Echoeing the words of our manager Tony Pulis yesterday, I take no enjoyment from having to continually come home from Stoke City games with the talking point being that of the officials. But here we found ourselves again, for the fourth straight league fixture, questioning the game changing decisions that haven't gone our way.
Now in many circumstances, you can give the referee the benefit of the doubt and accept his running of a football game will never be fault-proof, even with technology, but the question that begins to appear when you find yourselves on the receiving end of constant bad decisions is whether it is down to human error or human bias, and this is a question that I and many other Stoke fans have pondered over the last month.
It's not just the magnitude of the decisions which raises the question, but also the persistancy of them. I will now recall 6 KEY decisions which Stoke City have had gone against them this season, and remember, these are just incidents I can recall:
Tottenham - Home - 21st August - Jonathan Walters headed is proven to have crossed the line, and in the process Peter Crouch deliberately handles the ball in an attempt to stop it crossing the line. The result should've been a Stoke City goal, and Peter Crouch seeing a red card for deliberate handball. This would've made the scoreline 1-1.
Newcastle - Away - 25th September - A blatant shove in the back in the penalty area by Joey Barton on Matthew Etherington should've resulted in a penalty to Stoke, but it was not given. This being almost indentical to the penalty Newcastle were awarded earlier in the game for a foul on Andrew Carroll.
Bolton - Away - 16th October - A second-half handball by Bolton defender Zat Knight should've resulted in a penalty to Stoke City. Replays show Zat Knight moving his hand towards the ball and with every intention to do what he did. Should the resulting penalty have been scored, this would've made the scoreline 2-2.
Man Utd - Home - 24th October - Gary Neville was booked earlier in the first-half for a foul on Stoke winger Matthew Etherington. As we reached 40 minutes in the first-half, Gary Neville commits a reckless challenge on Matthew Etherington again, worthy of a second yellow card. Andre Marriner decides against a second yellow card, and Manchester United remain with 11 men. The scoreline at the time was 0-1 to Manchester United, but this red card would've meant Manchester United would've been down to 10 men with 50 minutes to play, potentially a very different encounter.
Everton - Away - 30th October - Stoke's Tuncay is adjudged to have made contact on Leighton Baines in the process of putting Stoke in the lead at Goodison Park. Replays show there was no contact on Baines, despite the referee disallowing the goal at the time. This goal would've made the scoreline 1-1, with the potential that Stoke would've held on to their lead.
Sunderland - Away - 6th November - A Kenwyne Jones header in the second-half appears to have drawn Stoke level at 1-1 as the ball appears to have crossed the line. However, the linesman and referee, of whom both had a clear view of the incident, deamed it not too have despite replays suggesting otherwise. However, the scandal with this incident doesn't end here, Lee Cattermole handballs the ball on TWO occasions in an attempt to stop it crossing the line, and the officials also fail to acknowledge this. In the event of the ball not crossing the line ( although replays show it did ) the referee would still have to give a penalty to Stoke and send Cattermole off for deliberate handball, neither of these actions took place.
So there is 6 GAME CHANGING incidents from 6 different games out of our 11 fixtures so far this season, all of which have gone against Stoke City. I don't think it's ludicrous to suggest we could've recorded a MINIMUM of 3 more points this season from those games with the correct decisions, which is the difference between being currently sat in 17th place in the league instead of 12 place. And I say a minimum, because 50 minutes football against Manchester United with 10 men could've quite easily resulted in at least another point, baring in mind that we did equalise, and the player of whom scored the winner, Javier Hernandez, could've quite easily have been substituted to make way for a defender coming on to fill the gap of the removed Gary Neville.
Points are absolute gold-dust in this division, any club will tell you the same, and we could quite easily find ourselves looking back at the end of the campaign on the points we SHOULD'VE had, and how they have affected what we could've achieved that season. Whether than be progression from our 11th place finish last-season, or even the quest to avoid relegation. You may say 3 points in the grand scheme of things is pretty irrelevant and tedious to make an issue of, but it can quite easily come down those amount of points at the business end of the season.
So back to the original question, corruption or coincidence, well I'm quite inclined to believe it is the first option, because let's be honest, there's been PROVEN corruption in Rugby and Cricket amongst other Sports in this country. Why not football? Argueably the most popular and financially influenced game in the country. Corruption goes on in Sport all the time, we just don't get to see the evidence of it.
The more you watch referee's officiate Stoke City games, the more you begin to believe they have preconceived ideas of what to expect. Stoke City have already been tagged with the label of being Physical bullies, despite the statistics showing we have a better displinary record this season than over half the teams in the division.
The top and bottom of it is, I don't think we are wanted in this division by a large minority of officials, opposition players, managers, fans. And the fact we're facing a disadvantage before a ball has been kicked in having to stand-up to this level of officiating makes the remainder of this season argueably our biggest challenge since being promoted to the Premier League. We can't do anything about what is happening, the referee has the power to dictate the conclusion of the game more than most, and we've just got to live with that.
We're in a battle to survive now, bleating about incidents is something that wont go away from me and most other Stoke fans, just because we can't change what is happening, it doesn't mean we wont make a point of raising our disgust. We'll continue to make an issue of what is happening because it is wrong. But what we need to do more than anything is remain united in this battle, stick together and defy these people the right to see us disappear from the top flight.
In the words of Independance Day " We will not go quietly into the night, we will not banish without a fight ". Our next battle comes on Tuesday night against Birmingham City, let's hope the revival begins here.
