Yeovil V Crawley Town

[Reuben Watt]

Hey guys and girls!
Just wondering what you think of these two red cards?

There have been mixed views on whether the second red was the correct decision or if it was just the Crawley Player (Red) running across the Yeovil player
Secondly, I have just read that the fourth official and one of the linesman was from the same county as Yeovil (Somerset). I thought they didn't allow referees from the same county to referee clubs from their own county when it comes to the football league. Is this correct?

 

[banker123]

Hi mate,

1st - The angle is hard from where i can see from the video replay that we have got, but it seems like the Yeovil player goes over the ball?

2nd - Again video replay angle isn't the best here but it seems like that's a deserved yellow card the players action is clearly to attempt a kick at the ball knowing that he wasn't going to get the ball.

Deserved sending off in the end... Would of done exactly the same thing!

 

[Jacob Walukiewicz]

I would say the first red is bang on, first yellow, off the ground, dangerous. Defo not worthy of a red but I would have yellowed and the second looks a clear hack, easy 2nd yellow.
It is really hard to see if there's any contact on the second red, looks harsh at a glance but if there's definite contact then it looks like it could have been DOGSO really hard to tell.
As for the officials in from the same county I'm not sure how it works, I would imagine they would like to trust their officials to make unbias decisions regardless of who the two teams are (you'd at least hope so!).

 

[RustyRef]

It's changed now, it used to be you couldn't officiate teams from the same county but not any more. Now all officials are required to state any allegiances to teams - e.g. they support them, immediately family supports them, etc - and they are then precluded from officiating these teams.

That's a better way, as previously referees ended up officiating teams they supported. If I remember correctly, Halsey talks about this in his autobiography, he's a QPR fan and refereed them because he lived in Hertfordshire and there not in the same county.