EFL Refereeing Abomination Journal 25/26

[funkyrobot]

Terrible referee. Biased with his bookings, ensured set pieces took an absolute age. There’s was one Stoke set piece in the second half when the ref almost acted as a set coach for Stoke. He took 2 minutes to line up a wall and lecture the Leicester player marking the guy stood just off our wall. He also stopped play continually to speak to players.

[davieG]

30 minutes ago, funkyrobot said:

Terrible referee. Biased with his bookings, ensured set pieces took an absolute age. There’s was one Stoke set piece in the second half when the ref almost acted as a set coach for Stoke. He took 2 minutes to line up a wall and lecture the Leicester player marking the guy stood just off our wall. He also stopped play continually to speak to players.

I've always said the refs are the biggest time wasters.

 

I also don't understand why you can't take a quick freekick when you're within shooting distance of the goal. If the field is not set properly that's up to the defence to move quickly and if it fails then tough on the freekick taker.

[moseeds]

Thought most of our cards were deserved. He didn't have a particularly bad game (objectively) although the Leicester players seemed to have picked up Ayew's Fall'on d'floor techniques, which the ref cottoned on to. Stoke's players were faster and stronger than ours which for quite a fair bit of the game we couldn't handle and resorted to taking to the green carpet in protest. Quite enjoyed Luke's mismatched tussles with their right winger. Also all home fans love having a pop at the ref it's what got the atmosphere going, so cheers ref! 

[UniFox21]

The booking for Mav jumping up into a defender was laughable 

[lanefox]

Awarding a throw in when Fatawu got tackled was the icing on the cake 

[fazzyfox]

Not just bad but odd. Do assessors watch them? What goes in the report. “Turned up, acted odd, made weird decisions, let big stuff go, clamped down on little stuff, all a bit odd.”

[iancognito]

Card-happy buffoon. 2 of the 6 were deserved but we spent the game getting kicked in the air and somehow got 5 more cards than them.

 

Mickey Mouse league with Mickey Mouse refs.

[The Doctor]

47 minutes ago, lanefox said:

Awarding a throw in when Fatawu got tackled was the icing on the cake 

ball was already out of play when he starts to go for the tackle, which makes it even more laughable he only got a yellow 

[Lloyd90]

Do we get a fine for getting 6 yellow cards?

in the prem you get a £25,000 fine - not sure if it applies to the EFL.

i doubt it as clubs in league 2 etc couldn’t afford this.

[Corky]

Loved his time wasting. Urgency was not his forte. I don't think he got any of the yellows incorrect but was generally just slow.

[davieG]

Stoke City should have given Leicester 'bloody nose' says Mark Robins

Link to the article in the comment

Stoke Sentinel

 

 

Well they tried to literally do that and the ref let them.

[Bert]

1 hour ago, The Doctor said:

ball was already out of play when he starts to go for the tackle, which makes it even more laughable he only got a yellow 

Plus it was two footed with force from behind. 
 

It was right in front of me and he kept asking the Lino who was dead close to be fair. 

[CloudFox]

12 minutes ago, Bert said:

Plus it was two footed with force from behind. 
 

It was right in front of me and he kept asking the Lino who was dead close to be fair. 

The ref kept asking the lino?

[FoxesTez]

Another ref that thinks we go the game to watch them. No horrendous calls but just made a bad game even worse with the length of stoppages and pettiness. 

[Gamble92]

If my missus put her hands on me as much as Wilmot did Daka yesterday I wouldn't be filing for divorce

 

Lets put it that way 

[crisp packet]

Lino in front of east stand was awful.

[Guest worth_the_wait]

11 hours ago, iancognito said:

Card-happy buffoon. 2 of the 6 were deserved but we spent the game getting kicked in the air and somehow got 5 more cards than them.

 

Mickey Mouse league with Mickey Mouse refs.

Which makes it annoying when one of our defenders (no names, but he plays at left back), get himself needlessly booked ... and so doesn't have that booking up his sleeve for when he really needs "to take one for the team".    And he did need it yesterday.

[lanefox]

13 minutes ago, crisp packet said:

Lino in front of east stand was awful.

1st half some very questionable offside calls against us

[Kinowe Soorie]

Shite official’s yesterday. 

[CUJimmy]

The standard was set after about 2 minutes when we were given a throw in in the LB position which was clearly their ball but after that nothing much seemed to go our way.  From our seat we look straight down the touch line and their guy heading the ball back in from a good yard off the pitch was a particular highlight.

 

The challenge on Fatawu in injury time looked bad from where we are, we wondered if the ref’s weak response was the cause of the handbags in our penalty area shortly afterwards.

 

I seem to remember a few years back, just after 15-16, when we stopped getting penalties.  The story was that the referees had decided that Vardy was a diver so gave us nothing for ages.  I wonder if that is the situation with Daka, yes he does get muscled off the ball too easily but he did get held a lot yesterday.

[ealingfox]

The EFL/PGMOL joint meeting after the latest PSR charges news dropped:

 

Edited 23 November 2025 by ealingfox

[BKLFox]

13 hours ago, Lloyd90 said:

Do we get a fine for getting 6 yellow cards?

in the prem you get a £25,000 fine - not sure if it applies to the EFL.

i doubt it as clubs in league 2 etc couldn’t afford this.

We also received 6 yellows during the Boro game, which was again laughable as we seemed to be getting smashed by their players who only received 1 yellow & a red (last few minutes for that)

Both Brittain & Conway could have received reds and probably should have received a red in the case of Brittain for his persistent fouling and the constant chasing, surrounding  and barracking at the ref but he never even received a yellow.

 

Anyway the commentator did mention, at 5 yellows we were 1 away from a fine and obviously we got that 6th card but not heard anything on it since & doing a quick search seems we don’t get fined in the championship so he was probably confusing himself with premier rules also.

[foxinsocks]

Very poor yesterday.  The epl is being messed up.  The efl is worse.  The authorities need to get a grip

[FrankieADZ]

17 hours ago, UniFox21 said:

The booking for Mav jumping up into a defender was laughable 

and what makes things worse with that is the stoke number 9 did the same thing in the second half too

 

the ref yesterday was one of the worst ive seen the part 3/4 years, 

[Robo61]

15 hours ago, lanefox said:

Awarding a throw in when Fatawu got tackled was the icing on the cake 

The linesman had put up the flag for ball being out before Fatawu was clattered into,  so the ref got that one right.  I agree though in general he was a poor ref.