This wasn't a grass roots game, it was a game between two of the top EPL clubs with millions watching. Very easy to say that Simon Hooper should crack down on dissent, but put yourself in his position. He knows he has just dropped a very, very big clanger, and he also knows what the media and fan reaction would be if he chased that mistake by flashing cards for dissent cautions around. The behaviour of the players isn't right, but very few top flight referees are going to crack down on dissent when they know they have made a very bad mistake.
In my game yesterday I had a coach go absolutely apoplectic at me, he felt I should have stopped the game earlier when a player went down seemingly injured even though his players had carried on attacking and I hadn't seen it just as they hadn't. When I did stop play I had every intention of showing him a red card, but at that point realised that the player, who was immediately in front of the benches, was unconscious and had gone down with no one anywhere near her. Technically speaking I should have still showed him a red card, but how would that make me look when a 17 year old player was down and unconscious? I hadn't done anything wrong but I still felt guilty at not realising what had happened faster and stopping play earlier, and I only had a crowd of around 30 watching the game.