Mark Halsey is a good man and a decent ref but he simply had an awful game today. I think the occasion got to him, and so determined was he to not be seen to be "evening it up" for his poor decision to send off Shelvey, that he ended up compounding it by making nemerous further mistakes. The decision not to award a free kick for the foul on Suarez at the end was another poor one and by then he was a sad sight, cutting a lonely figure as he drowned in his obvious incompetence, his confidence shot to pieces.
He looked flustered and rattled and was afraid to give us a decision with us in such a threatening situation, what with him having added so much time on. Quite how he got himself into such a hole as the game developed will no doubt cause him much soul searching over the next few days. He (probably wrongly) decided against giving yellow cards early, refusing one for Shelvey and for Evra when they were both blatent cases. Then, he allowed himself to be influenced by the earpiece over the Shelvey sending off. Curiously, the advice came in BEFORE the slow motion replays had been aired. Had he had the benefit off seeing them himself (which no doubt he has by now) he'll obviously realise that it was "both or neither" situation with the sending off, with the sensible lean being towards the latter.
He missed the Suarez penalty because our mans "reputation preceeds him", although whther that's the reputation of being a diver or one of someone who is often fouled in the penalty area but never gets a penalty I aren't 100% sure. Then he gave theirs, which I felt was a 30% chance at best, and you'd have about as much chance of getting that awarded to you away at Old Trafford as you would of finding Jaap Stam lining up against you in defence.
All in all it was very poor. Halsey may well consider his refereeing career after this game, if he doesn't then someone perhaps needs to have a word with him. Perhaps we should have a word with the powers that be as well. Speaking personally I'm tired of being "unlucky" with referees. We didn't get a clear penalty last week which would have won us the game, and we didn't get one this week either. Perhaps they'd be so kind as to tell us exactly what IS a foul in the box, because it's approaching the stage where I'm not sure any more.
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