Game should be replayed, I hope our official complaint is in allready!
We were utterly awful hoofing the ball again and again and again we didn’t have the ball, we didn’t win the ball, we didn’t want the ball. Just as bad as against Skem but with a (by all accounts) magnificent performance against Rushall inbetween, completely baffling. A good crowd but they won’t come to watch the football we’ve played last two home games.
Mike T I know you are passionate about WAFC
but come : on that is clutching at straws,ie something the green chairman of the district
( North West/midlands) would come up with,. :ohmy:
We were dis-jointed in yellow today. We were abject in blue. I really don’t want the game to replayed just so we can be woeful in red and white aswell.
To be honest, we could have made Grantham play in skins today, and they still would have beaten us.
The team that wanted it more took the 3 points. The unfathomable refereeing decisions just made a bad day even worse, and a poor game poorer.
Football as entertainment? Not today.
On the bright side; Witton Under 10s thoroughly enjoyed their visit to Wincham Park. Thanks to Pritch for being as accommodating as always when the the kids visit our club.
[quote=“ME” post=47167]Mike T I know you are passionate about WAFC
but come : on that is clutching at straws,ie something the green chairman of the district
( North West/midlands) would come up with,. :ohmy:[/quote]
Not clutching at straws at all. It is a point of principle. It is a fact that the game was not played under the rules of the Evostik League. So why should the game count? Can we, or the opposition, or the officials, choose which rules to break from week to week? There is no point in having rules if they are allowed to be broken, especially in such a blatant fashion.
We need a big old fashioned stopper to play at the back alongside Ben and a big target man up front. We are far too lightweight as we are and big teams like Grantham just out muscle us. Their number 4 was a top player today…
a pathetic performance today from witton and the “referee” , if he is a referee then i am a ballet dancer. i just do not see the logic of pumping hopeful high balls upfield when we have no one to get up and get their head to it. it surely is a no brainer. it’s all the more mysterious because when we do play pass and move on the floor we are very good, so please sort this aspect of our game out sooner rather than later, or we will staart to slide down the league and the extra supporters we are pulling in turn their backs on us. come on you know it makes sense, we can play football and beat teams. the players are more than capable of better play than we are getting at home matches. i say this from the heart as a witton supporter of 50 years. so just get the players into a thinking mode and not launch stupid high balls up front all the time, after all we are not stoke city. the ref relly was absolutely dire and should be banned from taking charge of a game of football ever again, and witton should make a complaint in very strong terms. end of rant, and yes i will still carry on watching the reds, it’s in my blood and i need a fix of witton albion to keep me going. once a wittoner always a wittoner.
Ignoring the result, yesterday was the worst game of football I’ve seen in a long while, which I imagine was not accidental by Grantham. They came to unsettle us and achieved it, I don’t think we had any really solid periods of possession and in the second half it was like we didn’t have a midfield. I’ve no doubt we will bounce back next week though
Agree Grantham came with a game plan and executed it very well. The annoying thing for me when we insist on the long high balls time and time again is the second ball. The majority of the time we won’t win the first ball as we’re not tall enough, so the second ball is where we should be looking to capitalise. But instead we stand off. Thought we really missed matt wood today as we did when we played Ashton. He’s arguably been our biggest threat this season. We will bounce back just need to put a consistent run together and we will be there or there about come end of the season.
UTA
The ref and Grantham and both a total joke. Nothing to do with how we or they played but about conducting and running a football game in a professional manner.
Witton Albion is a well run club which is run professionally so when I persuade friends to come and watch local football instead of league football I have to try and persuade them that it is not mickey mouse sunday league stuff and that it is well run. Anyone that turned up yesterday as a one off with a view to maybe coming again will be leaft with the impression that football at this level is a joke/farce and not well run. Such a shame as Witton Albion a very well run club could lose out in future fans and reputation because of the unproffesional attitude of Grantham and the referee.
I havent got a clue what happened with the kits but is it possible that we were struggling to find a full set at KO and it was agreed to start the game to avoid a delay, and changed when the kits became available? It seems like we couldnt find the blue ones or would have put them on first?
In any event, it looked a bit amatuerish on the official’s part, as it was clear before kick off that there would be a problem (maybe that’s just me being colour blind?), but the performance had nothing to do with the kits 
[quote=“Mike_T” post=47157]Witton have a clear, cut and dried case for this game to be replayed. The referee does not have a leg to stand on.
In league fixtures the away team changes strip in the event of a clash. Grantham know that Witton play in red, therefore they are at fault for bringing a red kit. The referee should have ordered Grantham to change strip. If they did not have a spare, then they should have requested to borow one of Witton’s.[/quote]
Mike, Grantham did not bring a red kit. Black and white stripes, which we have worn on previous occasions aginst you. The problem here was not the referee, who initially ok’d it, but the assistant on the far side from the dugouts who said he was struggling to tell which was whcih for offside.
The referee apparently insisted that Witton change as he said you could not have both clubs wearing the same badge! (not heard that one before).
Have to ask, why did your guys bring the yellow kit out in the first place, not the blue? Surely they (if any management team) should know the leagues’ stance on Unibond logos? Wouldn’t have been to try and put the opposition into a crappy two year old (at least) kit?
Even if we had changed kits twice, I don’t think it would have affected the result. As someone else has said, we wanted it more and played out game of closing you down and not letting you settle really well. We forced you to get rid of it from the back and in midfield quicker than you wanted which played into the hands of our back three. Our front two gave your defence problems all afternoon with their movement and pace. Can’t argue about the refereeing decisions, whether he wasn’t sur whose hand hit the ball as both players had arems up, I don’t know. But when our 4 pushed your lad over int he second half, I feared the worst. This time we rode our luck and got a deserved win.
Does changing kit disrupt rhythm? Did you have any before then? The ball and pitch didn’t change and the way the game went before and after the kit changes was no different.
I think you would only have a chance of getting the game replayed if ther was some way you could influence the league comittee. :whistle:
[quote=“Mookie Blaylock” post=47175]I havent got a clue what happened with the kits but is it possible that we were struggling to find a full set at KO and it was agreed to start the game to avoid a delay, and changed when the kits became available? It seems like we couldnt find the blue ones or would have put them on first?
In any event, it looked a bit amatuerish on the official’s part, as it was clear before kick off that there would be a problem (maybe that’s just me being colour blind?), but the performance had nothing to do with the kits :([/quote]
The ref asked for the floodlights to be turned on from the start as he was concerned about the kits clashing. But he didn’t officially raise it until 30 seconds before kick off.
I’m guessing the yellow kit was just the first kit we could find inorder to not delay the game any longer than it had to be.
To change the kit 20 minutes into the game was a complete farce. Either do it before the game, or wait until half time.
If it HAS to be done mid-way through the game, then do it properly. Stop the game, take the teams off, and let them change into an appropriate kit in the dressing roo, rather than at the side of the pitch. As said earlier, this was very sunday league.
We definitely should of had 2 penalties.
I would bet my mortgage on our management team telling the players to keep the ball on the deck rather than hopeful punts. But from the international team down, when english players are under pressure they revert to long balls. Our players need to have faith in the Witton gameplan.
We are good enough to mount a play off challenge. How gutting would it be to finish a point or two outside the top 5.
Small detaila make a difference and mind games play a big part infootball from pre match comments, tunnel before kick off, the toss. the crowd etc… and to say that it is certain that this had no impact on the way Witton played is simply a statement that can not be proven.
Nor can it be proven whether Grantham are completely incompetant and unproffessional or whether this was a deliberate ploy to get into the minds of the players.
What is certain is that the home team should not have been made to change kits and that any occasional paying fan will hVe walked out with rhe impression that football at this level is a farce and unprofessional.
Therefore there is a case on field to re play the game
Therefore off field Grantham should be fined and Witton compensated for the way Grantham and the officials have made Wittons business in front of Witton customers look like an amateur product.
We try and persuade people to watch non league football and then give them farce.
[quote=“Winston” post=47176]
I think you would only have a chance of getting the game replayed if ther was some way you could influence the league comittee. :whistle:[/quote]
Bang out of order this post. If you are implying what you seem to be I suggest you back this up with some evidence.
Maybe I should imply you are a bell end
Spot on. To suggest Mark would act in a biased manner towards Witton is completely uncalled for. I suggest you edit your post.
Perhaps Winston is influenced by the tweets of a certain representatives of another club.
If this is the case I suggest he doesn’t read too much into what is said by a man whose company has been in administration since the beginning of the year according to companies house.
I remember watching Huddersfield Town playing a League One game a while back and the oppositions kit clashed with the HTFC kit and the ref made the AWAY team change into Huddersfields 2nd strip BEFORE kick off.
Surely then Grantham should of been forced to wear the Witton away kit as they were to blame for not bringing an appropriate change of kit?
Not saying this would of had any bearing on the match but its about things being done right!
Not editing my post, my tonuge is still firmly lodged in the same cheek that it was in when I wrote that.
I would never imply that anyone who is seen by the league which they represent to have the integrity needed to be Chairman as Mark Harris is would use that position to influence the committee. Far from it, I suspect the exact opposite, a higher than most regard for the impartiality of the post he holds. Which is why I suspect that your calls for a game to be replayed because of changes of shirts will not happen. I can’t imagine that someone who holds the respect and position that Mark does would even think of lodging such a thing.
I think that this whole shirt fiasco can be summed up with one question. Would you be asking for the same thing if you had won 2-0?
… bangwall Didn’t think so!!
Will anyone be reporting you for a breach of league rules by wearing a kit with the previous sponsors logo on it? NO!!!
[quote=“Winston” post=47184]…
I think that this whole shirt fiasco can be summed up with one question. Would you be asking for the same thing if you had won 2-0?
… bangwall Didn’t think so!![/quote]
The breach of rules disadvantaged the losing team!
[quote=“Winston” post=47184]
Will anyone be reporting you for a breach of league rules by wearing a kit with the previous sponsors logo on it? NO!!![/quote]
This comment would suggest that your IQ is lower than your post count!
Was the game played according to the League’s rules?
Obviously the answer is no.
Does this matter?
If your answer to this is ‘no’, then what is the point in having rules?
The referee made Witton change their strip. He made this decision either :
a. through incompetency, or
b. through deliberately choosing to go against the rules of the competition.
Whichever he says is the case, he has a lot of explaining to do, none of which will change the fact that the fixture was not played under the competition rules, through no fault of Witton Albion.
I was not at the game, I have no reason to doubt the views expressed on here that Witton played poorly, nor to doubt the views that Witton did not deserve anything from the game because of their poor performance.
But views is what they are, individuals’ opinions. None of them have anything to do with the fact that the game was not played under the rules of the competition. It is my opinion that if there is no strong follow up to this that it will make a mockery of the League. Others are of course entitled to their own opinions.
MikeT 100% spot on
We will never know whether the strip fiasco had any bearing on performance or not but the rules that were broken potentially disadvantaged the losing team
But at this time Witton are trying hard to push for more people to support Witton their local and only non league team in town. At this time more than any other this is important and a lot of people are putting effort in to promote the club in the town and try and get people away from watching football on Sky. A lot of effort was put into pushing this as armed forces day