Scaramanga's Blog

Come back Rob Styles, all is forgiven

scaramanga — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 07:28:00 GMT

There was a time when I regarded Portsmouth to be the luckiest team in English football. Through a tiny piece of geographical chance, the fates had decided that never would they lose a player for daring to jump within a yard of another, or for having the temerity to make a fair and clean tackle on one of the Premiership's known divers.

Those times now seem like a distant and charming memory in the modern world of Howard Webb. Yes, Rob Styles was incompetent, yes, he was a terrible referee but he was a terrible referee to all teams and all teams alike. After Sunday's match, the notion of an unbiased and even-handed referee may seem like a dream, but to those for whom this is their first Premiership season I can assure you they used to exist.

Now for the fourth time in three seasons Howard Webb decides to look the wrong way at the turning point in a match against Sky's beloved "top four". Yet again, he makes the wrong decision, yet again he ruins the previous efforts of a decent Spurs performance, yet again he gifts three points to the wrong team and yet again I find myself having to rant on my blog about the biased and pre-meditated actions of the Premiership's "top" referee.

Earlier yesterday I laughed at Man City fans who were claiming that there's a conspiracy to keep other clubs out of the top four, today it doesn't seem quite so ridiculous.

How much does a Howard Webb cost?

scaramanga — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 18:04:00 GMT

That's the question I'd like to ask Sir Alex Ferguson.

After an entirely dominant beginning to their match against Manchester Utd, Howard Webb decided to change things. It's not the first time the wrong decision has been given at Old Trafford in United's favour, but this time being mistaken cannot be an option.

Howard Webb had a very clear view of Heurelho Gomes' perfectly timed challenge on Michael Carrick, it was an easy decision to make so that leaves only one question - how much did the decision cost Man Utd?

There's a lot of prize money in winning the Premiership so it's an easy accounting decision for Utd but how can the Referee's Association allow such blatant corruption in such a once beautiful game?

There's only one way to make things right, although I know the FA will not have the balls to do so:

Ban Howard Webb from the game, relegate Man Utd and award Spurs the three points they fully deserved for this match.

Defoe Relegates Charlton

scaramanga — Mon, 07 May 2007 22:42:00 GMT

A stunning, late strike from Jermaine Defoe tonight returned Charlton to their home of the Coca-Cola Championship.

The night started well for Spurs as they began the match looking every bit like the 5th place team that two more wins will make them. Dimitar Berbatov capitalised on this with what is becoming trademark brilliance. A clearing pass from Ledley King found the Bulgaria forward on the left wing near the halfway line. With his back to goal and using sublime skill, Berbatov flicked the ball one side of Talal El Karkouri, ran the other, and muscled his way to the penalty box. A cool head allowed him to poke the ball easily past Scott Carson.

As always, our away support were on similar form. After briefly reminding Charlton of the imminent end of their 7 year stint in The Premiership, the Spurs chants were ringing out all the way back to North London with the spine-tingling slow version of "Oh When The Spurs Go Marching In" being the most memorable.

Charlton soon realised that skill would never be the way to win this match and turned to a more traditional English approach. Their attempts to out muscle our midfield though were frustrated by the excellent Didier Zokora. Spurs managed to cause enough frustration within the Charlton ranks to force them into long-ball play, but with only Darren and Marcus Bent to aim at a goal was never likely. The Charlton fans attempted to increase the pressure on Spurs with some rather pointless shouts for handball every few minutes and a particularly limp attempt at a chant of "Attack" - a chant surely suited more to the MLS than The Premiership.

Charlton finally created a chance after 36 minutes. Alexandre Song carved the Spurs defence open with a pass to Darren Bent, but Robinson did well to shepherd the player wide and to the byline. Bent cut the ball back across goal, but Song's diving header showed why he will fit in so well at Arsenal when his loan spell finishes.

Charlton though, knew that all three points were needed for them to stave off relegation and started pushing players forward. With 5 minutes left of the first half, Darren Bent sped on to a deflection but his shot did his chances of escaping the Coca-Cola Championship via the transfer window no good. Their pressure opened up spaces for Spurs to exploit, with Berbatov and Keane getting into dangerous positions before half time.

There was little incident during the second half, with a penalty appeal from Charlton on 58 minutes being the closest they would get to a much-needed goal. Zheng Zhi was lining up to cut the ball across goal when Dawson showed his England potential with a marvellous challenge toeing the ball out of play for a corner.

Charlton brought on Lloyd Sam and the ageing Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink in what can only have been a mark of sheer desperation, but to no avail. Spurs on the other hand, showed the value in having great strikers on the bench by bringing on Defoe who promptly dismissed Charlton and wrapped up Spurs' 7th win in 10 Premiership matches.

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