Seeing Red

As our EIGHTH player saw red this season, and trooped off the pitch not trying to make eye contact with the gaffer and contemplating a nice warm shower, we have to ask ourselves, "What's going on?" 

 

• Do we possess the dirtiest bunch of players ever to lace up gay-coloured football boots?
• Is it always wrong for players to fight their teammates during the game?
• How would the Leeds team of the early 70's or even Alty of the early 80's measure up if they were playing now (Clue - neither team would ever finish a game with a double-figure number of players on the pitch!)

 

It may seem obvious to say, but giving the opposition an extra man every game is not entirely conducive to winning football matches.  In the six games so far where we've shot ourselves in the foot this season we have picked up just 2 points (averaging 0.33 point per game - stats fans!)  Compare this to the whopping 1.18 points per game we have racked-up with a full compliment of Poppies stars on the turf, and the value of not seeing red becomes apparent.

But is the fault entirely that of the group of lazy / unfit /undisciplined (delete as appropriate) thugs we have in our employ?  Probably yes, but anyone trawling over the officiating statistics found here -

http://guardian.touch-line.com/StatsCentre.asp?CTID=11&CPID=108&pStr=Comp_Referees&t=5

will spot that refs seem to like reaching for the red these days.  We should invite Mr Amey to stand in the middle for all our games up to Christmas just to see if he will give us an easier ride, or see if we make a dent in his statistics.