Consistency! It is all any football fan, player or manager wants every time they step onto the field of play for the game that we all know and love. 

When doing reports for this and other websites, I do try and give match officials the benefit of the doubt as I was told once by a referee’s “assessor” as they were called in the day “don’t compare referee to referee, compare a referee over the ninety minutes in front of you!”

I completely accept that, but after watching the game at Priestfield on Saturday, and even having a few days to calm down, consistency from the officials was as far off the pitch at the weekend as it could possibly be. 

Yes, there is the argument that Neil Harris could be mad about his players “switching off” when Mansfield equalised, but as a Mansfield supporting friend of mine and this website sent me on Sunday morning the rule that relates to the booking of a player.  

Law 12.3 states “Delaying the restart of play to show a card. Once the referee has decided to caution or send off a player, play must not be restarted until the sanction has been administered, unless the non-offending team takes a quick free kick, has a clear goal-scoring opportunity and the referee has not started the disciplinary sanction procedure. The sanction is administered at the next stoppage; if the offence was denying the opposing team an obvious goal-scoring opportunity, the player is cautioned; if the offence interfered with or stopped a promising attack, the player is not cautioned.” 

That is all fair enough and well and good BUT surely the referee having a card in his hand is the start of the “procedure,” and if he was on top of things, why was Ethan Coleman not booked before the game restarted?

After all, after the free kick was taken, the official ran to keep up with play still holding the card in his hand!  

Let’s not even mention that the said free kick was taken ten yards closer to goal than the foul, but when in the very next Gillingham attack saw the home side try to take a quick free kick themselves when Jonny Williams looked like he was clean through only to be pulled back – at which point Coleman was booked for “dissent” – I wanted to cry!!! 

I accept that official’s hands can be tied by the laws of the game, but there are a lot that do not help themselves – common sense has disappeared from our national game.  

Going back to Saturday and the introduction from the bench of Ashley Nadesan. His first run down the right wing saw the same player have not one, not two, but three hacks at the Gills sub, and the referee’s decision – “just” a yellow card!

Baffled nearly everyone in the ground and saw Mansfield boss Nigel Clough substitute his man moments later – wonder what his dad would have made of the current state of officiating, let alone VAR!!! 

And then we come to the events at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Saturday tea-time when Liverpool were denied a “goal” through one of the worst offside decisions that has been seen on the Premier League era, let alone in the “Video Assistant Referee” times – yes there have been some very debatable decisions made, but Saturday was a new low!

And for the PGMOL to issue an apology to Jurgen Klopp BEFORE the final whistle in North London surely added so much to the fire and then to pull officials out of the middle for games on Sunday and Monday is unbelievable! 

And then there are those incidents that happen outside of the VAR focus and trust me when I say, they make what happens on our screens look almost normal.

Away from the top flight, fans are suffering from an undoubted deterioration of the men in the middle and in many ways, they have my sympathies as given the scrutiny that ALL officials are subjected to is quite frankly ridiculous.  

We need the men and women in the middle of our games for them to take place and yes some of the abuse they are subjected to is disgusting and a disgrace. They do though need to help themselves and should be heard rather than hiding behind “statements” from the PGMOL! 

We just want consistency from first whistle to last and until we get that… 

Picture supplied by Gillingham Football Club.