Dagenham v Wrexham tonight

[OP67]

Starting this thread early because I see Wrexham fans are already getting worried about the ref for tonight. Lloyd Wood comes from Dagenham apparently. It does seem strange but that's the National League for you.
http://www.redpassion.co.uk/forums/w...-ts-ps-12.html

I particularly found this comment...

"Despite the result, D and R looked like a pub team to me against County. Even with Howard in goal, we should win this comfortably"

[Davy500]

Have you seen every minute of all their games though? How many penalties should they have been awarded but weren't?

It's a fact that Mullin is an expert at drawing contact in the box and turning that into a penalty, I agree, but according to Wrexham fans, they've also been on the end of some poor decisions. I have no idea as I don't watch their games.

Even if they have been luckier than us over the course of the season (I have no idea if that is true or not), it doesn't mean the only explanation is corruption. **** happens.

Quite possible they have not been given penalties in games where they were winning comfortably enough. I am talking about the games that were draws, and penalties that on looking at replays never were, and it's happened in enough of those games to help them gain significantly more points.
You are correct in saying that Mullin is an excellent player with lots of league experience, so it is quite possible that he can con referees but when the same referee gives them a penalty for nothing and he then sees Langstaff hauled to the ground blatantly, for me that is bias. Being crap does just not cover that degree of incompetence.

[Bushwacka]

Obviously its not naïve and paranoid because they have got the favourable decisions in the tight matches, which have given them the points. In theory they should be neutral , but there is no truly neutral person alive, we are all influenced by some degree, to socialisation, and more specifically media presence. As i have stated before this is what i think is happening in this case. It's the halo effect, where things or people that have high social status, get the benefit of the doubt in 50/50 situations, where regular people do not.

I understand there may be an unconscious bias when you have 70,000 fans screaming handball at Old Trafford, that you won't have when a few hundred are grumbling at Boreham Wood. That's human nature. But when fans make out it's 'blatant cheating' (as many often do, for all clubs), that's paranoia.

[Davy500]

This is been going on long enough in football at all levels
There are many disgruntled fans of opposing teams. Its a fact that big teams with big social media presence get the benefit of refereeing decisions, examples, Liverpool recently when they won the premiership, getting a lot of 1-0 wins with dubious penalty decisions, Man Utd. under Fergusson, when drawing always getting 10 mins added on to games ,the funny thing is they didn't win the league when they stopped getting these favourable decisions NEED I SAY MORE

[Davy500]

I understand there may be an unconscious bias when you have 70,000 fans screaming handball at Old Trafford, that you won't have when a few hundred are grumbling at Boreham Wood. That's human nature. But when fans make out it's 'blatant cheating' (as many often do, for all clubs), that's paranoia.

Possible but not likely there has been cheating. However there have been numerous stories that have emerged years later that have admitted cheating in one form or another. Grobbelaar the Liverpool keeper admitted matches had been fixed. In fact another example concerning to Notts was admitted years later by Graham Souness, a long time ago when Notts were last at the the top level, we were playing Liverpool at home and were leading 1-0 at half time. Souness admitted that the great Liverpool can not lose to Notts County, he harassed the referee at half time, which lead to favourable decisions for them in the second half. The Cowley brothers were always in the faces of referees to get favourable decisions, so we know for sure that referees can be influenced even though they should be neutral.

[GranthamPie]

The ref can’t win - He will either be seen as a homer due to his D&R links or need to show an unconscious bias to Wrexham to counteract the fact he is from Dagenham - Tough night for him either way..

I sincerely hope he has an serious attack of unconscious bias tonight…. Oh how I would laugh

[BanjoPie]

Take a draw before a ball is kicked in this one, then it is back in our hands.

How do your work that out? - if they draw tonight they will have 2 points more than us having played the same number of games unless you are thinking that if we beat them at their place but a lot can happen before then!

(Useless BBC still not updated the NL league table)

[countygump]

I particularly found this comment...

"Despite the result, D and R looked like a pub team to me against County. Even with Howard in goal, we should win this comfortably"

I prefer the gospel of Luke, be humble, big up the opposition.

[Davy500]

I prefer the gospel of Luke, be humble, big up the opposition.

Yes its a great strategy, Luke knows we are better than nearly every team in this divison, but then says how great they are - I like it

[1955pie]

If our game at their ground was given to a ref from the Wrexham area, there'd be similar bedwetting from certain sections of Notts fans.

The reality, though, is that no matter how inept some refs seem, the idea that any of them are biased is nonsense. They spend their lives trying to reach the top of their chosen profession, they're assessed constantly, and the idea that they might throw that all away by giving some dubious decisions to Dagenham (or any of our opponents, for that matter) is naïve and paranoid.

That might happen yet.