Today

[Gus]

Potentially a very good match spoiled very early by the man in black.

We were heading for a brilliant result until the ref sent off Fairclough for a tackle which probably only needed a yellow at most. Worse tackles were made by Alty which went unpunished. What made it shite was when their No. 3 got up and went over to the bench and high-fived with his mates. Right out of order.

The SWD card was for retaliation only and wasn't anything like as bad as their 'play-acting@ No. 8 made out.

I thought our team were superb.

[noughtyforties]

I thought Fairclough made a terrible challenge and deserved a red........you cannot go around make lunges like that after 10 minutes, you are asking for trouble.

Weir Daley showed immaturity in retaliating, again a red card.

I cannot agree with you Gus, if either challenge/incident had been made by an Alty player we'd have expected red cards, its a two way thing.

We've no one to blame but ourselves, we get a home draw against beatable opponents and we commit suicide. The 9 men were superb.

[jimmystars]

Their players were very quick to go to the floor like they had been shot and the ref was poor enough to fall for it - we need to learn from this going forward - officials are at this level for a reason and its mostly because they are not that good. Fairclough barely touched the number 3 so yellow at worst and like most I did not see the second one but as soon as the red came out the player was up again....

[madhos]

outstanding 2day  and alty no 3 won an oscar......as for you andy why the fook do u go.........

[noughtyforties]

I go because I support the team, but I also watch the game without blinkers unlike a large majority on here.

Just accept we lost our discipline and it cost us the game.

Don't ever question my support, I pay my way unlike a lot of the scroungers.

[Seenbetter]

As I said on the other thread if the idiot in black saw any of the incident between SWD and teh Oscar winning cheat in blue then he must have been the only one in the ground to do so because no one has yet actually said what did happen. Despite whatever SWD did if the ref did not see the incident he had no right to send him off just because one pratt rolls around on the floor. The idiot should have consulted his linesmen or even the 4th official to find out if they saw anything. He did none of those things. Did the ref see what happened or did he just respond to what he thought could have happened. If he did not see the incident then I think there are good grounds for appeal. Forget about maturity and retaliation arguements, it all comes down to what the idiot saw and I don't think he saw anything until it was all over.

[leicester pilgrim]

Fairclough made a "forward's challenge" and we can't really have any complaints about his red card. I thought the ref showed some inconsistency in the second half though. At one time their centre half grappled Jones to the floor a long way away from the ball and on the edge of the penalty area. The ref saw the incident, stopped the game and awarded us a free kick, but didn't show a card of any kind to the Altrincham player. Comparing that with the Weir-Daley incident, I'd like to know what so different for one incident to warrant a straight red card and for the other to carry no punishment whatsoever.

The number three did make the most of the foul against him. He gave the impression that he had a bad injury when the challenge first went in. But no sooner had the red card been produced and he was running around freely again. It even looked like he performed something half way between a squat thrust and a pirouette on his way off the field after treatment. However you assess the initial challenge, the full-back showed poor sportsmanship afterwards.

I thought the nine players who remained on the pitch were a credit to the club, and any of them could have earned the man of the match award. Using Altrincham as a yardstick, we're a million miles better than the side that lost 6-1 against them last season. We would have beaten them today if we'd had eleven men, and there are some positives we can take into our coming league matches.

Having two attacking players out suspended for the same three games will be a worry. Have the departures of Miller, Munn and French freed up enough cash to bring another attacker in on a short term loan deal?

[madhos]

  lmfao.....

[miele]

Brilliant effort all round.   i have to question LEE's sub's;; we had 3 player's on the bench in  REED. STOKE's. and SMITH .i no there not striker's but they have pace to burn.and a little more experiance. sorry LEE they could have done a job today;;(what a waist)

[green hats mate]

Agree with Andy and Patrick a red was fully justified for Fairclough .   Ben has made some  great contributions to the team this season but has flirted with a second yellow quite a few matches ,   hope he learns from todays costly rash error of judgement.                      
 Like most i didnot see the SWD incident  so cannot judge ,   based on the rest of his performance I thought the ref was better than most we get .
 

[spannerman]

Thought the ist sending of was harsh if there player had not made a meal of it yellow would of been fair
, but it boot was on other foot would of been shouting for a red .
as for second i did not see but in the words of one of there supporters niether did the ref as he was watching the ball it was the reaction of a third party that swayed the ref according to there supporter swd was pulled down and swotted there player off nothing dirty so if the ref did not see it was unfair 

[howmanynames2pick]

I thought Fairclough made a terrible challenge and deserved a red........you cannot go around make lunges like that after 10 minutes, you are asking for trouble.

Weir Daley showed immaturity in retaliating, again a red card.

I cannot agree with you Gus, if either challenge/incident had been made by an Alty player we'd have expected red cards, its a two way thing.

We've no one to blame but ourselves, we get a home draw against beatable opponents and we commit suicide. The 9 men were superb.

Have to agree Andy.
One thing I don't get is if no one in the ground saw the SWD incident why was the ref looking at him and not the game like everyone else. Not excusing it, just wondering why it wasn't brought to the refs attention by a third party?
Also based on a normally calm guys reaction to it I suspect there was more to the incident than meats the eye. Again not condoning his reaction. I think with ten we certainly would of got a replay.

[Ken Fox]

Here's the link to the public photo album on Facebook with a few snaps from the game in it:

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151286192514282.520625.570994281&type=1&l=56331acc50

I'll add a few more after I get back from my little run later today.

[woad_pilgrim]

The first sending off was the sort of challenge some refs give yellow and some red. No complaints about this ref giving it a red as it was a dangerous challenge but would like to see more consistency from officials as a whole. I don't think there was anything malicious from Ben Fairclough as LP has said a forwards challenge, he's an exuberant young player and you try to take that side of his game away and he'll lose the impact he's had on many games. Yes it cost us yesterday and no doubt may cost us in the future but he wins us a lot more than odd game he loses us.

The second sending off like most others I didn't see as it was off the ball. What II will say is that those that did see say it was retaliation, if that is the case why did their player go unpunished? No red, yellow or even a free kick?

There are 2 other incidents that I thought the ref got wrong:

1: A horrendous challenge on Connor Marshall, the ref correctly played on. Once the attack petered out he should have gone back to their player and given him a card, it was similar to Faiclough's, borderline between a yellow and red offence. Given he gave Ben a red their player should have had a red as well.

2: We had a corner which was delivered in, the ball came to Tom Ward who was quite clearly having his shirt pulled, he still managed to win the ball and tee up Jones who was then pushed, both offences were penalties but nothing was given.

All in all I thought the ref managed the game well but in 3 of the 4 big decisions he had to make he made a mess of them and all 4 went against us. So on that basis I thought the ref was pretty poor.

[Lord Cutler Knobhead]

2: We had a corner which was delivered in, the ball came to Tom Ward who was quite clearly having his shirt pulled, he still managed to win the ball and tee up Jones who was then pushed, both offences were penalties but nothing was given.

Still fuming about that one, how can he give a red for something, as yet no one in the ground claims to have seen (and we would assume he didn't truly see) and not give it when he was looking straight at Ward as his shirt grew to twice it's natural size.  At the point Ward went down I looked to the referee and he was merely yards away looking straight at Ward and then Jones as he was sent sprawling.