Another Year, Another Refereeing Defeat

Another prospective cup run ends at an early stage. Once again, Ipswich fans are left with a sense of injustice and the thought of what might have been. Mark Halsey may be a Premiership standard referee, but does that help?

For the third consecutive season, Ipswich have found themselves dumped out of the FA Cup by a team from the Premiership. Ordinarily, there would be no disgrace in that, but the cold facts are that on two seperate occasions, the actions of the referee have had a distinctive influence on the outcome.

Last January, Ipswich took then-Premiership Watford right to the wire before eventually losing to a late Damien Francis winner. But the decisive moment had occurred in the first half when George O'Callaghan, in probably his best appearance in an Ipswich shirt at the time, was sent-off by Premiership referee Steve Bennett. It spoilt the game and put the underdogs at a disadvantage.

This January, yesterday to be precise, the first half sending off of Liam Trotter by Premiership referee Mark Halsey, for a tackle that all present agreed represented a yellow card at the very most, cost Ipswich the opportunity of drawing, or winning, the cup tie.

Even this afternoon, Burnleys Kyle Lafferty has also been shown red at a decisive point in their cup tie with Arsenal. Another debatable sending-off, another potential upset thrown off the rails, another Premiership referee, Alan Wiley.

The key to this is the word "Premiership". The notion that a Premiership team playing in the FA Cup should be provided with a Premiership referee to take charge of proceedings. In a cup competition where the odds are spectacularly stacked in favour of the Premiership team, why stack them further?

Im not suggesting that the game should be refereed poorly in order to try and even things up. But simply that the lower ranking team has the benefit or a referee who they are accustomed to. All three incidents involved the sending off of the lower league player. This could simply be a case of lower quality players operating to a lower standard and making more critical mistakes. But it also seems to be the case that the rules applied by the Premiership are different to those imposed on the Championship players week by week.

Is there anything wrong with letting the Championship side be the side to benefit from the standards of refereeing that they are accustomed to week in, week out?