Head Steward & Safety Officer Meeting

Sound!

I know where they're coming from and to a degree there is an element amongst referees who prefer to have a game finish evens, situations to finish evens and NOT to have the home crowd on their back. But I don't think that equates to having deliberately "evened things up" as they said (and I think Bucks could be taking to task by the FA for saying what he did) nor subconsciously doing it.

This is because they mistakenly believe that some form of low key, everybody happy sort of syndrome is conducive to them being well received and their performance will not attract critical comment.

Well the Oxford fans sure like to let the ref know how they feel and a few choice words they do like to sing, but guess what, no c word song, so it must just be our lot who do it.

Not a pointless video Merse in the context of what this whole thread was about and that was in case you forgot, the c word song we have sung at refs in our ground.

So while it shows no football action and you should have worked that out by its title, it shows the abuse Oxford fans gave the ref and just what songs they were singing.

Without people like Chris Hayes and Romfordkev having cameras with them at grounds they go to, we would not have all the great pictures we do on the forum, mind you not having them would make you happy as the forum would not be stretched for you, while everyone else are so glad they did as they really add so much to the forum.

I have followed with interest the debate over whether officials are influenced by factors such as the crowd.

I think my conclusion was that they shouldn't be influenced by the crowd and that maybe the very best ones are not, but that the majority very probably are - because as others have said they are human beings. People make all sorts of behavioural adjustments to adapt to a work environment - but under pressure nearly everyone reverts a little to type.

After all the theoretical discussion, yesterday's match was a cracking practical demonstration of the issues we have been discussing.

Six pointer, live TV, with a hostile 6,000 crowd. Two-footed, studs-up lunge from home player. The ref would have known that a sending-off would earn him a pile of abuse, but it was a clear-cut case and he made the correct decision. Well done to him on that one.

Then Constable clearly kicks Hodges after the ball has gone. Obvious red - but reducing the home team to nine men might cause a riot. In fairness, I'm pretty sure the ref did not see the incident. If he had, would he have done what he should have done or settled for an easy life? He's probably glad he didn't see it.

Then Dsane comes on and makes a silly, clumsy challenge. Superficially, it bore a passing resemblance to the earlier incident - but not two-footed and not studs-up. Yellow card at worst. But the ref gave a red and everyone sensed that he might - not because the challenge merited it but because of what had gone on before.

I don't think the ref CONSCIOUSLY made a bad decision. I don't think he CONSCIOUSLY thought "I'll have to send off one of theirs to even things up". But he had to make a quick decision under enormous pressure - and I do believe that SUBCONSCIOULY he took account of what had happened before and the crowd's reaction.

Obviously Leroy Rosenior and Paul Buckle felt the same and so did quite a few posters here. It's a shame Dsane didn't think like that or, as others have said, he would not have put the ref in a position where that subconscious pressure could come into play.

with reference to this incident, the search team has a remit to check all bags entering the ground, this is for bottles, cans and of course weaponry, however i do see that this may have been a bit of an overkill on a 10 year old, i apologise if this caused any offence but as i have stated before we do have to act on instructions from above. outside the pop side we are monitered by cctv and i believe the night in question our stewards were being nvq assessed
however i do agree that it is not what we do, it is the way we sometimes do it.
i do thank you for stating that the stewarding has improved and i will continue to strive for us to improve even further.
Steve