Who would be a referee?
Have an off day and the players hate you, the managers loathe you and 50,000 supporters get to abuse you.
Your parentage is questioned, you eyesight ridiculed and the chant of ‘you don’t know what you’re doing’ is sung with fanatical glee. On the other hand, when you do a good job nobody notices!
Chris Foy understands the latter perfectly after he had the shocker of shockers when officiating Sunderland and Norwich today at the Stadium of Light.
He blew three calls that had game changing implications much to the annoyance of Canaries boss, Chris Houghton as his club took the short straw every time.
1. Sending off goalkeeper, Mark Bunn in the 30th minute was beyond harsh. It was such a bang-bang incident with zero intent that you have to wonder if he’d already made up his mind that Norwich would play with 10.
2. Agreeing with his assistant that Norwich defender, Sebastien Bassong had deliberately handled the ball after cushioning it off his chest to give the Black Cats a penalty and their equalizer.
3. Denying the Canaries a clear penalty when Danny Rose handled in the Sunderland box and deciding the offence had occurred a foot outside the penalty area.
It’s understandable that referees can have a bad day at the office but to get three decisions so wrong should see him demoted to handling subs and holding the board signaling additional time.
Anyone for instant replay…?
