Graham Poll's decision reveals his personality disorder

[Mr Angry]

If the premier League are saying that there was no problem with this act by Poll, then a whole can of worms is being opened up; what if a ref sends a player off after a 2nd yellow and his manager claims he wasn't given the nod?? Typical cock up by the footy authorities methinks.

[Hahnemann's Hairdresser]

but song received a warning(yellow card)for the sidwell foul
there is no need to add another warning before sending him off
if the boy got a yellow, then proceeds to make a further series of rash challenges he should be sent off, not warned again about his conduct, and his manager advised to remove him from the field.

But that's what happens in football?

Exactly. Think of the two yellow cards separately - players are warned for persistent fouling before they receive a first yellow, not sure why it should be any different for the second yellow.

The manager was warned aswell, which gives him a tactical advantage as he knew exactly when he had to use his last sub, taking away the gamble as someone said earlier. If it was just the player being warned there wouldn't be a problem.

[rob the royal]

i don't care what anyone says about it being good to have 11 v 11 or how it's nice to see ref's being considerate...

Refs are there to ref, not to hand out managerial advice

[Bob the Builder]

I can't believe what some people are saying on here, Poll was totally out of order. You can't make deals with managers, it's not his job. Poll is there to ref the game as he sees it, and by doing what he has done, he has potentially given a different decision to what he should have given.

What's gonna happen now this weekend is every manager is going to speak to the ref before the game and at half time to try and make deals with them, where will this end and where do you draw the line?

[starbug]

I think the whole thing is scandalous, Charlton got an unfair advantage by letting a manager know when to substitute a player instead of having him sent off. Refs are there to ref, not to look after idiotic players who constantly foul and not enough self awareness to realise he's that close to being sent off.

If its part of the game then Pardew didn't need to say anything, by his own actions its clearly not part of the game and he sought an advantage which Poll gladly gave. It would also be interesting to know if Coppell & co were told about it at the time.

However, if this discussion never took place would Poll have had the bottle to send him off anyway ? He could well have used that discussion to his own advantage so he didn't have to make that decision.

[floyd__streete]

This is wholly unsatisfactory. I think that managers should not be allowed to communicate with the officials at half time and put pressure on them, it can't serve to do anything other than to affect the performance of the officials.

[brendywendy]

but song received a warning(yellow card)for the sidwell foul
there is no need to add another warning before sending him off
if the boy got a yellow, then proceeds to make a further series of rash challenges he should be sent off, not warned again about his conduct, and his manager advised to remove him from the field.

But that's what happens in football?

Exactly. Think of the two yellow cards separately - players are warned for persistent fouling before they receive a first yellow, not sure why it should be any different for the second yellow.

none of that is at all relevent if any of the tackles made after the 1st yellow card were bookable offences.

a yellow card is a yellow card. theres no, "it should be a yellow, but ill let you off this time" the second time around

there may on occasion be "that was almost a yellow, if you do another almost yellow, im giving you a yellow"

but that is different to what happened yesterday in a million ways

[leyton royal]

"The Fiver's" take on the episode:

GRAHAM POLL'S EASTER MONDAY DIARY

7.34am
Wake from sound night's sleep when alarm rings. My, it's early. Yawn! Never mind; rising with the lark keeps the old brain sharp. Time to rise and shine. Climb off top of wardrobe and get into bed.

7.35am
No, that can't be right. Get out of bed.

7.37am
Shower and shave. Then get dressed. Shorts on: check. Shirt on: check. Whistle in pocket: check. Notebook: check. Pencil: check. Funny flower: check. Fill funny flower with water: check. 7.41am
Smell funny flower.

7.42am
Wah! It's full of water!

7.43am
Dry face, then check calendar. Yay! It's Easter Monday! Rush downstairs to open presents.

10.08am
Bah! Santa hasn't come. What sort of Easter is it when Santa doesn't come? Well, if I don't have any pressies to open, I may as well go to work.

11.01am
Finally remember what work it is I do. Double check I've got my whistle, notebook and pencil, then rush out the door - but not before smelling my funny flower.

11.02am
Wah! It's full of water!

11.03am
Dry face, then jump in car with square wheels. Drive off to The Valley, where I'm down to referee the Serie A clash between Charlton v Reading in a fair and impartial manner. Honk!

12.32pm
Nearly there! The Valley's just after this approaching roundabout. Hope I make it for the 5.15pm kick-off.

12.33pm
Bah! Turn on radio and hear kick-off's not until 8pm, so I'm well early. Drive round roundabout to kill time for seven hours and 26 minutes. Hope I don't get so monumentally dizzy I don't know what the hell I'm doing.

7.59pm
Stop car. Get out of car. Oh lummee! Not only has the door come clean off in my hand, I'm so monumentally dizzy I don't know what the hell I'm doing.

8.45pm
Still spinning out. Luckily nothing happened in the first half, apart from the time three Alexandre Songs scythed down three Steve Sidwells. Not for the first time in my career, I dip into one of my three breast pockets and issue three yellow cards.

8.46pm
Am apprehended by three Alan Pardews, all of whom will later claim: "I went to see Graham Poll at half-time and said to him I needed to have a signal if Song was getting close to being sent off. Please let me know." I give him a look, which the Pardews will later claim "more or less said it all".

8.47pm - 8.59pm
In an attempt to negate the monumental dizziness, I spend the break in the referee's room spinning round on my chair in the opposite direction to before. Hope this doesn't backfire so spectacularly that I'm even more monumentally dizzy, and subsequently make a ludicrous decision midway through the second half.

9pm
Cripes! That's torn it. I'm even more monumentally dizzy!

9.24pm
Midway through the second half, I note there are 17 Alexandre Songs running about - and they're all getting well out of control! I shoot the Alan Pardews a look. The Pardews round up all the Songs and take them off the pitch.

9.52pm
Thank God that's over. And I think I got through it without making myself look like a preposterous buffoon. "Full credit to the referee," said the Pardews. "Noone wants to see a team go down to 10 men." Yippee! See? I'm great! Though still a bit dizzy; how on earth am I going to drive home?

9.53pm
Vision suddenly snaps into focus when I consider how Charlton's relegation rivals - such as Neil Warnock and Paul Jewell - might want to discuss this matter with me, perhaps using sticks with nails poking out the end of them as debating tools. Wah!

9.54pm
Drive off in collapsing car at great speed. In my panic to escape, I leave behind the last scrap of my reputation.

[bigmike]

It looks as if Pardew influenced the Ref in order to gain advantage...

Maybe he said if one of my players shoves one of their players in the box can you just give a goal kick...

As a Qualified Ref I would never do this as it shows favour to one side.

Poll should be demoted!! The oxf*rd Cheat!

[M4 Junction 11]

sanctioned by fa - http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/main.j ... npol10.xml

[bigmike]

We really need to start cheating and influencing referees as it seems to have been sanctioned by the FA now

[M4 Junction 11]

If a referee agrees to give a manager the 'look' but fails to do so and sends the player off I wonder if the failure will be grounds for appeal?

[bigmike]

If a referee agrees to give a manager the 'look' but fails to do so and sends the player off I wonder if the failure will be grounds for appeal?

I would hope so however having delt with the chinless wonders at the FA I doubt it will happen.

They are probably too busy trying to build charges against Leroy for his supposed Headbutt. (The one with no contact and El Kalkouri decided to roll about for ages after)

Poll has to have scored a Massive 2 out of 10 for his game last night

[Forty]

This is all completely academic. Poll's a crap ref. Anyone with a brain knows that a scything tackle from behind like the one Song got booked for is a red card in itself - the rest, as they say is oxford bo**ocks.

[Garrincha]

POLL IS A oxf*rd TWAT!

Now let's move on......

[M4 Junction 11]

This is all completely academic. Poll's a crap ref. Anyone with a brain knows that a scything tackle from behind like the one Song got booked for is a red card in itself - the rest, as they say is oxford bo**ocks.

That's the point - he couldn't send him off because he agreed to give Pardew the 'look' before sending him off. Agreed it's now over for the Charlton game but surely it's worth exploiting this in the future. I hope Pardew has had words with his own player for play acting in trying to get Leroy sent off in the headbutt that wasn't.

[Forty]

This is all completely academic. Poll's a crap ref. Anyone with a brain knows that a scything tackle from behind like the one Song got booked for is a red card in itself - the rest, as they say is oxford bo**ocks.

That's the point - he couldn't send him off because he agreed to give Pardew the 'look' before sending him off. Agreed it's now over for the Charlton game but surely it's worth exploiting this in the future. I hope Pardew has had words with his own player for play acting in trying to get Leroy sent off in the headbutt that wasn't.

No - that's not the point. The point is that the meeting, the 'look' etc etc etc should never have happened, because the first offence should've been red.

[glass half full]

Pity that Bikey was not the beneficiary of a Poll-style communication earlier in the season....

[M4 Junction 11]

This is all completely academic. Poll's a crap ref. Anyone with a brain knows that a scything tackle from behind like the one Song got booked for is a red card in itself - the rest, as they say is oxford bo**ocks.

That's the point - he couldn't send him off because he agreed to give Pardew the 'look' before sending him off. Agreed it's now over for the Charlton game but surely it's worth exploiting this in the future. I hope Pardew has had words with his own player for play acting in trying to get Leroy sent off in the headbutt that wasn't.

No - that's not the point. The point is that the meeting, the 'look' etc etc etc should never have happened, because the first offence should've been red.

The first wasn't a red, the referee gave Pardew the 'look', the player was taken off before being sent off and the fa said this was okay. That's my point

[M4 Junction 11]

Pity that Bikey was not the beneficiary of a Poll-style communication earlier in the season....

Did Coppell ask for the 'look'