Quote Originally Posted by champs95 View Post
In your opinion it was clear Auks.
But It was not clear to the Ref, or the linesman. The lad himself didn't really appeal.
If you have ever played football at a certain standard (not 5 a side with work mates on a tues night after work) the pace in which tackles are made are often lost once you have sat and watched 8 times in slow-mo on TV thousands of miles away. The tackle takes place in real time. The lad had slightly lost control, knew the tackle was coming and fell into him, but crucially, he was already slipping over. Before any contact. Then he made sure contact was made.
Contact FYI in case you have forgotten is allowed. Where did you want Smallwood go? Float up to space and allow the lad to score? I'm sure that's what Bruce wanted aswell.
The ref was about 5/6 yards from it, and had a perfect view. I was sat about 10/12 yards away. And saw the same angle. Live ...in play,. as it happened.
Not 15 times via slow-mo. The ref doesn't get that luxury.
I've never said it was clear or that the referee SHOULD have given it. As you say, these are split-second decisions and some will be wrong.
My argument is that if it had happened the other way round, the vast majority of Rovers fans would have been calling the ref for a poor decision.
Bottom line, the technology enables us to see afterwards if it "should" have been a penalty or not. In this case, I reckon a panel of ten referees would have been split fairly evenly.