Tonights referee is Simon Hooper

[The Real Buh 3,423]

Getting his yellow card quota in now

[Flying Dutchman 744]

21 minutes ago, Feedthewolf said:

And to think that you're involved in youth football. Take a look at yourself.

Get out.

Surely not? That's genuinely terrifying.

[Mello Yello 2,282]

Getting his yellow card quota in now

Good job they aren't edible.....

[canarydan23 4,060]

14 minutes ago, Flying Dutchman said:

Get out.

Surely not? That's genuinely terrifying.

I'm sure a lot of things terrify a delicate little thing like you.

[Wacky Waving Inflatable Arm Flailing Tube Man 3,783]

Missed a clear penalty there for Gibson's foul too. 

Let's be honest, Hooper hasn't had a great game tonight, but it's worth noting that:

a) A lot of fans will always claim that the referee has given their team nothing, and often both sets of fans will say the same thing about the same match. 

b) Several Norwich fans had already made their mind up about Hooper before a ball was even kicked tonight.

Edited February 5, 2021 by Wacky Waving Inflatable Arm Flailing Tube Man

[The Real Buh 3,423]

It’s been a game with very little physicality, neither side are brutes,

 

how many yellows?

 

Simon Hooper is a crackhead

[Ward 3 371]

Cant blame the ref for tonights turd performance. I blame McLean. Absolutely useless and majority of you cream your pants for the mayor 🤣🤐

[Graham Paddons Beard 2,424]

A pathetic performance. Tried to ref from the centre circle and give no big decisions . Missed 3 pens . 
 

[Ken Hairy 3,760]

1 minute ago, Ward 3 said:

Cant blame the ref for tonights turd performance. I blame McLean. Absolutely useless and majority of you cream your pants for the mayor 🤣🤐

I don't think anyone is blaming Hooper for tonight's poor display, just pointing that yet again he's been woefully poor. 

Genuinely don't know how he still has a job, by far and away the worst referee currently employed. 

[Graham Paddons Beard 2,424]

1 minute ago, Ward 3 said:

Cant blame the ref for tonights turd performance. I blame McLean. Absolutely useless and majority of you cream your pants for the mayor 🤣🤐

If you thought McLean was out worst player you are pushing the boundaries of it being a game of opinion . 

[Ward 3 371]

1 minute ago, Graham Paddons Beard said:

If you thought McLean was out worst player you are pushing the boundaries of it being a game of opinion . 

I didn't say he was our worst mate I felt the timing of the 2nd goal was bad blamed him for loose touch/pass. Shouldn't be doing that there. My opinion chap

[BigGrantsTash 70]

He’s the sole reason we lost today 

[canarydan23 4,060]

12 minutes ago, Graham Paddons Beard said:

If you thought McLean was out worst player you are pushing the boundaries of it being a game of opinion . 

Who do you think was worse?

For the record, I think there were maybe a couple worse than him tonight, but don't think the opinion that he was the worst is that controversial. He was dreadful and his error was responsible for one of the two most significant moments of the match.

[greggp27 1]

The ref was ok for the most part, I wasn't looking forward to it tbh....so this result doesn't lie with him as we were poor, however there were 2 quick free kicks for us in 1st half before they scored that got blocked by Conor horihane who should at least seen 1 yellow for them maybe 2 but you could argue he wouldn't foul again after the first, vrancic gets a 1st with his first foul of the game!

 

All in all a disappointing result but hardly surprising based on the last 4 games I've watched.... that's a month now farke to get Hernandez, dowell, idah etc up to speed with 1 game a Mickey mouse game so think tactics and gameplay need a review....

Edited February 5, 2021 by greggp27

[Feedthewolf 4,844]

1 hour ago, Wacky Waving Inflatable Arm Flailing Tube Man said:

Missed a clear penalty there for Gibson's foul too. 

Let's be honest, Hooper hasn't had a great game tonight, but it's worth noting that:

a) A lot of fans will always claim that the referee has given their team nothing, and often both sets of fans will say the same thing about the same match. 

b) Several Norwich fans had already made their mind up about Hooper before a ball was even kicked tonight.

Yeah, this. I felt we didn't get the rub of decisions in the second half, but then him not giving the pen against Gibson evened it up (and that was another mistake, let's be honest). I felt he was alright in the first half, but missed quite a lot more in the second half. But some people still remember his (admittedly appalling) performance in our game at home to Palace in 2015 and judge him solely on that. It's happened with other referees (Oliver Langford being the most recent example), that fans name and shame him, vilify him, and then forget about him until he referees us next and then jump on every 50/50 decision that goes against us.

Most of the most vocal critics of referees are people who are way too cowardly to even consider picking up a whistle and being the only person on their team among 22 highly charged and competitive men for £20 at the end of it. Why would you? That's the reason I jacked it in, after seven years of getting dog's abuse for facilitating other people being able to play football.

[Wacky Waving Inflatable Arm Flailing Tube Man 3,783]

3 minutes ago, Feedthewolf said:

Yeah, this. I felt we didn't get the rub of decisions in the second half, but then him not giving the pen against Gibson evened it up (and that was another mistake, let's be honest). I felt he was alright in the first half, but missed quite a lot more in the second half. But some people still remember his (admittedly appalling) performance in our game at home to Palace in 2015 and judge him solely on that. It's happened with other referees (Oliver Langford being the most recent example), that fans name and shame him, vilify him, and then forget about him until he referees us next and then jump on every 50/50 decision that goes against us.

Most of the most vocal critics of referees are people who are way too cowardly to even consider picking up a whistle and being the only person on their team among 22 highly charged and competitive men for £20 at the end of it. Why would you? That's the reason I jacked it in, after seven years of getting dog's abuse for facilitating other people being able to play football.

Exactly. I've never reffed, and wouldn't even consider it for the reasons you just mentioned. Is it really worth giving up a few hours of your life just to get shouted at abused for doing your job?

It's sad there's this culture within football that seems to accept, and even encourage, the abuse of referees when they're just doing a difficult job to the best of their abilities, with those 22 men you mentioned trying their best to con, cheat and make life as difficult as possible for the ref whilst shouting in his face every two minutes for every decision that doesn't go his way.

It's probably the thing I dislike about football above all else.

[Feedthewolf 4,844]

1 minute ago, Wacky Waving Inflatable Arm Flailing Tube Man said:

Exactly. I've never reffed, and wouldn't even consider it for the reasons you just mentioned. Is it really worth giving up a few hours of your life just to get shouted at abused for doing your job?

It's sad there's this culture within football that seems to accept, and even encourage, the abuse of referees when they're just doing a difficult job to the best of their abilities, with those 22 men you mentioned trying their best to con, cheat and make life as difficult as possible for the ref whilst shouting in his face every two minutes for every decision that doesn't go his way.

It's probably the thing I dislike about football above all else.

For those people who don't like rugby union, tomorrow would be a great opportunity to watch England v Scotland in the Six Nations and do nothing but focus on the referee.

I have heard and seen things through official FA channels during my time as a qualified referee (admittedly 15-20 years ago) that effectively legitimise this. Much as the FA will almost always back their referees in appeals against red cards/misconduct charges, the message that is passed down from higher levels is that referees should 'develop a thick skin' towards dissent and not make a big issue of it.

As a grassroots referee, there were numerous occasions where I feared for my own safety due to the rampant disrespect and abuse that was meted out even by teams at the bottom end of the pyramid who were absolutely sh*t at football... like literally so sh*t, I wanted to give them advice about positioning, awareness, distribution and so forth. Obviously I bit my tongue, but the culture of disrespect is so pervasive at grassroots level that it's only a tough line from the authorities than can sort it out.

For a few months it would be chaos at the higher levels of the game, but if officials were actively encouraged to issue red cards (or even 'sin bins' for dissent, which are already working well at grassroots level), it wouldn't take long for players to be actively dragging their teammates away from referees. The FA itself is culpable for the universal lack of respect for referees throughout the game. That's the reason I stopped refereeing more than 15 years ago, and frankly not much has changed.

[Wacky Waving Inflatable Arm Flailing Tube Man 3,783]

5 minutes ago, Feedthewolf said:

 For a few months it would be chaos at the higher levels of the game, but if officials were actively encouraged to issue red cards (or even 'sin bins' for dissent, which are already working well at grassroots level), it wouldn't take long for players to be actively dragging their teammates away from referees. The FA itself is culpable for the universal lack of respect for referees throughout the game. That's the reason I stopped refereeing more than 15 years ago, and frankly not much has changed.

Nailed it. I've said this for years.

Also, I'd like to see referees mic'd up. Not only would it allow fans to hear referees justify their decisions, it would let us hear the nonsense they have to put up with. Players may also think twice if they knew their friends, families and children were listening and they'd probably be ashamed of themselves when they heard themselves back after a game.

[Feedthewolf 4,844]

5 minutes ago, Wacky Waving Inflatable Arm Flailing Tube Man said:

Nailed it. I've said this for years.

Also, I'd like to see referees mic'd up. Not only would it allow fans to hear referees justify their decisions, it would let us hear the nonsense they have to put up with. Players may also think twice if they knew their friends, families and children were listening and they'd probably be ashamed of themselves when they heard themselves back after a game.

Bang on. I still volunteer with local leagues and stand on committees in local football, and referees are pretty much unanimous that the power to 'sin bin' people for ten minutes for gobbing off has made things so much easier. Disciplinary reports for dissent went down by like 40% or something, I think? Personally I think it's scandalous that the FA, and County FAs, won't back that paradigm shift within the grassroots game and push for referees at higher levels to have more authority and autonomy to clamp down on it.

[Crabbycanary3 994]

8 hours ago, Feedthewolf said:

Yeah, this. I felt we didn't get the rub of decisions in the second half, but then him not giving the pen against Gibson evened it up (and that was another mistake, let's be honest). I felt he was alright in the first half, but missed quite a lot more in the second half. But some people still remember his (admittedly appalling) performance in our game at home to Palace in 2015 and judge him solely on that. It's happened with other referees (Oliver Langford being the most recent example), that fans name and shame him, vilify him, and then forget about him until he referees us next and then jump on every 50/50 decision that goes against us.

Most of the most vocal critics of referees are people who are way too cowardly to even consider picking up a whistle and being the only person on their team among 22 highly charged and competitive men for £20 at the end of it. Why would you? That's the reason I jacked it in, after seven years of getting dog's abuse for facilitating other people being able to play football.

You say we didn't get the rub of decisions in the 2nd half and he 'evened' it up with the penalty. In my eyes  that means he got decisions wrong. Fans should not claim bad luck with decisions. They Laws are either applied correctly, or they are not. There should be nothing 'unlucky' about decisions and VAR should (I know!) aid that . 

I actually think he got a lot wrong in the 1st half. Hourihane's hack should have got a yellow. One thing that really gets my goat, and is never dealt with,  is deliberately blocking a quick free kick being taken. Hourihane (again) and it also happened again, with another player. Not forgetting Hourihane kicking the ball away, when we were trying to take a free kick. Nothing was done. These are all in the Laws of the game, for a player to be cautioned. Why is it not? It' because the Refs are not applying the Laws correctly. I always say that Refs are not fully backed by the Authorities, but they do not help themselves on the pitch.

Hooper was poor last night, and he didn't help himself by not applying the Laws, which would have prevented him getting any sort of mention and this sort of thread.

Edited February 6, 2021 by Crabbycanary3

[The Real Buh 3,423]

Rugby referees are better than Football referees. They just have more skill, it’s facts.

The reason referees get so much abuse in football is because they are awful at their jobs. 

[Graham Paddons Beard 2,424]

This thread is about Simon Hooper not the laudable job amateur refs do in facilitating lower pyramid and youth football.

Hooper is an example of the scarcity of refs allegedly good enough at this level. He is on the select list - a professional referee- making it back onto Prem games have twice been removed from prem appointments . Most infamously for us was the Palace game in 2015 (his first ever) where his performance was so bad he was immediately removed and did not officiate in the Prem again until 2018 . In 2018 He did 2 games . Why only 2 ? We can only guess
 

From 2020 he is on the Prem. if you look at his appointments you will see a general lack of getting the “top six “ teams . Unusually for an experienced ref  on the list, he still gets more EFL games than prem. This suggests POGMOL still don’t rate him after all of these years . 
 

Go to soccerbase.com and compare him to , say , Andre Marriner who rarely steps down from the Prem . 

 

Hooper enjoys support of POGMOL but only to a point . As I say they are not giving him the big games . 
 

Hooper tries to climb the ladder by giving percentage decisions . The fouls on Pukki and their striker last night that should be pens ,  are given on the half way line . He gave  more decisions to the defending team in their half because it is less controversial. He missed a clear corner simply because he had his angles wrong . 
 

He was inconsistent in his yellows. His “speaking to cooper” made him look weak. He had been called by the 4th , and did nothing - only a slight smirk as he walked away. 
 

Among 22 elite athletes he looks ridiculously overweight and unfit and more often than not is behind play - the refs call this “reffing from the centre circle”. 
 

Hoopers only saving grace is that there aren’t enough Refs on a standard acceptable to POGMOL so they have to stick with him on Champ and lower reach Prem. 

Edited February 6, 2021 by Graham Paddons Beard

[Feedthewolf 4,844]

Yeah, in the cold light of day I can see that Hooper's performance was very poor last night. I'll always try to stick up for referees where I can, but on this occasion I was a bit overzealous in defending him. @Crabbycanary3 and @Graham Paddons Beard both made a lot of salient points.

[Ken Hairy 3,760]

2 minutes ago, Feedthewolf said:

Yeah, in the cold light of day I can see that Hooper's performance was very poor last night. I'll always try to stick up for referees where I can, but on this occasion I was a bit overzealous in defending him. @Crabbycanary3 and @Graham Paddons Beard both made a lot of salient points.

Unfortunately the sad fact of the matter is that Hooper is simply not fit for task. Obviously we all remember the Palace game, it's no exaggeration to suggest it being one of the worst refereeing performances we've ever seen, but it's not just that game, every time I see him, not just refereeing us but any game he officiated he's beyond poor, usually ending up in both sets of fans criticising him. 

It beggars belief he's on the Premier League list, the cold facts are he's not physically fit enough (continually tries to referee the whole game from the centre circle), not strong enough mentally, and quite frankly doesn't appear to understand the rules of the game he's been left in charge of. 

[horsefly 4,287]

By the book the studs up reckless challenge that caught Todd on the shin should have been a red card. Hooper was in full view of it but because Todd stayed on his feet he gave nothing. 

[hogesar 9,618]

11 hours ago, Feedthewolf said:

Yeah, this. I felt we didn't get the rub of decisions in the second half, but then him not giving the pen against Gibson evened it up (and that was another mistake, let's be honest). I felt he was alright in the first half, but missed quite a lot more in the second half. But some people still remember his (admittedly appalling) performance in our game at home to Palace in 2015 and judge him solely on that. It's happened with other referees (Oliver Langford being the most recent example), that fans name and shame him, vilify him, and then forget about him until he referees us next and then jump on every 50/50 decision that goes against us.

Most of the most vocal critics of referees are people who are way too cowardly to even consider picking up a whistle and being the only person on their team among 22 highly charged and competitive men for £20 at the end of it. Why would you? That's the reason I jacked it in, after seven years of getting dog's abuse for facilitating other people being able to play football.

So he was wrong on both counts.

Because Simon Hooper is consistently dreadful.

Oh, and part of being an elite referee should include not putting on a load of extra timber. Keep fit, keep up with play and at least be consistent. How on earth Hourihane was allowed to make 3 or 4 niggly fouls and then kick the ball away and avoid a yellow was the start of the end. Made it clear to players they could bend the rules. Lack of backbone. 

I saw him have a good game once. Not involving us. I've seen him have endless poor ones both involving and not involving us. Wasn't he relegated from refereeing at prem level at one point?

[Feedthewolf 4,844]

6 minutes ago, hogesar said:

So he was wrong on both counts.

Because Simon Hooper is consistently dreadful.

Oh, and part of being an elite referee should include not putting on a load of extra timber. Keep fit, keep up with play and at least be consistent. How on earth Hourihane was allowed to make 3 or 4 niggly fouls and then kick the ball away and avoid a yellow was the start of the end. Made it clear to players they could bend the rules. Lack of backbone. 

I saw him have a good game once. Not involving us. I've seen him have endless poor ones both involving and not involving us. Wasn't he relegated from refereeing at prem level at one point?

You missed the boat, Hog... I've already backtracked on my comments from last night 🙂

[Graham Paddons Beard 2,424]

6 minutes ago, hogesar said:

So he was wrong on both counts.

Because Simon Hooper is consistently dreadful.

Oh, and part of being an elite referee should include not putting on a load of extra timber. Keep fit, keep up with play and at least be consistent. How on earth Hourihane was allowed to make 3 or 4 niggly fouls and then kick the ball away and avoid a yellow was the start of the end. Made it clear to players they could bend the rules. Lack of backbone. 

I saw him have a good game once. Not involving us. I've seen him have endless poor ones both involving and not involving us. Wasn't he relegated from refereeing at prem level at one point?

If you read my post ....

[hogesar 9,618]

18 minutes ago, Feedthewolf said:

You missed the boat, Hog... I've already backtracked on my comments from last night 🙂

 

18 minutes ago, Graham Paddons Beard said:

If you read my post ....

I hadnt got as far as your posts! Apologies.

[CANARYKING 634]

Just watching Michael Bailey’s report, putting the boot into Simon H for all the non bookings compared with Emi’s