Here is another feature article offered to Spurs Odyssey by "Danny Mackay" Thanks to "Danny" for the item. The opinions expressed are those of the author, and not necessarily those of Spurs Odyssey
In Defence of Poll
I have in the past suggested that refereeing will never be of a high enough standard without some technological revolution, or a cloning agreement with Pierluigi Collina. However, despite his many, many faults, I feel compelled to defend one of the worst refs around.
Graham Poll is not the vicious snarling Chelsea-hating scum that the Champions are painting him to be. He is incompetent (Ed: Sometimes!). He makes some ludicrously bad decisions. And he sometimes loses count of the cards he has shown. But this talk of bias is just wrong and shows one Chelsea player up as a mindless idiot.
Obviously all of this follows a spirited and classy game of football that was a showcase for just how good the Premiership should be. Both sides were excellent, and Spurs edged a close but well earned win.
Chelsea’s special manager did as he always does after a setback and focused on the ref. I have always taken this to be a psychology matter. I am sure he knows that his players made mistakes and that the referee was not the sole cause of defeat. On the training ground he no doubt works to improve his players for their next performance and tries to ensure his side learns from their mistakes. But it can build camaraderie to play at victim-hood and this has served the likes of Sir Alex Ferguson and Jose well over the years.
After all, were Poll brought before a press conference to discuss his decisions, the questions might not go as Chelsea fans would like. For example, Spurs supporters would want to know why Frank Lampard was not sent off for his vicious assault on Chimbonda. They might even think back two years to when he awarded Chelsea a decisive penalty for a blatant dive in the corresponding fixture.
Likewise the ref might point out that Drogba must have heard the whistle long before he scored his ‘disallowed’ goal. The foul may have been minor or non-existent, but had the whistle not blown Paul Robinson would hardly have casually allowed the ball to pass him within arms reach. So if the keeper heard it from further away, why, Poll might ask, did Drogba play on?
This is not to say that Poll was right in many of his decisions against Chelsea. He was his normal self and made many wrong decisions. But he was clearly even-handedly incompetent. (Ed: Sometimes!)
However, Ashley ‘pauper’ Cole has shown just why Poll needs defending. The man whose poor defending was more to blame for Chelsea’s defeat than anything else has gone further than his manager and labelled Poll biased.
Cole declared of Poll “He said to Lamps, you need to get it in check and you need discipline.”
To me that reads like honest advice from a referee who was unwilling to let the game get out of control. He set his stall out early and made clear dissent and lots of petty fouls would not be acceptable. He made clear with his yellow card on Ballack that he was willing to enforce the rules to the letter. So giving Chelsea players that warning was surely the right thing to do.
And here is where the defence of Poll really kicks in. He then proceeded to be as close to 100 percent consistent as I have ever seen a referee be. He booked a wall for refusing to step back to ten yards after being repeatedly told to. He booked a right back for the third or fourth petty foul he committed in a short period. And he eventually sent Terry off for after a string of similar petty fouls and rants.
All of these examples were in blue shirts. And hence Cole went on “If you’re going to have a ref like that, you know it’s not worth playing because you’re going to get a hard time.” He then suggested this hard-line against Chelsea came because Poll wanted to prove a point after watching the Barca game.
But the real reason for all of those examples involving blue shirts was simply because Spurs players responded to the ref with good sense. They kept their mouths shut, they stepped their walls back seemingly beyond ten yards when told to, and they avoided tackling from behind.
So while Poll made mistakes, and is incompetent(Ed: Sometimes!), he deserves to be defended. And that is particularly so when his attackers are ignorant footballers who can’t tell the difference between bias and their own stupidity.
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