Re: Re Soul Searching

By Scarborough_Rob22/1/2017 08:41Sun Jan 22 08:41:33 2017In response to Re: Re Soul Searching

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Well said Hendon59. I was also at the game and Sudbury more than played their part. As someone on the Non League Matters forum observed "Sudbury were very good at the dark arts of cynical play". Hendon needing a result were wound up by some poor unpunished challenges at times and fell for the bait. The Sudbury manager was warned by the ref in the first half about his language and feedback.

It was a strange one. I'd been impressed by the ref on the previous occasion I'd seen him at SJP. He's pretty old school and talks the players through the match; maybe giving a bit too much chat? Some footballers can be quite precious and some don't enjoy being spoken to all the way through. He tried to let the game flow but it led to some nasty challenges. Hendon got away with plenty of physical stuff too after the break, once the players realised it was open season. The incident that kicked the real undercurrent off was when Elliott Braithwaite received a shocking over the top challenge. Unsurprisingly, he was pretty incensed after fighting his way back from a career threatening injury.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing, but perhaps suspending the game for 10 minutes, letting everyone cool down and speaking to the managers might have been an option to complete the game? There was around 5 minutes of stoppage time to play.

Hopefully everyone will now take a deep breath and await the refs report. Initial rumours say that he is exonerating Sudbury of any blame. If that is true, I think it's very unfair. Neither side come out of it with much credit.

Personally, I'd go for a sensible compromise. Award Sudbury the points, whether that means Hendon conceding and probably fine both clubs for failing to control their benches and players? There was lots of pushing and shoving but nothing too violent, even if there was plenty of feeling.

I felt sad more than angry to be honest, but already looking forward to Tuesday night.

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