Jonathan YeomansAfter what I would describe as two positive results from Luton & Bournemouth and combining both games and being nit picky there is very little to talk about from a refereeing perspective.
For the Luton game, to say I’m clutching at straws to find anything to talk about, is an understatement.
Sometimes as a ref, you will get the very, very rare game where there are no contentious incidents to talk about. This was one of those rare games as the ref didn’t have to deal with that much apart from the sending off of the Luton player.
Both yellow cards were correct and there was no complaints from their players. For the second yellow their player even though went for overhead kick was completely out of control.
Even Nathan Jones the Luton manager commented he had no arguments with it. It is very refreshing to hear an opposing manager admit this as they are often very blinkered.
For the Bournemouth game. I found the referee decisions quite strange for both sides.
The ref booked Smith quite early, which usually sets a precedence for maintaining this, to which he didn’t continue. As there were fouls for which cards should have been awarded, but weren’t. The new street wise attitude of the Swans was also evident in this game with Lowe being tugged quite a few times in an attacking scenario which should have resulted in bookings.
About 5 minutes later a Bournemouth player was in an attacking position and he clearly pulled him, which should have been a booking. He immediately reminded the ref that he had not booked Bournemouth players get away with exactly the same thing.
The potential hand ball against Bournemouth for me would have been very harsh.
However, the referee made a fantastic decision for not awarding a penalty for Bournemouth. In real time I immediately thought penalty. However, the fact it wasn’t a penalty should have been a booking against Brooks for diving.
