Quote:Phil65
To be fair to Neil Hair, at least he had the gonads to make the big decision and the right decision in my eyes. We'd have been screaming from the rooftops for a red if the shoe had been on the other foot. We've seen so many refs bottle these big decisions that it can lead to us feeling a little hard done by. I thought Neil (on first name terms now!) had an excellent game in the final and didn't fall (unlike the Boreham players) for their attempts to deceive him. There was a clear ball to hand situation in the box late on in the game when we were defending and I have seen these given on many occasions, so fair play to Neil's assistant and you could say things balanced out on the big calls. I've bashed referees and assistants before now, but credit where credit's due to Hairy (nicknames now!) and his friends.
Anyway, "We only need ten men, we only need ten men!".
He could also have given them a pen late on when Hughes kicked Shakes' foot rather than the ball in the six yard box, the one where the ball then bounced off Jeff's head into Davies' hands (OK, a cushion-header)! An unusual incident but very similar to a penalty that was given in the PL quite recently, think it involved Man City.
Overall I thought Hair did well though admittedly I almost lost it when he gave Wood that free kick right at the end, in the fourth minute of three minutes injury time.