Tuesday 29th December, 2009last year, at the end of December
Clarke says Leslie and Quinn have cheated him
City’s central defender Matthew Clarke has branded Steven Leslie a cheat after the Shrewsbury Town midfielder “fell to his knees” to have a penalty awarded in the game with City yesterday.
The Bantams defender said of his lightweight opponent
The first [booking] for the penalty was the most blatant dive I’ve ever seen. He just collapsed to his knees and I thought he was the one getting booked for diving.
Watching from the Kop stand in line with the incident one could only concur with Clarke’s view. The distance between Clarke and Leslie could be measured in feet, not inches, and many shared the City man’s assumption that the player was booked for a simulated fall.
That the Referee Peter Quinn sent him off Clarke continued
I’m absolutely disgusted. I’ve been sent off before with two yellows and felt that only one was justified but I’ve never been 100 per cent cheated like this.
Clarke talked of the second booking saying
I don’t think the referee even saw the other incident. Hibbert just touched me, clipped his own ankle and fell to the floor.
Even should one assume that Clarke fouled “diving” Leslie and later “falling” Hibbert then examples of both offences went unpunished with card or word later in the game leaving Clarke to conclude that Quinn simply cheated him – and by extension the club and the supporters – to give more harsh punishments against him than other players received.
It is hard to argue with Clarke’s opinions. That one player is booked for his every transgressions while a player such as Drew Broughton can be given one yellow card for four elbowing offences boggles the mind and asks serious questions about referees and the motivation of referees in giving their decisions but while Clarke lambastes Quinn I have to admit a level of sympathy for the diminutive official.
Quinn’s job is not made easier by one player who – in the words of Clarke – cheats by blatantly diving – and another who – Clarke’s words again – “falls over his own feet” to get another player sent off. That Quinn is not able to correctly see these ruses for what they are – cheating – does not excuse Steven Leslie and Dave Hibbert for (in the opinion of Clarke) acting in such a way in the first place.
Perhaps Clarke would join in a commonly heard statement on the way out of the game yesterday that if Rochdale were good at football then Shrewsbury Town are good at cheating and that players who behave in the way that Clarke describes are shoddy disgraces to football.
Clarke feels as if he has been cheated. One suspects that were he not wary of an FA charge he could easily name the three people who have cheated him – and by extension – us.
Most of the main stand and obviously the city end had good views of both Clarke incidents, and would certainly agree with his views. Both decisions were contrived by devious opponents, and the outcome of the game was settled in that 2 minute spell. But we have to get over it, there has to be some positivity from Stuart – maybe the development of a “seige mentality” amongst the players. Expect poor decisions, because there will be more to come and we have to develop a mindset that allows us to respond, and initially that response has to come from Stuart. One thing we can control is our defending (which has been awful), and the build up to the penalty saw us pulled all over the place – better defending and that situation would not have occured. I dont think that we are out of things yet, any more than we were favoured to get a promotion spot this time last season. But we do have quite an inexperienced side requiring leadership on and off the pitch – and of course our commited support.
First game of the season for me – living in Salisbury means Xmas is one of the few opportunities. Unfortunately I missed the first 12 minutes because of the huge crowds and pathetic ticket office – why can’t we just pay at the gate – this is League Two! £44 for a dad & two kids and only get 78mins is not good value. I accept I could have booked and picked up like I normally do, but I didn’t expect it to be on and so turning up at 2.15 I thought was ample time. I should think hundreds of supporters walked away.
So you see I missed City’s good spell. As we walked up the steps, we were aware we had just gone 1 down. I thought we edged the first half but never looked likely in the second half and for me to take off the best two attackers when you’re chasing the game was strange.
However, this article is about the ref and I have to say that I agree with Trevor about the ‘siege mentality’. For me the ref was excellent over the 90 mins. He allowed play to flow on a difficult surface and played the advantage well. The two decisions at the end of the first half were however the key and I think the ref was let down by his linesman, who was instrumental in both. Having now seen the BBC clip, it is 50/50 whether it is a penalty. It was certainly a soft one but I suppose it was a tackle from behind so Clarke was dicing with death. Not sure why it warranted a yellow. The second one was just plain wrong and changed the game completely. Unfortunately we are not getting the rub of the green and a ref who was on the whole good made a crucial error.
What we shouldn’t let that hide is our shortcomings. Shrewsbury were a lightweight, distinctly average side, who passed us off the park in both halves. If they had any cutting edge they would have won by a distance.
As I said I don’t get to many games but I wonder if our lack of fortune from refs is to do with our attitude to them. This is more a question than anything else cos I’m in the Midland Road so can’t see what Stu gets up to. I went to Salisbury v Rushden recently and was right by the dugouts. Justin Edinburgh and his Rushden assistant were polite to the 4th official and the ref all game, Widdrington of Salisbury was foul-mouthed and abusive from the first minute. I thought it was fair to say the 50/50 decisions went Rushden’s way. I don’t think it does any harm to get the officials on your side, it may not have any effect but it can’t do any harm.