The mid-week man in the middle - Phil Dowd
The FA have made it clear that players need to clean up their act. Swift
punishment is handed out to those who fall foul of the rules. This is good
news for both players and fans alike.The only problem is that the appointed
Sheriffs of the beautiful game have the badge not always the respect needed
to impose themselves on a game.
Saturday's ref showed that you don't have to wave a coloured card to impose
authority. Dowd attempted to do the same but failed. Miserably. Mills soon
realised he had a licence to shove, push, grapple and late tackle and there
wasn't a thing Dowd was going to do about it. Word quickly spread amongst
the Manchester back 4 and this was acutely highlighted when Distin tried to
floor Heskey as he went up for the only goal of the game.
Mills was finally booked for a calculated tackle on Forssell which appeared
to be an aimed placing of Mills' boot on Forssell's achilles heel. The ref
produced a yellow and the Finn hobbled for the next 5 minutes and failed to
fully shake off the effects for the rest of the game.
At this point Dowd realised he had a job too. Unfortunately that meant that
free kicks were called when advantage was more, erm, advantageous.
The only other booking was for Izzet for a tackle that Mills and Co had
carried out all night without punishment.
Ref Rating - 6/10
Bookings: Mills (unsporting behaviour), Izzet (unsporting behaviour)