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Sunday, April 26, 2009

How to recover from a major bloomer - Webb style

Howard Webb probably realised within seconds that there was a problem with the decision to award Man Utd a crucial penalty against Spurs. Goalkeeper Gomes knew he had done his job brilliantly in getting finger tips to the ball when Michael Carrick tried to take it around him, but Webb obviously didn't see Gomes touch the ball, only seeing Carrick go tumbling over the keeper.
But with no assistant positioned to help him out, Webb had to stick with his decision. You can't change your mind simply because players are upset. They act too well for that. But Webb knows he is appointed to the country's and Europe's top matches because his decision-making usually commands complete respect.
Webb will have been in a lonely place last night after seeing the replays, but the sign of a top referee is how he recovers from such setbacks. He will look very closely at the replays to check his positioning. I'm not completely sure, but I suspect he was further away from the ball then he would like to have been, always a problem with a team like Man Utd that breaks with frightening speed. But there again Webb is probably the fittest ref in the country.
He found himself peering between two players to get a view of Gomes' challenge and his view of the incident was clearly not the best. Webb added up the factors in his head and awarded the penalty. Unfortunately he didn't include the factor - Gomes' fingertips - that might have kept the Premier League leadership contest alive.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Out of interest, why is it so crucial that the GK touched the ball before taking down the Attacker? Does it specify anything in the LOTG or it it simply convention that if the ball is touched/played first it cannot be a foul?

Thanks