maybe God will treat me to an FA Cup and/ or Carling Cup clash between the two rivals at Goodison Park. Or Wembley? Oh the thought of that does make me dream!


*Referee Hater