Arbroath Away Feb2024

[STFU]

9 minutes ago, bdu98196 said:

Thats inevitable though, we were never going to exceed that anyntime soon although another national cup final last year is pretty exceptional.

Not sure what fans expected - challenging for the Premiershiptitle, a European trophy? In context there are plenty professional clubs in Scotland who have had less success in the last 100 years than we have in 30.

The more I see the glaring sense of entitlement on here and whinging about refs and 'deserving better' the more I see how SG thought an orange strip might be popular in certain sections!!!

So having risen as far as you believe the club is capable, you find it acceptable that we now slide back to....where?

It's the desire of those running the club who seem to have delusions of grandeur, not the majority of fans.  It is they who openly admit that they are running the club in a manner that requires Premier League income.  It is those egos that are chasing ill thought out money making schemes to support that (all the while alienating fans and local businesses) while we play in the Championship, and in doing so are threatening the club's very existence.

[bdu98196]

We slide back, to where we rightfully should be based on our income and fanbase. Which unfortunately some seem to be unable to comprehend. We are a championship club and there are plenty around bigger than us who'd love the peak years we enjoyed - morton, Ayr, falkirk, Dunfermline etc.

Anyone who actually thinks we were ever a permiership top 6 club longterm is deluded.

Edited February 25 by bdu98196

[STFU]

3 minutes ago, bdu98196 said:

^Big team found

WTF you smoking?

[lizi]

Kevin Clancy is supposed to be a Premier League ref and regularly the VAR expert - well he certainly wasn’t showing any expertise at Arbroath.  He allowed thuggish tackles which caused ICT players injuries.  He missed a studs up on Alex Samuels ankle which should have been a red card.  He missed two hand balls which should have been penalties.  If he had had words early in game re heavy tackles, some of the injuries could have been less serious.  Once again ICT let down by an incompetent referee, plus the linesmen/assistant referees should have gone to spec savers.   Well done Cameron Harper to even out at least some of the anomalies.  

[STFU]

Do some people really think that we are the only team on the receiving end of inept officiating and that we find ourselves where we are as a result?

[Yngwie]

47 minutes ago, STFU said:

Do some people really think that we are the only team on the receiving end of inept officiating and that we find ourselves where we are as a result?

Don’t think anybody has said that, have they?

[STFU]

8 hours ago, Yngwie said:

Don’t think anybody has said that, have they?

I didn't accuse anybody of anything.  I asked a question in order to open it up for discussion.

Given the club's social media posts from yesterday it seems to be a mindset they're trying to encourage.

As you are someone who tends towards defending/supporting all the club do are you in agreement with them?

I'm all for calling out poor refereeing, but I don't buy into the intimated (by some) conspiracy that they're out to get us.  These things tend to even out and the biggest factor in us being where we are in the league is that our football just isn't very good.

[Satan]

9 minutes ago, STFU said:

I didn't accuse anybody of anything.  I asked a question in order to open it up for discussion...

Looked like a rhetorical statement rather than a real question,  in direct reply to the post above it. 

@lizi's post did refer to poor officiating on numerous occasions which is up for debate but as it is the match thread then I think that's fair. We don't like to see dangerous tackling go unpunished or being encouraged at best. 

Any ICT unfair bias is also up for debate as well, my personal viewpoint is that lack of quality officials as well as the hindrance of VAR on 'top level' ones is affecting the overall standard. 

[bdu98196]

43 minutes ago, STFU said:

I didn't accuse anybody of anything.  I asked a question in order to open it up for discussion.

Tbf, when we were **** under dodds the referees were often cited along with injury crisis any time we had more than just Welsh and doran out. It seems to ba a default for many fans rather than accepting its the team, manager, coaches that are failing over 36 games not individual decisions in ever undesirable result.

[STFU]

Lizi's line at the end of her post saying that we had "once again" been let down by poor officiating did prompt my question, but I'd also just listened to Ferguson's post match interview and seen the twitter posts by the club yesterday which come across as an attempt to distract attention from the long term issues.

Terry Butcher was very good at getting everyone fired up on the back of any injustice, but never blamed it for our league position or cup performances etc.  He was also one to call out our own poor performances.

Under Dodds, and now Ferguson, it's all about how great the team were and lack of luck or poor decisions being what's cost us.  Deflection from the real issues.

[Yngwie]

I would say we were denied a pretty clear penalty for handball when it was 0-0, and in saying that I am not saying officials are out to get us nor am I trying to deflect from the team’s deficiencies, I’m just telling it like it is, as are others. Is that allowed?!

[STFU]

42 minutes ago, Yngwie said:

I would say we were denied a pretty clear penalty for handball when it was 0-0, and in saying that I am not saying officials are out to get us nor am I trying to deflect from the team’s deficiencies, I’m just telling it like it is, as are others. Is that allowed?!

Someone's getting their panties in a bit of a twist

[Robert]

Over the season, you would expect things to balance out, so our league position after match 36 should reflect our overall performances across the season rather than any individual refereeing decision.

We can all point to refereeing decisions that went against us whilst we tend to forget those that went for us (apart from Meekings’ hand ball!) but when it happens at key points in the game and seems to affect the outcome, it is only human nature to point to it.

I’ve left games convinced we’d had wrong decisions, only to find out later that they were correct.

Officials have a difficult job and I’m sure not many of us would want it. I don’t believe any referees deliberately make wrong decisions (and I laugh at the Old Firm conspiracy theories), but some are clearly not up to the job.

As said in the posts above, it seems that poor decisions may have cost us two points on Saturday. However, Saturday’s result on its own will not determine where we finish in the league.

If we feel an injustice, we should be using that to galvanise the players to get three points tomorrow.

Edited February 26 by Robert

[buckett]

Nothing to do with the fact that we're all just a little bit biased?

 

[Robert]

10 minutes ago, buckett said:

Nothing to do with the fact that we're all just a little bit biased?

 

Of course we are!