Steve Conroy

[Super_Ally 0]

I'm sorry that's a load of crap from Dallas.

 

That was a game with little niggle or aggression before the referee started making a noel hunt of it. Later on it did look at times if it might descend into anarchy, but when he was busy flashing yellow and red cards early on there was hardly a bad or dirty tackle in the game. The referee lost the plot.

[ian1964 10,720]

You don't really expect a referee to be criticised ?????, even the managers have agreed not to criticise them !!!!!

[Norris Cole 0]

You don't really expect a referee to be criticised ?????, even the managers have agreed not to criticise them !!!!!

 

Christ knows why we ever agreed to that.

 

There's a time and a place for the 'dignified silence' surely, not when you've had one title and very nearly a second taken away from you due to "honest mistakes".

[ian1964 10,720]

Christ knows why we ever agreed to that.

 

There's a time and a place for the 'dignified silence' surely, not when you've had one title and very nearly a second taken away from you due to "honest mistakes".

 

Agreed, what I don't understand is what benefit to football does that bring, if a player has a nightmare he is fair game, if a ref has a nightmare don't slate him

Football = pay your money, sit down and shut up

[johnnyk 158]

mendes only made 2 tackles (not like him to make that many), neither was a bad one but the ref of course seen it totally different, and then just booked players for soft challenges the rest of the game. Ruined the game and if this is the way forward then it's not going to be great to watch for fans as Davie Weir says. the likes of stuart mccall, ian ferguson would be sent of every week under these poofy rules..........

 

do you think this is why davis doesn't tackle anybody

 

fans will be better of getting a membership for the WRC and stop going to the games

Edited September 21, 2009 by johnnyk

[Bluedell 5,612]

If Dallas came out and criticised referees for bad performances then you could look on his view as being objective.

 

As he doesn't do that then it can only be looked at as "looking after his own" and having little credibility.

[ian1964 10,720]

Yip..............in other words, who gives a fuck what you think Dallas

[ian1964 10,720]

by Darrell King

 

DIRE, dank and dismal. A dreadfully poor advert for our top flight.

 

Oh how it cried out for a hero as a painful first half trundled along; someone to illuminate the darkness and remind everyone that this was supposed to be a form of public entertainment.

 

ONE BY ONE

By Alison McConnell

 

McGREGOR Average

Didn't have too much to do but was saved by Papac goal-line clearance in the second-half and then by a post. Still doesn't look convincing coming for cross balls, although had a good stop from Sammon late on.

 

WHITTAKER Pass marks

Played to his strengths in that he tried to get forward but there were few takers up front.

 

WEIR Poor

Short pass to Mendes which left the midfielder with little option but to take down Bryson, a foul which resulted in his second booking.

 

McCULLOCH Decent

Not a long-term answer at the centre of defence but read the game well and didn't do too badly. Kept Kevin Kyle quiet for most of the game.

 

PAPAC Decent

One goal-line clearance and another who tried to get forward on the flanks, but there were too few ideas shown from the attack.

 

NOVO Disappointing

Utterly ineffective. Tim Clancy kept on top of the Spaniard and his input was negligible.

 

FLECK Average

Caught in possession a couple of time but tried hard and probably had Rangers' best chance of the game when he forced Mark Brown into a second half save.

 

DAVIS Poor

Drifted in and out of the game and isn't exerting the kind of influence he should be in these encounters.

 

MENDES Unlucky

Sent off for making two tackles in the game. Will still be feeling hard done by but his dismissal sparked the game into life.

 

NAISMITH Above par

Another who gets pass marks for his willingness to work and get forward. Tried his luck in the first-half with a shot that took a deflection before being saved by Brown.

 

BOYD Woeful

Did next to nothing and one of his worst performances for the club. Hasn't started the season well and this won't have helped his case for a regular starting place.

 

MILLER Subdued

On in the second period. Has looked a bit tired recently and couldn't find the spark that Rangers so desperately needed.

 

THOMSON Ineffective

Couldn't change the game in Rangers' favour.

 

ROTHEN Quiet

Added to the list of bookings when he came on and went into the book.

 

MANAGER Red-faced

Embarrassed at his own reaction to the sending-off and will now sit in the stand for the games against Aberdeen and Celtic. Admitted he was wrong to lose his cool.

 

And, suddenly, just as we were maybe giving up all hope, that man emerged. A man stepped forward into the limelight with his actions, a man who maybe felt that we needed something to talk about after this imitation of a football match.

 

Unfortunately, that man was a referee, not a player from either side, and it certainly has been some time since a match official became the main event in such a spectacular way.

 

For the record, Steve Conroy, for me, has been a referee who has shown consistent improvement since his emergence onto the scene a few years ago.

 

OK, his style with the players isn't popular as there rarely seems to be a quiet word, or even a smidgen of humour offered and his rap sheet of 30 yellow cards and four reds in just four SPL matches maybe tells that story.

 

But, overall, he's been a decent decision maker who was getting more big calls right, than wrong in his games, although he should have given Celtic a late penalty last week against Dundee United and took some flak for that.

 

That said, his performance in the 0-0 draw at Rugby Park on Saturday was textbook 'how to spoil a football game in 90 minutes'.

 

And, given that it was pretty woeful fare before he started taking leave of all sense, that was the last thing we needed.

 

If we are calling on clubs, players et al to try and improve the overall attractiveness of the game we have on our hands as this financial crisis bites, then surely there must also be a level of responsibility on the officials as well, given that they are taking a decent wedge for their work.

 

And, at the fulcrum of that, surely, has to be the old adage that a game is going to have a far greater chance of leaving us enthralled if we have two sets of 11 players on the pitch.

 

That is not a plea for refs to turn a blind eye to cautionable offences, just for the sake of a decent game. If someone deserves to go, then they deserve to go.

 

But if Conroy, in the cold light of day, genuinely feels that he was right to send off both Pedro Mendes and Manuel Pascali at Rugby Park, then he is not in touch - at all - with the game he is supposed to be overseeing.

 

Yes, all four of the fouls they committed were offences. But did they all merit yellow cards? Goodness me, what has the game become if Steve Conroy is happy with his work in this one?

 

Put it this way, if we are to rule all games by his two-fouls-and-you're-off guidelines we would be as well moving the SPL to the Pitz Super League for five-a-sides every week.

 

And, without any doubt, Walter Smith and Jim Jefferies will be interested spectators this weekend to see if Conroy applies the same set of rules to whatever game he gets handed by the beaks, who will no doubt come out this week and defend him to the hilt, such is their way.

 

A crime count of 11 yellow cards and two reds in this game - three if you count Smith as he was put away to the stand for an outburst on the touchline -was something you'd expect to find a bit down the road in Ayrshire when neighbours Auchinleck meet Cumnock in the Juniors!

 

Truth was, there was hardly a bad tackle in the match. The stark opposite of that, however, was that there was little good play in it either.

 

Kilmarnock? They could have nicked it. They fought and scrapped, played to their strengths and had the better of the clear chances that were created.

 

Jefferies' only regret must have been that they didn't ask more questions when they had the numerical advantage for the best part of 35 minutes in the second half.

 

As for Gers, they struggled through their second Saturday lunchtime with a performance that wasn't that far away from the week before at Motherwell. And that had been poor.

 

This alarming lack of spark is something Smith will have to address, as there will be five other weekends like this off the back of Champions League action that is bound to drain legs and minds.

 

At first look, he went for a very attack-minded team with Mendes and Steven Davis in the middle of the park and more or less a front four of Nacho Novo, John Fleck, Steven Naismith and Kris Boyd when they had the ball.

 

But the tempo was all wrong and Mark Brown in the Killie goal was rarely troubled. Gers allowed their opponents to get men behind the ball in numbers, and they were bereft of ideas in the final third.

 

Two successive weekends without a goal, and it has to be said that the opposition keepers were not exactly over-worked. Rangers have had one more red card than goals in their three away matches this season, and that has to be a concern for Smith.

 

After a tricky cup-tie in Dumfries this midweek, they face a pivotal three-game spell against Aberdeen, Sevilla and Celtic which will need a drastic improvement overall.

 

If the level of performance that has been served up at Fir Park and Rugby Park is repeated, they will be in big trouble.

 

But not half as much as the image of our game if referees are going to ruin games the way Steve Conroy did.

[Frankie 8,552]

King always copies my ratings....