Quote Originally Posted by flourbasher View Post
If there's 32000 packed into Pride Park and you're the ref, would you side with 900 away fans or placate 30000 home fans to keep them off your back


Would you rather face the wrath of Paul Warne at full time or five minutes of Wayne Rooney criticising you on national TV.

Self preservation and it certainly does happen like that
The thing is with that flour is that if a referee starts doing that on a regular basis at that level of football, than they will get found out, and players as well as managers, will lose all respect for him
Yes it's easy to say that the ref will go with the bigger shout for anything from the bigger clubs, but the better referees give it as they see it and that's why certain referees over the years always seem to get the major games because they react to what they see rather than what they hear.
I've watched the smudge sending off a few times and I think it's their player Paterson who's in the refs ear just before the red card comes out, and I've already said that I thought the ref had a good game, because he allowed the game to flow and didnt give a foul just because a player from either side went down, however, the sending off tainted that performance and I cant begin to think how any of us would have felt had we lost the game and then knowing the red card had been overturned......fine lines UTM