As a rule we don't do referee bad mouthing at VERYWESTHAM.COM. It's a hard job in the middle and its important that referees are respected and develop the confidence to make hard decisions, especially against home sides when 60,000 fans are bellowing for a call.
However, West ham can feel mighty disappointed with Referee Stuart Attwell tonight. Attwell caved in at the Etihad and awarded the Moonies a dreadfully soft penalty mid way through the second half when, in all honesty, Man City were starting to look short on ideas.
Bernardo Silva went down on the edge of the box, travelling in no particular place of note under a fearsome challenge from that fearsome man mountain Felipe Anderson!
Sergio Aguero stepped up to take the penalty and duly silenced the thousands of travelling West Ham fans who had until that point been endlessly sniggering at his truly crap hairstyle. Think Gazza Euro '96 gone wrong!
Even with that immense leg up, City still didn't look like stretching things and at the end of the day West Ham can feel pretty sore at yet another poor refereeing decision against them in games against the top six.
In Attwell's case, it wasn't even in his top ten of poor calls as he is credited with perhaps the most ridiculous refereeing error of recent history when in a Championship game between Reading and Watford in September 2008, he awarded Reading a goal for a passage of play where the ball did not go anywhere near the Watford goal! He was demoted from Premiership responsibilities in 2012 after a series of poor performances, being reinstated in 2016.
Hammers fans will hardly be thanking the FA for that call, as just when the game is trying to get on top of players cheating by going down too easily we have this type of supersoft nonsense. Its hard to imagine West Ham getting a similar decision at the other end.
In summary......Bull-Skutter, Balderdash, Codswallop, Poppycock!!!
However, West ham can feel mighty disappointed with Referee Stuart Attwell tonight. Attwell caved in at the Etihad and awarded the Moonies a dreadfully soft penalty mid way through the second half when, in all honesty, Man City were starting to look short on ideas.
Bernardo Silva went down on the edge of the box, travelling in no particular place of note under a fearsome challenge from that fearsome man mountain Felipe Anderson!
Sergio Aguero stepped up to take the penalty and duly silenced the thousands of travelling West Ham fans who had until that point been endlessly sniggering at his truly crap hairstyle. Think Gazza Euro '96 gone wrong!
Even with that immense leg up, City still didn't look like stretching things and at the end of the day West Ham can feel pretty sore at yet another poor refereeing decision against them in games against the top six.
In Attwell's case, it wasn't even in his top ten of poor calls as he is credited with perhaps the most ridiculous refereeing error of recent history when in a Championship game between Reading and Watford in September 2008, he awarded Reading a goal for a passage of play where the ball did not go anywhere near the Watford goal! He was demoted from Premiership responsibilities in 2012 after a series of poor performances, being reinstated in 2016.
Hammers fans will hardly be thanking the FA for that call, as just when the game is trying to get on top of players cheating by going down too easily we have this type of supersoft nonsense. Its hard to imagine West Ham getting a similar decision at the other end.
In summary......Bull-Skutter, Balderdash, Codswallop, Poppycock!!!