Agreed.

If only for not sending hibbert off.

He made some terrible decisions for both sides. He should not be in charge of top flight games.

Justice has been served, however it doesn't hide the other mistakes this terrible ref made. Would the result have changed, doubt it. But I hope the ref review panel drop him from top flight games.

This whole diving/trying to get players sent off is a blight on the game.

If, in Rodwell's case, the Red card is rescinded, then you stick a 1 match ban on the player who dived to get him sent off.

For the players who brandish imaginary cards at the ref, a straight booking, no interpretation, a booking. Like when a player takes off his shirt after scoring (the most ridiculous rule in the game).

Only in this incident no-one dived.

Never a sending off or even a foul but Suarez was caught when Rodwell slid into to him.

Suarez should not be banned. but Lucas calling for a card should get punished. as should any player asking for a booking.

I didn't see him do that on Saturday but he has done it in the past.

I completely agree that any player that does this should be booked (that's a rule anyway isn't it).

Look at the video again. i would like it if one of ours did it either. having a history of it is wrong. what happened to the facilities FIFA rule of booking for that offence?

Another thing, if anyone out there has ever suffered a bad injury during a game of football, (or any sport to be fair), do you roll around on the ground, or do you lie still hoping not to aggravate the injury. I once tore my stomach muscles off my ribcage playing cricket (bowling), and I went down in heap, and stayed there.

Do refs not know this? Can they honestly not tell the difference between play acting and an actual injury?

Fellaini's tackle as well in the 1st half was horrible

HMM. That sounds horrible. I broke a big toe and hobbled round like a headless chicken. Just should have held.my shin and had the lad sent off

I wonder how much Atkinson got paid to sway the game?

PJS, I did both sides during my playing time. It truly is a $hitty injury. You can't life your arm up further than about 45 degrees, or bend to pick anything up, or twist your torso, and it only heals with time.

The worst injury I picked up in 20 years of Footy and Rugby combined was a fractured finger, barring bumps and bruises.

*lift your arm*

So cricket is a mans game then.

My father in law used to work for an American company, and was asked once if Baseball was popular in the UK. He replied that we played Cricket, but we did have baseball over here, but it was played by women and kids and called rounders...

Good to see that at least he wo'nt be suspended. But on a serious note, we need refs and they get paid a fair whack in the PL. If they start showing poor form (ie making wrong/$h!t decisions) can/should they be dropped? For how long?
Playacting is a thorn in the side of all football-loving fans. If an Everton player was regularly being found to be cheating in this way, would we fans not be in the best position to let him know that we don't approve?
AJ had a bit of a reputation for going down easily-rightly or wrongly-but he didn't try to have players booked or sent off.
Ronaldo (whilst) at Man Utd and now Nani. Torres and now Suarez at Liverpool. Shouldn't their own fans be telling them to cut it out?
If opposing fans get upset, then it's just "sour grapes" etc. I asked on the Rs board on Saturday if they really like Suarez-answers as expected "he will win you trophies" etc. How much do we want trophies and how much do we tolerate cheating to win them?

That's good. Are fellaini and Hibbert to face bans instead now. and will Pienaar face a ban for his horror tackle on Masch in the Atkison-officiated debacle at Anfield two season's ago?

And surely Kyro deserves to have his red card rescinded for the same game. At this rate Fellaini will be banned for the few games a year that he's not injured anyway.

That's good. Are fellaini and Hibbert to face bans instead now. and will Pienaar face a ban for his horror tackle on Masch in the Atkison-officiated debacle at Anfield two season's ago?

And surely Kyro deserves to have his red card rescinded for the same game. At this rate Fellaini will be banned for the few games a year that he's not injured anyway.
**

No..you see those games were.. from another season altogether you plum... & generally how it works is that if the FA feel a decision was wrong - which it clearly was then the punishment is rescinded....obviously we still lost the 3 points because of the decision but at least this proves that the decision was a joke by a weak referee, RS are stuck in the past like always

They, like Rodwells were delta with at the time. Nobody at LFC made a complaint so must have been happy with the decision

Easy

Referees at the top level should be taken from a pool of ex players from the lower level of English football.

These lads will not have earned big wages throughout their careers,and would welcome the wages refs get today.
They could be trained to the required badge level the current refs have,while having the experience from the playing side of things.
Any one who has played football to a decent level,can spot if a player goes in to do someone a mile off.
Equally they can see a mistimed, honest tackle a mile off.

CE that's a good idea. I feel dirty now, need a bath in bleach to feel clean!

HMMurdoch

I rolled my ankle and broke it and was punching the floor and nearly crying. I think, looking back, that was not a normal reaction.

One thing that's always annoyed me about refs is how robotic they are. I'd use Atkinson or Mike Dean as the perfect example there. These guys have never kicked a football in their life.

You look at rugby refs and how they treat the players (and vice-versa) and it's absolutely fantastic. They still get decisions wrong, they're still human, but everyone respects eachother.

The FA or FIFA or whoever had it right with their 'Respect' campaign. The shameful thing is that they seemingly forgot to implicate it. Waving imaginary cards, diving and the rest should be dealt with retrospectively if the ref doesn't see it. Diving would soon stop if players served bans for doing it. There are of course varying degrees. I loved Arteta got us but the lad used to 'win' so many cheap free kicks. At the time, I liked it in a way, but I did always feel almost embarrassed about it. I mean, a grown man doing that. It just doesn't sit right with me. What does he tell his kids?

Vellios threw himself on the floor against Wigan and I absolutely screamed at him. I think he got more grief for that than Hibbo and Ossie have received from me in their combined time at the club. I think we as fans have to show that it's not acceptable.

Had the one with the teeth not jumped he would have had two broken legs.

You cant possibly believe that.

Plus theres the small fact that he didn't jump anyway.