sandmanNameless It's a bit pathetic to talk about the officials being punished.
At the very worst they made a mistake, they didn't cheat or deliberately conspire against us. They made a mistake which unfortunately had significant repercussions.
And to be fair to them we have not heard their explanation. If the 4th official had seen McLeary struggling and said to Clarke ' do you still want to make your substitution' Clarke may have said no, meaning he wanted to now make 2, but easily being misinterpreted .
It would be good to hear the refs take on it, or Clarke telling us what the ref said to him or to the layers.
I still think the ref made an error, but he should no more be punished than a player is for missing an open goal or dropping a cross.
Of course he should be punished, he failed to do his job properly and by the sound of it, and the look of it at Cardiff a month or so ago, it's not the first time he's made a basic mistake. How often should he get away with them before being punished? Let's hope the relevant authorities deal with it correctly rather than following your advice and doing nothing.
Let's hope it's established what actually happened before some knee jerk reaction takes place....
And why would you think nothing should be done ? Typical HNA reaction I'm afraid. If he got it wrong then obviously the referee assessor needs to sit down with him and work out why. Punishing him won't improve him as a referee, sensible discussion and education will.
And glad you agree that failing to do you job properly should be met with punishment. In future missed penalties, misplaced passes and dropped crosses are all imprisonable offences.