Sat 20th Oct, 2007 - Smedley needs to go back to Ref school

Tense game today against Blyth. Shillito lofted in a free kick to Parsons at the top of the square. Mason didn't quite reach him for the header and Parsons pivots on the ball toward goal. Hughes comes in from the blind side and takes the ball, but the ref blows for a penalty! Sure he bodychecked him on the way through and had to touch his shirt at some point, but the intent of the rule was that you can't use shirt grabbing to slow the player. You can't just ping someone for a simultaneous bump and grab. Even worse that the panalty lead to the solitary goal for the game. I'd even have been shocked if it was a penalty out on the field.

Woeful.

We're 10th in the division after 12 matches. Crowds are on the rise but I've noticed that the atmosphere doesn't really build in this stadium. It's almost too big! The running track certainly plays a role in seperating the fans from the game and it always looks like there's a poor turnout when you look up at the sparse stands before the game. Comes as a suprise when they announce bigger numbers at half time than Worcester used to have. Worcester have had a run of draws to only be 5 points clear at the top, but they can still turn it on thumping 5th placed Harrogate 3-0 today.

Next week is the 4th round qualifiers for the cup. We've had a relatively easy draw so far with 2 amateur sides trying their luck against us. This week will be the test as we've drawn conference nationals team Bishop's Stortford. We'll have home field advantage but will be without Webster due the loan terms.