Daily Record Maddened By Madden!

[TheDarkBlues]

Just read the Daily Record article by Gary Cocker, and he hasn't nothing nice to say about Bobby Madden.

I love the last line.... I bet that p*ssed a few farmers off in their tractors! Toot toot!

Referees are a peculiar bunch. They’ve opted for a career where they get no thanks from those they serve, are subjected to dog’s abuse from at least one set of spectators every weekend and work fairly unsociable hours. Given that the beautiful game needs these officials to operate I try to give them the benefit of the doubt, and concentrate my ire or praise on those actually playing the game.

However, Bobby Madden’s performance on Saturday was in another league. Over the course of the game, he denied Dundee two stonewall penalties- one, five minutes in, which would have resulted in Saintees goalie Alan Mannus being sent off for flattening Clarkson had Madden had his contact lenses in and seen him wipe out the prolific striker.

He carded Dees for the tiniest infringements but let St Johnstone players away with what would constitute assault if it took place on the street, missed a blatantly obvious handball from Brian Easton that prevented a two-on-one situation in the second half and believed Brian Graham’s crocodile tears at every turn. It was, if you’ll pardon the obvious pun, a maddening experience.

Setting aside my own partisan complaints, the biggest issue I had on Saturday was with the lack of any sort of consistency in the refereeing, both in terms of giving fouls and the outcome of the fouls. Given the reaction of both sets of players and staff to his performance during and after the game, it’s clear he didn’t communicate his decision-making process well, which only compounded matters.

For many fans of the Scottish game, it’s a familiar story, and it’s one that the authorities seem either unwilling or incapable to tackle.  Referees are in an invidious position, where any level of self-doubt or admission of wrongdoing would provoke as many howls of derision as the initial decision itself.

However, some level of transparency and accountability needs to be introduced to the game to give the fans some confidence in the officials. It’s only been in absolutely exceptional standards that referees have been subject to any sort of “discipline”- usually being demoted to a lower league game for one game- and even then there’s been a real lack of meaningful communication from the SFA about it.

A mechanism whereby referees’ performances are scrutinised and graded post-match anonymously by a panel of suitably qualified people - with the results made available to fans - could help to introduce some transparency and educate fans on the intricacies of officials’ decision-making logic without sacrificing too much in the way of professional integrity.

It’s a sign of just how much impact a poor referee can have on a game that I’ve not even had room to discuss Clarkson’s continuing red-hot form (that’s 6 goals in 6 consecutive games, for those keeping count), Tommy Wright’s excellent half-time substitutions or our own disappointing second half performance after the best 45 minutes I’ve seen from Dundee in a while.

On reflection St Johnstone did just about enough to earn a point, but if we can rediscover that first half performance on a regular basis then it’s an exciting time to be a Dundee fan.

Oh, and while I remember, Dundee v St Johnstone isn’t a derby, no matter how much the Perth side want it to be. Sorry.

[Gedee]

Hello ............Thanks for posting the article. It's the first time I have read it,

And although it brings back again, the dark  memories of his awful, incompetent. performance (the worst I think I have ever seen from a professional referee) it does make a good read, and is a fair summary of what he did, and didn't do, during the 90 mins.

I did email the SFA on the Sunday ...... and got an acknowledgement the same day, saying, the email would be forwarded to the appropriate dept.

Of course, that might mean ......"  jist pop it in the bin wi' the rest !! "

[BCram]

Hi Gedee. Think you did the right thing sending an email to the appropriate authority. I'm sure it would have been polite. That's the point if you want to make an effective complaint isn't it. you have to put forward a reasonable statement of your grievance and then if at all possible say what you'd like to happen as a way of solving the problem.

I didn't see the game, but have read the comments. It seems to me that this ref may have a history of making mistakes. If each game he referees is followed by complaints from supporters one would hope that the authorities might thnk there's something wrong with his understanding of the laws and the way he interprets them. They could send him on a course or two which would hopefully improve his performance and raise the general level of public satisfaction with referees.

Is there not a "supervisor" who is supposed to comment on the ref's performance. It might be worthwhile sending the same official to watch a series of games involving the same referee. that way there would be some continuity of assessment and any obvious flaws in performance could be "corrected2 with a bit of training.

[Sarah Machete]

Good article. Well written and articulate. Spot on about the poor decisions and definitely spot on about it not being a derby. :-)

[Prince Buster]

Good article. Well written and articulate. Spot on about the poor decisions and definitely spot on about it not being a derby. :-)

A well written article right enough but a bit one sided. Said what needed to said though.

Best line for me is  -

'For many fans of the Scottish game, it’s a familiar story, and it’s one that the authorities seem either unwilling or incapable to tackle.

[Sarah Machete]

It certainly does appear like we just have to accept these poor refereeing performances. Let's not forget that these guys are well paid for doing that job and if we made that many mistakes in 90 minutes of our day job there would certainly be a come back on us.

[JoeCovenant]

I'm amazed the Daily Ranger let it go to print! 

[Prince Buster]

Also as paying customers we should have some comeback on the people delivering the service we pay to see, that includes the referees in my opinion.

That man was not only incompetent but at times was antagonistic toward Dee fans. Some Celtic fans were arrested and charged for singing through the minutes silence at the weekend (breach of the peace I think), what Madden did in goading the fans in The Coxy was every bit as bad.

[Sarah Machete]

Also as paying customers we should have some comeback on the people delivering the service we pay to see, that includes the referees in my opinion.

That man was not only incompetent but at times was antagonistic toward Dee fans. Some Celtic fans were arrested and charged for singing through the minutes silence at the weekend (breach of the peace I think), what Madden did in goading the fans in The Coxy was every bit as bad.

[Sarah Machete]

Point very well made Deeranged. ðŸ‘

[Prince Buster]

Also as paying customers we should have some comeback on the people delivering the service we pay to see, that includes the referees in my opinion.

That man was not only incompetent but at times was antagonistic toward Dee fans. Some Celtic fans were arrested and charged for singing through the minutes silence at the weekend (breach of the peace I think), what Madden did in goading the fans in The Coxy was every bit as bad.

Come on, speak up.

[JDee]

Cost us three points on Saturday. Keeper should have been off, and we would of went on to win. 

At least we can expect a better refereeing performance at Celtic Park...