+++ 9/10/2016 OUFC v AFC Wimbledon matchday thread +++
Oct 10, 2016 23:34:43 GMT
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Gary Baldi likes this
Post by ryaniobirdio on Oct 10, 2016 23:34:43 GMT
Without wanting to get deep into the psychology of it all it really depends on what type of football club we are trying to be. I take both my kids (10 and 8 years old) to the home games and my boy asked me on Sunday whether he could 'shout at the referee too'.. This really made me stop and think. I can handle the abuse and swearing given out by fans on occasion but what does an impressionable 10 year old take from this and the dog's abuse which the referee received on Sunday?
The Dunkley challenge is another case in point - it was absolutely a bad tackle, no question (we were sat right in front of it). Some are suggesting he should have rolled around and not been so 'nice'. Actually I had a lot more respect for Dunkley not making a big deal of it instead of what many others would have done which is try to get the opposing player sent off. I would far rather my kids see a bloke who gets up from a bad challenge and shakes the other guy's hand rather than rolling around like he's been shot. Isn't this the kind of behaviour we moan about from opposing teams week after week...this is exactly why I don't watch Champions League or Premier League footie any more - I would rather go to the cinema to see someone act.
So it boils down to the age old point of whether we want to win at all costs or is supporting OUFC about more than just winning football matches?
We lost 3-1 yesterday and the bloke who could've been sent off scored the opener and swung the whole game their way. I left the ground furious at a poor performance from both the team and the ref. At no point did I or anybody else around me go "Well at least we were fair, wasn't that nice?" I want my team to win. And it's not like there was no foul - that challenge could have absolutely snapped Chey Dunkley's leg in half. He was very lucky he got his studs out of the ground in time. The man deserved to be sent off the pitch. A man who, don't forget, nearly broke Johnny Mullins' neck a couple of years back. If staying down and punching the turf while a team mate or two goes mad makes that happen, that's how it is. I've seen it done to us before and every time I've always gone "He gave that player a chance to do that, that's football. He lost the battle."
Did anybody moan at Morecambe last season when Joe Skarz stayed down after that guy slid in, and then Wright and Lundstram went apeshit before the ref produced a red? Skarz was up 60 seconds later and played on. What about when Tonge took Lundstram out away at Stevenage? Lundstram looked like he'd been crippled and even Appleton was going for it - straight red. Up he popped and played on a minute later. Tonge even flipped the situation on its head in the home game when Lundstram went in on him and ended up ruled out at Wembley. Hefty lunge; down like a sack of spuds; up as soon as the red comes out.
You aren't winning anything for not drawing attention to a really bad foul - nobody is giving you a medal. If you're hammered, you go down and you stay down and your teammates do their bit while you are. We're not talking trips or nudges here, we're talking full blown hefty and dangerous challenges that need attention drawing to them. Not sure the moral high ground would be so appealing to people if Elliot goes back in on somebody and DOES break their leg when he could and should have been off the pitch already.
Trust me - if we need a win on the last day of the season to avoid relegation and at 0-0 we have the chance to get someone sent for a reckless challenge, and we don't take it and that player influences a negative result that sends us down, NOBODY is going to be taking comfort in the fact that we're such upstanding gents.
If people are stupid enough to make dangerous challenges, it's not our duty to protect them. It's only our duty to make sure that WE aren't giving teams as many opportunities to turn the tables.