A&H

Huddersfield vs Blackpool

J

Joshref

RefChat Addict

Don’t know if anyone watched this on Sky Sports Red Button but I was at the game. Was sat in the home end for this game, with the Huddersfield fans give referee Jeremy Simpson a considerable amount of undeserved stick throughout as always. Nothing majorly divisive though, except this incident. Only clip I could find of it online Is above.

Huddersfield defender Tom Lees takes a stray arm to the face and goes down. Ref plays on and Blackpool almost score. Lees is unconscious and not moving for a considerable length of time, and is eventually taken off with a stretcher, neck brace and oxygen. He was down for over 10 minutes, before being taken off to applause from both fans. Huddersfield confirm he was knocked out and suspected concussion. With hindsight, it’s clearly a serious injury.

What are you doing here? There’s nothing in the laws that says play has to be stopped with a head injury, but it seems an obvious one to stop for. You could argue the ref didn’t see it, but as was clear in the ground and on the video the ref has it bought to his attention by Huddersfield players, puts the whistle towards his mouth, and again decides to play on.

What are you going for here?
(Key incidents in the video, 15 seconds ish is when the challenge happens, 28 seconds is where the ref is informed of the injury by Huddersfield players)
 
A&H International
Doesn’t look like he had been knocked out at that point and I’m sure if he had seen it or knew it to be the case he would have stopped the game.

His positioning means he is in such a close proximity to it when he turns round that he literally has a split second to deal with it, and that is not to say that his positioning is wrong either.
 
Agree it doesn't look like a serious injury from the way he goes down. And I bet the ref didn't see the player got a knock to the head so he doesn't think head injury.

The ref is too close to play and looking at feet and misses the swinging of the arm to the head. He infact plays advantage the other way. This is at least a yellow card if not red for SFP.

One of the reasons why being closer that 10 yards to play is not recommended . It gives you narrow vision and limited focus area.
 
Rather than focus on the ref I am wondering if the 4th or AR1 could have seen this or at least realised something is not right.

this does seem like a freak occurrence
 
Ref really needs a shout from his colleagues here, would like to think on 26secs of the clip is when the game should stop. at the orange team playing the ball backwards.

ref really is too central before the incident, should really be more left looking in, rather than central looking on,

To add, I have no issue here if say someone at the benches realises something is up and simply runs on. Safety first
 
es1 said:
This would be a good law change imo, would prevent a lot of the 'injuries' that stop the game unnecessarily
Click to expand...

if the medical expert wanted to run on here, as Ar or 4th I would not be stopping them.

If refs unaware as to whats happening, he soon will when either the ball goes dead or, changes direction, and in turn, hopefully, would then be blowing up

Bit dff in our parks football, would be rare to have a medical expert on the sideline but if that clips the pub league ref operating alone, i would not be harsh on the treatment guy running on,
 
Anubis said:
if the medical expert wanted to run on here, as Ar or 4th I would not be stopping them.

If refs unaware as to whats happening, he soon will when either the ball goes dead or, changes direction, and in turn, hopefully, would then be blowing up

Bit dff in our parks football, would be rare to have a medical expert on the sideline but if that clips the pub league ref operating alone, i would not be harsh on the treatment guy running on
Click to expand...

Absolutely, anyone running on to help a potentially seriously injured player during play gets my full support
 
This is so difficult for referees these days as players are constantly going down holding their heads to try and get the game stopped, only to then pop straight up as soon as they hear the whistle. I'm not saying that was the case here, and the fact that Tom Lees had to go off suggests he was genuinely injured, but the overall behaviour of players has put referees in an almost impossible position.
 
https://twitter.com/x/status/1475456608205516800

I hadn’t even thought of disciplinary action when it happened, but we should talk about this. It’s definitely at least a yellow, anyone thinking similar to what One said, Red for SFP. The two elbows make a difference for me, this could easily be a red.

I do agree that even in the stadium it did sort of look like Lees was faking. Turns out he was legitimately knocked out!

But within seconds it was easy to tell something wasn’t right when the guy is just plain not moving. The AR or 4th official has to alert the ref here, who’s missed the elbow due to poor positioning and hasn’t realised the extent of the injury. It gets really poor from the whole officiating team when the ref looks at Lees, puts the whistle to his mouth and then plays on, which Blackpool should’ve scored from.

Anyway that’s my thoughts, but let’s talk about actions. Red, yellow or no action?
 
Joshref said:
https://twitter.com/x/status/1475456608205516800

I hadn’t even thought of disciplinary action when it happened, but we should talk about this. It’s definitely at least a yellow, anyone thinking similar to what One said, Red for SFP. The two elbows make a difference for me, this could easily be a red.

I do agree that even in the stadium it did sort of look like Lees was faking. Turns out he was legitimately knocked out!

But within seconds it was easy to tell something wasn’t right when the guy is just plain not moving. The AR or 4th official has to alert the ref here, who’s missed the elbow due to poor positioning and hasn’t realised the extent of the injury. It gets really poor from the whole officiating team when the ref looks at Lees, puts the whistle to his mouth and then plays on, which Blackpool should’ve scored from.

Anyway that’s my thoughts, but let’s talk about actions. Red, yellow or no action?
Click to expand...
Got to disagree with this. It’s easy with hindsight to say it’s poor, but the motion of the player going down doesn’t suggest seriousness. He’s put his hands to his head, and slowly gone down with bent knees so he’s not instantly knocked out. multiple Huddersfield and Blackpool players all jog past him when he’s on the ground and not one of them make any kind of signal or even check on him so clearly they aren’t concerned for injury. If they are 2 yards away and don’t spot it as being serious, how will the officials 30+ yards away?
 
QuaverRef said:
Got to disagree with this. It’s easy with hindsight to say it’s poor, but the motion of the player going down doesn’t suggest seriousness. He’s put his hands to his head, and slowly gone down with bent knees so he’s not instantly knocked out. multiple Huddersfield and Blackpool players all jog past him when he’s on the ground and not one of them make any kind of signal or even check on him so clearly they aren’t concerned for injury. If they are 2 yards away and don’t spot it as being serious, how will the officials 30+ yards away?
Click to expand...

Agree, nothing of the incident, on film, one play, suggests anything serious so can totally understand real time nothing seeming amiss

opposite of that dogso/play advantage clip on another thread, everything about that smells of foul, nothing in this clip suggests anything sinister. For me, this clip is just one of those abnormalties tbat will occur.
 
QuaverRef said:
Got to disagree with this. It’s easy with hindsight to say it’s poor, but the motion of the player going down doesn’t suggest seriousness. He’s put his hands to his head, and slowly gone down with bent knees so he’s not instantly knocked out. multiple Huddersfield and Blackpool players all jog past him when he’s on the ground and not one of them make any kind of signal or even check on him so clearly they aren’t concerned for injury. If they are 2 yards away and don’t spot it as being serious, how will the officials 30+ yards away?
Click to expand...
If they did spot it though, what card would you show?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top