3 apologies from assessors this season with 1 to come

Neal Ardley has revealed how he has received three apologies from refereeing assessors over controversial decisions that have gone against Notts County this season.

And the Magpies boss is expecting another one after Jimmy Knowles’ goal against Hartlepool was wrongly ruled out for offside in Monday’s 1-0 defeat at Meadow Lane.

Replays on Notts’ streaming service showed he was a yard on but Ardley claimed referee Simon Mather was not interested in watching the incident after the game.

To compound his misery, Kyle Wootton also appeared to be bundled over when going clean through on goal by Ryan Johnson, but play was allowed to continue.

While Ardley is eager to improve refereeing standards, he says it is has almost become a futile exercise.

“Kyle Wootton gets thrown to the floor when he is clean through on goal and gets nothing,” he said.

“And that’s the point. Because Kyle’s through on goal it becomes a decision that needs courage to make and that’s when he took the easy option.

“It’s easy to give one for their guy who cleared the ball and falls over which is what happened in the first half.

“But I know what will happen. We will send the clips off and I will get the ‘apologies Neal’ in return.

“They have an assessor that goes into it who will tell us we have had a goal taken away from us and it has cost us the game.

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“It’s happened three times already this season, but I am not allowed to go into it.

“You then ask what happens to the ref because he’s changed the outcome of a game with the decisions, but nothing ever does.


“He’ll get the next game, paid the same amount of money and he will move on.

“We could send them nine clips of the ref on Monday asking for them to please explain this, this and this.

“The inconsistency drives you nuts.”

https://www.nottinghampost.com/sport...ardley-4838088

You make your own luck in football. Its no good having plenty of possesion and then not having enough bodies in the box to convert the chances. Ardley is just using these apologies as another excuse as to why we have lost.. He needs to change the record for once...

We play at the fifth level. Therefore we get 5th rate match officials. If Ardley wants consistency then he should ask for robots to do the job. Humans are not consistent. Sometimes you get lucky, sometimes not.

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Originally Posted by ivansneck

We play at the fifth level. Therefore we get 5th rate match officials. If Ardley wants consistency then he should ask for robots to do the job. Humans are not consistent. Sometimes you get lucky, sometimes not.

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Or he could try for promotion...

The footballers at this level are generally poor, so why shouldn't the officials?

It comes part and parcel of being in tier 5. We all used to bemoan the standard of referees when we were in league one and league two. The standard is not going to be any better the lower down the pyramid you go and is probably worse by default.

Like players there will be some good officials on their way up that will go onto to bigger and better things. Of course mistakes can be costly and it's annoying, frustrating and infuriating when these things happen. That's also why we need to be more clinical in games like yesterday going forward to rise above refereeing errors.

All the more reason and motivation to get promoted out of this league at the earliest opportunity.

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Originally Posted by MAD_MAGPIE

It comes part and parcel of being in tier 5. We all used to bemoan the standard of referees when we were in league one and league two. The standard is not going to be any better the lower down the pyramid you go and is probably worse by default.

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That's true, because whatever level they officiate at they are bound to make mistakes.

It's just a bit hard to take when all the mistakes are in favour of one team.

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Originally Posted by Elite_Pie

That's true, because whatever level they officiate at they are bound to make mistakes.

It's just a bit hard to take when all the mistakes are in favour of one team.

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This is true and sometimes can make one wonder if they are actually all mistakes...

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Originally Posted by SwalePie

This is true and sometimes can make one wonder if they are actually all mistakes...

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What we don't know is how many times assessors have apologised to Notts' opposition this season about mistakes, it might be more than 3. We're only getting half the story here.

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Originally Posted by ivansneck

What we don't know is how many times assessors have apologised to Notts' opposition this season about mistakes, it might be more than 3. We're only getting half the story here.

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That's a good point. Guess I'm naturally biased with Matlock being a ref, but the quality is very much impacted by the pool you have to choose from. The sad reality is that most refs pack up long before they get to the FL, or even the NL.

These days, the abuse starts with aggressive parents on the touchline watching their children play. If you can be arsed with dealing with that, you can gradually make your way up the steps, and move on to bring abused by adults instead. So that could take the form of yelling, swearing, being shoved, being hit, having some fat bloke take his shirt off to hit you (why do people do that?), death threats, and being threatened in the car park after the game. Really, why would anyone bother to give up their evening or part of their weekend for £25 - £30 plus travel just to face that?

All of the above are regular occurrences, and unless you're exceptionally passionate about reffing or stupid, why on earth would anyone do it? That's the root of the problem.
Most leagues are desperately short of refs, and that's why. By the time you get to NL level most refs will have dropped out (including many really good ones) and there's a small number left, some of whom won't be of the standard we'd all want.

Also, afraid I don't buy the biased refs thing at our level, it's down to human error or incompetence.