West Bromwich Albion Vs Aston Villa Friday 7th 8pm | Page 23 | Vital Football

West Bromwich Albion Vs Aston Villa Friday 7th 8pm

Now please don't put words in my mouth but there is something about El Ghazi that reminds me of Ronaldo
When I watched him against Middlesbrough I had the same thought, not directly comparing him to one of the greatest players ever but definitely thought that.
 
Agreed TMG which is why it is crucial we now have the video refereeing, it's actually not fair on the refs if they make a mistake, everyone else knows/feels cheated because we get to see it over and over again, and he's seen it just one, in real time.
 
Re; Cheating

I’m saddened by the almost universal acceptance that an example of blatant cheating should determine the result of the match. Did I miss a meeting at which the world decided this was okay?

The overwhelming majority of people who watched live or on TV saw the offense; everyone who sees it subsequently is 100% clear that the cheat happened; the player admitted cheerfully after the game that he cheated; the evidence is clear in both real time and in retrospect.

Yet the first reaction of most Villa fans has been ‘Well, we should of killed the game before that’. And if not that then ‘The officials were crap; we’ve been saying it all season’. The Baggies fans are laughing their heads off at the incident, revelling in the injustice and the consequence of saving the game. No hint that a wider issue exists.

The governing body of sport has issued the normal glib platitudes to cover this situation; ‘We’ll read the officials’ report before commenting’. We all know nothing will happen. Nothing at all. Not to the player, the club, the game result or the sport.

One of my ‘hats’ is that I am involved in athletics. In recent years the activities of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) has been extraordinarily successful in rooting-out the ‘cheating by drug-taking’ aspect in the sport. By the way, in far more difficult circumstances than watching a player punch the ball over the line in front of millions of people. They have shown, repeatedly, that it’s necessary not just to find the cheats, catch them and prove that the cheating occurred but to try to ‘make good’ the sport and its participants over the consequences of the cheating itself. That’s why you see the record books being wiped of all drug-related records and medals being ostentatiously awarded to the athletes who should have won them. Even if that is years later. Birchfield Harriers’ Kelly Sotherton now has 2 world medals she didn’t finish in the sport with.

Yet football does nothing, literally nothing along those lines. It doesn’t need any new rules or to consider new ways of doing things; it doesn’t even do what it can now. It doesn’t charge the player with ‘bringing the game into disrepute’, which cheating obviously does. It doesn’t admit its officials performed poorly. It doesn’t fine the cheating club either money or points in order to restore the validity of the competition they are supposed to be in charge of, as it could do. It doesn’t even put this instance into its post-match review protocols used to determine yellow and red cards. It does literally nothing about the most obvious and consequential offense to the integrity of the game.

Old players and managers utter glib lies like ‘It’s a part of the culture of the game’ or ‘These things even out over a season’. No they don’t and no it isn’t. We’ll undoubtedly hear all about the authorities’ strenuous efforts to introduce VAR but we already know that’s no solution and it doesn’t help resolve the issue last night.

When do we get a fair playing field?
 
Agree entirely Allan, I wonder what the response from the football world would have been if the player had have turned to the referee and admitted hand ball. The acceptance of cheating being normalised has crept into many sports just look at Cricket, few if any batsmen walk when they know they have snicked a ball and been caught out. Is it the money involved, I don't know. Will there be anything done to clean up the game....will there hell!!!
Withstanding all that nonsense isn't it great to see us playing front foot football, taking the game to the opposition, whoever and wherever they are!
VTID
 
Allan, the alternative is VAR which is still subjective as we've seen so far when it's been used.
The game is played by and refereed by humans who make mistakes and yes some cheat.
We were unlucky last night but against the Blues that shove on the defender by Tammy was missed by the ref who then awarded us a Penalty. My gut reaction at the time was it was a foul by Tammy, and all the people around me thought the same, but we took it.
It doesn't make it right but things even out over the season but we tend to forget the things that go for us.

I can't see how they could award us the points and knock the baggies goal off after the game or next week etc.
 
In my head i'm putting that down as a win we didn't get the points but we won the game so thats 3 top championship sides (derby,bough,wba) that we have gone to there turf in resent weeks and showed them up as poor teams compared to us i am absolutely loving this long may it continue.
 
Same players Bruce had and they now look like the best players in the league. We've even stopped moaning about the CB situation, another keeper and a left back now and we'll be top by the time it matters.

I'm buzzing here and it's not my mobile in my pocket either!:wahey:
 
Still a bit annoyed about being cheated put of the 3 points but the fact is we're out playing and taking points off the sides that 6 weeks or so ago we were certain we'd lose to. I have zero doubts that under Bruce we'd have lost to Derby, Albion, forest and maybe beaten blues and Middlesbrough. We've gone from seemingly being scared of everyone we play to being feared.
 
Feels like a defeat.
We move on, it's history now.
Need to win next 3 now, stoke, Leeds , swansea, then beat Preston & qpr and we should be in the top 3 then.
UTV COYVB's
 
Same players Bruce had and they now look like the best players in the league. We've even stopped moaning about the CB situation, another keeper and a left back now and we'll be top by the time it matters.

I'm buzzing here and it's not my mobile in my pocket either!:wahey:
In all fairness even back then we had the makings of a very good side
 
We are worse off points wise than this stage last year, so I'm not doing cartwheels just yet.
Abraham struck by player of the month cursed?? He was toilet last night
 
I agree about the points total. I think we will just maybe make the play offs this season. There are too many teams above us. Last season we were reliant on just a couple of teams, out won't happen.
 
Was Grealish taken off and replaced by Whelan because of an injury? We went on the back foot a bit after that.