In the years that I have been watching Pools I have seen many wierd and wonderful desicions given for and (mostly) against us. But, never, ever have I seen an official as inept as the one on Saturday. It was fairly clear from the early dive by Flack and resultant booking of Davies that the 'ref' had Exeter down for a home win on his coupon. As the game wore on it became increasingly obvious that the ref had made his way to the game by tractor, probably with half of the Exeter team. The game was farcical.
The first half was similar to many others I've seen under Houch's reign: Pools sat back and gifted Exeter possession and territory but were rarely troubled by an Exeter attack which seemed more interested in sitting on the ground for a quick graze than in scoring goals. Whenever Pools strung 5 or 6 passes together they looked dangerous. They managed it 3 times and created 3 chances, the best 2 of which fell to Howard and Halliday, both of whom should have scored. Ingram picked up a booking but that was about it for the first half.
So, bribe firmly in pocket, the ref set about collecting his pools winnings. Ten minutes into the second half Flack found the ball at his feet, Davies attempted to tackle him and missed, Flack saw a particularly lush looking piece of turf and promptly fell to the floor for a graze. Penalty. F*** Off. Yellow card = Red card. Double F*** Off. Pears saved brilliantly and was extremely unlucky to see the rebound fall to the penalty taker who toe-poked it in.
The game degeneratedfrom here on. Sending off number 2 occured with 10 minutes to go when Ingram and Lee Sharpe's brother were pulling each other's shirts. Both players let go. Sharpe took a couple more paces and fell over. Yellow card for diving. Er, no. Yellow for Ingram = Red for Ingram. Triple F*** Off ref. Insult was added to injury when 5 minutes from time Exeter scored a 30 yard scorcher.