‘Raynesy, Kick The Ref…’

County suffered their third home defeat of the season this afternoon at the hands of twelve-man Southend at Edgeley Park.

Southend took the lead when striker Lee Barnard (or perhaps, Lee Barn-door after some of his finishing today) was tripped in the area by last man Paul Huntington. Though the referee didn’t see it as a foul. But then he did. And then he sent Huntington off. And then he changed his mind. And then he changed his mind again.

And the Shrimpers sealed the win in the dying minutes when Barnard took it round fon Williams only to hit the bar with an empty goal gaping, only to collect the rebound and roll it in.

County could face a fine at the hands of the FA (who are about as clueless as today’s ref) for having six players booked as the Hatters completely lost their discipline after being infuriated time after time by the clueless plonker. Michael Rose turned his back on Mr Bratt as he was being booked, not even bearing to look at him. Johnny Mullins hacked down Barnard quite deliberately, and sarcastically applauded the ref as he recieved his card.

But the biggest ovation of the day went to skipper Michael Raynes, who dived into Barnard and left the former Spurs man in a heap, and proceeded to flail his arms at Mr Bratt in a ‘whatever’ gesture, before turning and running back to his position, ignoring the repeated blows of the whistle to return to the referee and receive HIS yellow card.

County were also denied a stone-wall penalty as Nicholas Bignall was shoved over in the area, but the esteemed Mr Bratt clearly showed that he was in charge with a powerful ‘PLAY ON!’ gesture, before turning on his heels and racing back down the pitch. I mean, seriously, who was he trying to fool? What an idiot.

This is a real problem at lower levels of the game, and while the FA are considering charging County for their lack of discipline, maybe they should look at employing some guide dogs to help these referees around the field of play.

Don’t get me wrong, it was a poor performance by County who weren’t half as attacking as they should have been, but ten against twelve isn’t going to help is it?

As the Cheadle End so elegantly put it…

‘Raynesy, kick the ref!’