Crystal Palace

When Crystal Palace completed a tumultuous 2009-10 campaign at Hillsborough, a 2–2 draw with Sheffield Wednesday, South Londoners thought the new season couldn’t have been any more eventful.

 

It became clear that was not the case.

 

The summer of 2010 looked very promising for The Eagles. Incoming manager George Burley promised to deliver experience and a winning attitude to Selhurst Park. Burley had experienced success at most levels of English club football, and new ownership seemed committed to an improving season from last term.

 

Palace was victorious in its first league match of the season, defeating Leicester 3–2 as the turmoil of a season past looked to be safely in the rear view mirror. However, a run of four consecutive losses followed and the start of another bottom-table embattled season was be underway.

 

In fact, Palace only collected 17 points in until the end of the year as a long winter for supporters seemed evident.

 

On New Years Day, The Eagles faced South London rivals Millwall at the Den. A 3–0 dominating result for the home side left Palace in the 23rd spot, deep in the second-tier relegation zone.

 

That standing was enough for Palace administration, as Burley was dismissed after the game. What looked to be a start-up season with the hope of eventually building a successful club capable of promotion came to a sudden halt.  In a statement a few days later, CPFC 2010 Co-Chairman Steve Parish admitted that Burley was a poor hire.

 

Longtime assistant manager Dougie Freedman took over caretaker manager duties.

 

There was no rest for the team as it had to play a vital match against fellow strugglers Preston North End on January 3. New transfer Steffen Iversen netted the only goal of the match in the second half. Freedman was victorious in his debut in a win that could be viewed as one of the most important triumphs for Palace in 2011.

 

Palace completed a few transfers during the January transfer window in order to strengthen their attack including the aforementioned Norwegian international Steffen Iversen and upstart Milton Keynes Dons forward Jermaine Easter.

 

Iversen picked up two goals in 17 appearances for Palace – albeit mostly as a substitute with the most crucial goal coming in the Preston North End matchup.

 

Palace became slightly better under Freedman, with the most important statistic of Palace earning points in nine consecutive home games at the start of Freedman’s takeover.

 

With that run, Palace would climb past Sheffield United and Scunthorpe United out of the drop zone as safety into next year's Npower Championship seemed visible. The end of the home unbeaten streak –a shocking 1–2 home defeat to Scunthorpe – endangered Palace momentarily.

 

The defining moment of Palace’s season was the day after Easter when the entire Championship was in action. A second minute goal by Neil Danns gave them a 1–0 victory over Leeds United all but keeping them in the division. They secured safety five days later at Hull City.

 

Palace supporters could breathe a sigh of relief late in the season for the second straight year. Palace finished its season with a  0–3 home defeat to Nottingham Forest. But its strong finish placed them 20th in the Npower Football League Championship ahead of Doncaster Rovers, six points safe from the drop zone.

 

While Danns’ goal would not take goal of the season honors, it is the one that kept them in the second tier. With that, Palace will look to improve next season perhaps looking at a mid-table finish.

 

The roster improvements have begun already with the signing of prolific Brighton & Hove Albion striker Glenn Murray. Freedman – now installed as permanent manager – will look to improve the roster even more as the team looks to push towards a higher finish in the Championship next season.

 

Key ingredients are still in place with keeper Julian Speroni and midfielder Darren Ambrose. The Eagles will also look for improvement out of youngsters Sean Scannell and Wilfried Zaha.

 

While Palace supporters aren't expecting a Premier League promotion clinching campaign in 2011-12, one thing they are expecting is not holding their breath until the final moments of the season.

 

Crystal Palace became the latest Football League club to go into administration after months of financial problems.

The Championship side joins a growing list of clubs to suffer in recent years as they struggle to compete with the financial demands of the modern game.

Wrexham, Rotherham, Stockton, Southampton, Darlington, Luton, and the most high profile club Leeds are just some of the clubs to have suffered a similar fate, with only Leeds starting to make a recovery albeit after several years of becoming stable in the hands of former Chelsea owner Ken Bates.

This season Palace has twice failed to pay its staff on time, and the club has appointed Sheffield-based PA Partnership to act as administrators.

The Football League today confirmed Palace has received the 10-point deduction penalty for entering administration, which sees them drop from ninth in the Championship to 21st, just three points off the relegation zone.

For Wednesday's league game against Newcastle, Manager Neil Warnock could name just three substitutes.

It might be Palace's longest away trip of the Championship season, but one would expect that they'd be able to fill the bench.

Crystal Palace isn't the only Football League club to suffer as Notts County, and Cardiff City also face a winding-up petition from HM Revenue & Customs over unpaid tax bills, while Watford has already warned that it could go into administration, with the club quickly running out of cash.

Cardiff City has admitted it is in financial crisis and fans are rounding on Chairman Peter Risdale—the man responsible for the destruction of Leeds United—after £3m raised by the fans for transfers has been used elsewhere.

The club has also revealed it received a second winding-up petition from HMRC, and faces a date in the High Court on February 10—the same day Portsmouth are due in court.

County is the third club in English football known to face a winding-up order in recent months after Portsmouth was handed a writ in December 2009.

Despite having former England Manager Sven-Goran Eriksson among their number and backed by Middle East consortium Qadbak, League Two side County have few saleable assets, and need their foreign investors to get their hands in pockets within 28 days to avoid a date in the High Court.

That is a situation not afforded to Portsmouth,  rumoured to have £60m of debt to a number of creditors including a former owner, HMRC, and other football clubs.

Both Wrexham and Luton dropped out of the Football League after their financial problems, largely caused by maladministration and unethical business practices by their owners who were driven by personal greed, rather than trying to successfully run a football club.

A number of other clubs in England have been hit my financial problems including West Ham United and Cardiff City, the latter now facing fresh problems.

Both were close to entering administration, but were saved by fresh investors and successful renegotiation of existing debt repayments.

Palace's problems further highlight the sorry state of clubs across the country as owners strive to make as much money as possible, often signing players for extravagant fees on over-inflated wages, while supporters stay away due to the recession of the last couple of years.

The decision for Palace to move into administration has been criticised by manager Warnock who has revealed the club is set to sell star striker Victor Moses "for millions" by the end of the current transfer window this month.

Such a sale would have allowed the club to have paid off some of its immediate financial concerns. As such, the club is now battling to stay in the Championship.

It's a sorry mess when administrators come in and tell a manager his star player can't play in an important away game over the fear he might be injured.

The call across Europe for clubs to operate within their means from Uefa and Fifa is one thing, but it needs to be written into the rules of competition, to safeguard the future of clubs.

When clubs like Manchester United and Liverpool have debt levels that we cannot imagine, what hope is there for clubs in the lower tier?

The consensus is that you have to spend big to win, that much is clear across the top leagues in Europe, and to an extent in the second tier of English football as clubs aspire to reach the multi-millions and glamour of the Premier League.

For some it is a desperate dream that will never be achieved, often at the expense of a club.

An owner will never lose out too much if his club doesn't make it if he's not putting his own money into the club's endeavours to achieve success.

How many do that nowadays?

I don't know the exact figures, but I'd speculate that it isn't many.

The majority of initial income will come from bank loans secured against other assets, including a number of those relating to  the club.

Because the majority of money isn't that of the owner, the responsibility and prudence goes out of the window.

The UK may have just crept out of recession, but banks of whatever nature cannot throw money at football clubs.

Gross lending and overdraft facilities have to stop, and clubs should be forced to generate their own revenue through other means.

Political parties and charities raise money through fundraiser events with famous figures.

This should be easy for many football clubs to do. They have the famous names, and supporters and others who can afford to would pay good money for such, particularly if the money was going back into the club.

There are a large number of different viable revenue streams available to clubs if they pursue them.

If they can't afford a new stadium or a big name player, then so be it.

Of course we all want success, indeed most of us are driven by it, but would you really be prepared to lose everything to achieve it?

Why lose your football club in the same way?

Thousands of fans across the United Kingdom and many more abroad are now left with the nightmares that have been caused by gross financial mismanagement at their clubs.

Many have paid for season tickets up front for the season, and even subsequent seasons, many will have bought merchandise through the club's own stores, to ensure the money goes directly back into the club, but where is that money now?

It is easy to imagine the anger of Cardiff City fans who raised £3m for new players this January, only to be told with days of the transfer window remaining that the money is being used for other means.

The money came from around 10,000 fans investing in advance season ticket purchases for 2010/11, a season when Cardiff could be playing in the Premier League - they currently occupy a play-off place, and an extra player or two could help their promotion push.

But with another winding-up order and a £2.7m tax bill to HMRC, it doesn't take a genius to work out where that money will now end up, although it will save the club from suffering the same fate as Palace, which would end their promotion hopes.

Paul Corkery, chairman of the Cardiff City Supporters Trust said,

"It's totally their [the club's] fault. They need to prove to the fans that they can run this football club properly for 12 months without any [outside] investment.

"Because that is how you are supposed to run a business, not on hoping you are going to win the lottery.

"The statement [not buying new players] really upset a lot of fans because we are shareholders in the football club and the vast majority of shareholders are not behind this."

While Risdale blames moving into the new Cardiff City Stadium as the reason for the increased, and said, "We had anticipated that if we launched these tickets early and had received new investment pre Christmas or in January this year as promised, we would have been able to invest in new players in the January transfer window.

"In the absence of the new investment this will not be possible. We have to ensure that other overheads and financial issues are properly addressed.

"Whilst we apologise for this, we do not apologise for ensuring that the viability and financial health of the club is the ultimate priority."

However, when asked if the ticket money would be used to pay the debt, he said: "No, there is money to pay for that."

So why is the money not being used to buy new players Cardiff desperately needs? Where is the money going?

No comment on that.

This only smacks of poor management. The stadium move wasn't exactly an overnight thing, it was known for a number of years, and the added relocation costs should have been anticipated.

Cardiff is supposedly beyond the days of having to sell a player a year to survive as a club, and their new stadium was believed to generate a much larger amount of revenue for the club.

Even with the global financial problems, it is not unreasonable to expect that a club would seek to secure additional investment long before something is due to happen, to avoid the trouble not having finances in place would cause. Or maybe I'm wrong.

It's worth remembering that after March, a club's 10-point penalty is suspended if they're in the relegation zone, giving rise to a number of clubs trying to stave off administration until then.

But how many more clubs will face winding-up orders from HMRC by the end of this season?

How many will simply run out of cash as they struggle to compete, from the top of the Premier League to the bottom of League Two?

Established Premier League clubs might be able to attract investment from mega-rich businessmen from the Middle East and Asia, but what about the smaller clubs out there.

The economic divide is massive, and in the current climate will only continue to widen.

If the biggest club in the country can't manage its finances despite the vast income it attracts from ticket sales, merchandise and TV revenue then what hope for the little teams?

I maintain that clubs need to become more self-reliant, go back to what I said earlier about clubs raising money through fundraisers, or schemes similar to the advance purchase scheme at Cardiff.

Clubs need to become more creative at raising capital without the burden of debt. I could easily list a few more ideas here, and I'm sure you could too.

They also need help from the footballing authorities, and it can't come too soon.

Neil Warnock is a manager who is no stranger to controversy and his latest comments will enrage Sheffield Wednesday fans.

The Crystal Palace boss is a staunch Sheffield United fan, but even with his strong allegiance to the Blades he has refused to dismiss the prospect of taking over at Wednesday.

The 61-year-old, who spent eight-and-a-half years at the helm at Bramall Lane, was asked about the possibility of replacing Brian Laws at Hillsborough and revealed it was a 'possibility'.

"Would me taking over at Wednesday be a possibility? Of course it's a possibility, why not?" said Warnock in the Evening Standard. "A job's a job and if you need a job you need a job."
Warnock's current club Palace are currently in ninth place in the Championship despite financial problems. Warnock and the players have had the payment of their wages delayed several times this season and reports have linked Warnock with a return to South Yorkshire.

It's safe to say Warnock would not be welcomed with open arms by Owls fans and the Hillsborough board may well have a revolt on their hands if Warnock was approached over the vacant manager's job.

Warnock certainly shares a hate-fuelled relationship with Owls fans because of his long association with the Blades, where he guided them to the semi-finals of the FA Cup and Carling Cup and won promotion to the Premiership in 2006.

Not only would his appointment at Wednesday upset Owls fans it would also be frowned upon at Bramall Lane, but surely Warnock's mischievous comments should be taken with a pinch of salt? For now, it's probably safe to say he's more concerned about Crystal Palace's Championship odds.

In other sports news, the odds for next year's Grand National are already starting to get interesting as pundits cast their eyes over the possible runners and riders.

Crystal Palace v Manchester City, Carling Cup, August 27, 2009

Crystal Palace 11/2; Draw 31/10; Manchester City 1/2

The richest club in the world come up against a club struggling to keep their head above water on Thursday night as Manchester City head to South London to face Crystal Palace in the Carling Cup.

The current fortunes of the two clubs could scarcely be more polar opposite. While Manchester City have been busy spending bundles of cash on some of the world’s most talented footballers this summer, the Eagles have been hamstrung in their recruitment drive after being slapped with a transfer embargo for a series of financial disputes.

The gulf in class between the sides will be evident come kick-off.

Even, as is expected, Mark Hughes rings the changes and leaves out the likes of Robinho, Adebayor (4/1 to score last), Tevez and Barry, Sparky will still be able to select a starting XI packed full of internationals as the likes of Tal Ben Haim, Martin Petrov (11/4 to score), Nigel de Jong, Craig Bellamy (4/1 to score first), Benjani and Shaun Wright-Phillips all take the field.

City’s experienced squad is contrasted by the fresh-faced Palace side whom Neil Warnock will try to cause a major upset with. In particular Palace will likely field four teenagers who will all be looking to make a name for themselves in front of the TV cameras. 19-year-old right-back Nathaniel Clyne is looking like talent with real promise, while up-top the Eagles will be looking for inspiration from their teenage triumvirate of Victor Moses (7/2 to score), Sean Scannell and Freddie Sears (8/1 to score first).

While Palace’s front-three are more than capable of pulling out a bit of magic on the night, one serious tactical problem facing the Eagles will be how to get the ball up to their strikers in the first place. Moses, Scannell and Sears, are all vertically challenged being under six feet tall, and with the likes of Micah Richards and Nedum Onuoha in City’s backline, high balls up to the forwards is a straight-forward no-no. (Manchester City are 8/11 to keep a clean sheet.)

That forces the Eagles to either try and play a passing game through midfield in which Darren Ambrose (5/1 to score), Neil Danns and Sean Derry will have pivotal roles in carrying the ball upfield, or the Championship outfit can attempt to stifle their opposition by defending deep and flooding the midfield with the hope of hitting the Citizens on the counter-attack.

However you spin it though, nothing less than a City victory looks on the cards.

While lofty ambitions of a top four finish in the Premier League remain doubtful, Mark Hughes’ most obvious path for immediate silverware this season looks to be available in the domestic cup competitions. That will ensure that City take this match extremely seriously and, should the Eastlands outfit score in the first 15 minutes of the match, then the result may end up resembling a tennis scoreboard at full time.

101predicts: Crystal Palace 0 - Manchester City 5 (50/1)

Crystal Palace 11/2; Draw 31/10; Manchester City 1/2

Full match odds here.

Last week it was all about Freddie Sears’ “goal that never was” for Crystal Palace at Bristol CIty. Seven days later a second refereeing calamity looks to have jumped to the top of the pile of amateurish officialdom as Assaf Keinan, a UEFA licensed Israeli referee, made a complete and utter balls-up of a goal decision during Saturday night’s match between Maccabi Tel Aviv and Bnei Sachnin.

We pick up the action ten minutes from time with Maccabi (in yellow) leading Sachnin (in red) 2-1.

Looking to kill off the game, Tel Aviv thought they had put the match to bed when Guillermo Israelevich played a one-two with Ilya Yavruyan, with the number seven running through to lift the ball over the stranded Sachnin keeper.

Cue the controversy.

As Yavruyan wheeled away in celebration, the fourth official notified referee Assaf Keinan - who is on UEFA books as being eligible to take charge of Champions League and Europa League matches - that the midfielder had been in an offside position during the build-up.

Rejecting his fourth official at the first instance, Keinan plainly signalled that the goal should stand, despite the protestations from Sachnin. Seconds later, the man in black reneged on his initial position to signal that the goal had in fact been overruled.

With common sense falling by the wayside, referee Keinan then amazingly changed his mind for a third time by then signalling that the goal was now valid.

Unsurprisingly, having offended both the Tel Aviv and Sachnin teams by his unclear and contradictory decisions, all hell broke loose as the match was held up for several minutes with several Sachnin players goin so far as to threaten to walk off the pitch in protest.

And then came the final twist. After once again consulting with his fellow officials, Keinan decided the make his final decision by ruling the goal out for offside.

The decision ultimately appeared to be the right one, even though Keinan seemed to be influenced by some fierce Sakhnin protests.

With tension in the air, Maccabi managed to compose itself and wrapped up the win the match 3-1 in injury time, when Shiran Yeini headed in a Shivhon corner.

The shameful incident can be seen in full here.

In a Coca-Cola League Championship match at Ashton Gate, where Bristol City were playing host to Crystal Palace, the away side scored on 34 minutes through on-loan striker Freddie Sears.

Well, all the players, staff and 14,603 in attendance around the stadium presumed he had scored, as well as the millions of football followers who later saw replays of the goal on television.

But to referee Rob Shoebridge and his linesman, Sears' effort was not a goal, but instead a goal kick.

In reality, the ball had broken to Sears, on-loan from Premier League side West Ham, and the highly-rated youngster unleashed a venomous shot right into the bottom corner.

However, the problem was that the ball was unleashed too fast into the bottom corner, as it smacked against the stanchion inside the goal and bounced straight back out.

So while Sears and his teammates had broke away to celebrate, Shoebridge and his team of officials were left dumbfounded as they were caught by the illusion of the ball hitting a hoarding and bouncing back onto the pitch. Well, we'll never actually know what the officials were thinking, but that's probably the most logical explanation.

A perfectly good goal disallowed it was then. As you can tell, an incident like that isn't just going to quickly and quietly make it's way into the archives.

This farcical situation has drawn parallels with the "phantom goal" of last season, where the now infamous referee Stuart Atwell awarded a goal which in actual fact was meant to be a goal kick. Looks like the officials at Ashton Gate on Saturday thought they'd try it the other way round.

Of course, the managers also have had their say, none more so than the aggrieved Crystal Palace boss Neil Warnock.

With his now famous quotes on the situation, the Palace manager said: "We can put a man on the moon, time serves of 100 miles per hour at Wimbledon, yet we cannot place a couple of sensors in a net to show when a goal has been scored."

"I feel sorry for the referee because he didn't get any help. But how can I mark him when he spoils an otherwise good display with a mistake of that importance?"

In his fit of rage, Warnock also decided to have a pop at his managerial counterpart, saying: "I thought [Bristol City manager] Gary Johnson and his players could have shown more sportsmanship because they knew it was a goal, like everyone else. But I'm 60-years-old and maybe I expect too much.

Perhaps in a bid to avoid a fine for his comments, Warnock tried to cool the situation with the referee: "We were cheated. And I'm not saying that against the referee because he didn't mean to get it wrong."

It's clear that Nicky Maynard's 89th minute winner for Bristol City didn't really do anything to cool the situation, and the hosts' manager Gary Johnson left to count his blessings.

The City boss said: "In Neil's position I would feel the same as he does. Sometimes as the away manager a big decision goes against you, the crowd get on your back and it's very hard to keep things under control.

"[Freddie Sears' 34th minute effort] was a goal of course, but I don't see what I could have done about it at the time. I had my own team to think about because we weren't playing well in the first half.

"Neil didn't want to shake my hand and that's up to him. I can't say I was surprised after what had happened, but it's one of those things."

So you could say, in conclusion, if one thing is for certain in this situation of monumental controversy, apart from the desperate need for goal-line technology, it's that football still has that win-at-all-costs attitude. And from this evidence, there's no suggestion of it ever dieing down.

The first guest on the show was part-time footballer Matt Jansen, who began by talking about his motoring accident six years ago in Italy that left the former Blackburn, Bolton and Crystal Palace striker in a coma for six days.

Jansen talked about how he narrowly missed out on making the 2002 World Cup squad and, so unexpected was his non-selection, that he even received an invite to David Beckham’s pre-tournament squad bash.

Jansen also provided a quality showboat during his time on the show.

Television and film director Ken Loach came on the show to talk up the new football related movie, “Looking For Eric,” that includes Eric Cantona in a starring role. Ken talked about meeting Cantona, admitting he was in awe of the ex-Manchester United striker, and saying he thought it was a wind-up when he first heard the Frenchamn was interested in the film.

The final guests were indie band The Maccabees, who came across rather timid and camera-shy, as they pulled the latest news around the band.

The usual features returned including Our man in a caff, Iron Soldier, This is my Club - Burnley, Skill Skool, Crossbar Challenge, Tubes and Soccerette.

Everyone’s favourite loudmouths Neil Warnock and Simon Jordan have once again found themselves at the centre of a war of words. This time taking on Cardiff FC after the Welsh club have been hurling accusations after Roger Johnson was hospitalised after the Bluebirds match at Selhurst Park on Saturday.

The Crystal Palace manager has publicly supported young Eagles defender Claude Davis, with both sides arguing that the video evidence supports their claims of either innocence or guilt.

By no means was the incident trivial.

With Cardiff looking to attack from a free-kick, Johnson, City’s centre-half, was caught in the throat by Davis’ elbow, leaving the number 12 struggling for breath on the pitch. The 25-year-old was left prostrate on the turf, spitting blood before being taken to a high-dependency unit at a London hospital.

Cardiff have since been found shouting from the rooftops for action against Davis, issuing a statement as follows: “We have now had the time to review the video footage of the incident where Roger Johnson was ‘elbowed’ in the throat by Claude Davis in our match at Crystal Palace. In our opinion, the challenge looks deliberate and malicious and could have more seriously endangered Roger Johnson’s well-being than hopefully is the case. We are now asking the Football Association to investigate as a matter of urgency.”

But the Palace manager and owner have not taken this lying down.

Warnock reacted by barking, “There was no arm movement to face at all… Claude didn’t elbow him. If anything, he ran into his arm.” And Simon Jordon backed his manager adding “[Cardiff's] statement is irresponsible and I also think it is outrageous.”

Footage of the elbow assault on Roger Johnson can be seen here.

West Ham 0-0 West Brom (Premier League, March 16, 2009) This result ended a run of five defeats for the Baggies, but Tony Mowbray’s side remain six points adrift at the foot of the table.

Gianfranco Zola’s team lacked imagination going forward and barely created a decent opening with the visitors the better of the sides. (First half highlights here.)

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Nacional 1-1 Maritimo (Superliga, March 16, 2009) Juliano opened the scoring for the hosts, but Baba equalised midway through the second half to ensure the Verde-Rubros came away with a point.

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Beitar Jerusalem 2 -1 Hapoel Tel Aviv (Ligat ha’Al, March 16, 2009) Idan Vered scored the first for Jerusalem in the 31st minute, and Aviram Bruchian added a second six minutes later. Victor Mari’s close-range header on the hour mark was too little too late for Hapoel.

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All the action from last weekend’s football from Belgium’s Jupiler League can be seen here.

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Sparta Praga 4 -0 Brno (Gambrinus Liga, March 16, 2009) Sparta killed the match with four first half goals.

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Crystal Palace Baltimore 0 -2 New York Red Bulls (Pre-Season Friendly, March 13, 2009) The Red Bulls saw off the Eagles thanks to goals in either half from Khano Smith and ex-Palace midfielder Matt Mbuta early in the second period.

Crystal Palace manager Neil Warnock is hardly known for being placid. The vocal, straight-talking, and often aggressive manager is one of the great love-hate figures in British football, and the tendency is to ignore the usual rants which Warnock barks.

But (for once) the Eagles boss looks to have the facts on his side.

Warnock was spitting fire following Palace’s 4-1 home defeat at the hands of Ipswich after the officials failed to award a penalty early in the second half for Tommy Miller’s foul on Nick Carle. Trailing 2-1 at the time, Palace’s Carle found himself clean through on goal inside the box, only to be brought down by a tackle from behind from Miller.

Such was his anger, Warnock brought one of his backroom staff to his post-match press conference to show journalists video footage of the incident, which he claimed should also have produced a red card for Miller.

In his tirade Warnock hammered referee Clive Penton, claiming that the ref was too unfit to keep up with the play, which in turn led to the shocking decision.

Warnock: “I’ll be speaking to whoever is in charge of him (Penton) to find out why he hasn’t given it. I have my own ideas about that but I won’t share them because I could end up getting fined. He’s retiring this season so I can’t expect he’ll be kept on. He’s not one of the elite, is he? So he’ll probably have a job.

Miller got nowhere near the ball and it’s criminal, the decisions we’re not getting at the moment. How the hell can’t you see things like that? I think experienced referees should stay on but if Clive’s not fit enough to keep up with play there, that’s not on. That’s not my fault, that’s down to his fitness. I know it’s his last year [as a Football League referee] but he has to be better than that.”

The incident can be seen here.