Shaq Forde

Discretion isn’t really how the referees are asked to manage games these days when something is that clear and obvious. He would have been marked down by the assessor in the stand for choosing to not apply the rules 

Shaq blatantly kicked the ball away and doing so was an absolutely stupid thing to do when already on a yellow - what went on before and however frustrated he may have been is immaterial. Our fans would have rightly gone mental if an opposition player on a yellow kicked the ball away like that and got away with it. 

Stupid but we move on and he’ll hopefully have learned from it. 

Fortunately I believe it’s just a one match ban that will be served in the W-S-M game. 

Thanks for making it clear. I hoped that's what you meant.

Couldn't care if he was given a straight red, there is actually never any circumstance when racially abusing someone is acceptable. There is no justification.

Nobody has suggested otherwise on Gaschat? At the moment there's some doubts the culprit even follows Rovers, I assume that's why Reading have also released a statement condoing the abuse. 

My buddy and I were in Block 32, Row Z. He's an ex-referee. He saw plenty of fouls by Reading players which were unpunished. There was even a foul by a Rovers player down in front of us which went unpunished. If we could see it, why couldn't the referee? Didn't see it? Then his positioning must be in doubt. I well remember Rebecca Welch reffing us. She seemed to have no trouble in controlling the game and getting decisions right. Baffled why others can't.

Refereeing is a problem in football from the top down.

They don't get enough protection and every little thing they do is over analysed in HD slo-mo. They get abuse from fans, players and "experts".

None of them set out to cheat or be bias, they are just human beings trying to do an impossible job against a backdrop of abuse and cheating left right and centre by players.

Players abuse them and appeal for/against every single decision a ref has to make.

I've reffed a couple of games at grass roots level and it's a thankless job, and no one wants to do it.

In kids football a ref gets paid around £20 for a game which is their Sunday afternoon gone every week.

My lad reffed a couple of girls games when he was 14 and he enjoyed it but the club refused to pay him because he was under 16 so he gave up.

I run the line every week because no one else wants to do it.

I'm so fed up with reading about bad refs, when football does f**k all to help and encourage more people to do it and do it well.

Fair play to you.
You know more than most then.
I’ve been asked if I wanted to do it at goals soccer centre where I’ve been playing for 25 years in the league there,
It’s £11 per game and there’s four slots, £44 for 4 hours getting abuse and criticism none stop.
No thanks.

The thing you quickly realize when you ref a game is just how little you actually see.

From the stands or on TV you can see the whole game, you get a view of what's happening off the ball, you see players positions and such.

When you are actually in the middle of the pitch you only see what you are directly looking at, and even with the best reading of the game it's almost impossible to keep up with play sometimes. I actually think most refs do a bloody good job as they do tend to get a massive majority of decisions correct when you add it up.

The biggest issue for me is players cheating because they are trying their best to make an impossible job more impossible!

It frustrates me when I hear commentators say "he bought a foul" or "he's done well" when what they really mean is "he's cheated".

The culture of football needs to change, but as long as fans and players keep blaming referees for 1 or 2 bad decisions when players make 10 bad decisions or 10 bad passes in a game then nothing is ever going to improve.