Article - Pulis wrong to blame the referee

[banksie66]

www.fillyourboots.co.uk/club-news-detail.asp?id=1267

Thoughts?

[OldStokie]

Hi Ade.

I'd have to agree with the writer of the article. Pulis is simply making excuses for HIS inability to get HIS team playing like Championship contenders.

Although the writer is a sports psychologist, even a stupid old fart like me can understand that.

OS.

[Hammo]

Pulis does have a point about how beginning a warm up and not finishing does affect the muscles of the players.
And it was quite unprofessional for the referee to not turn up the day before the game.

[Dallas Cowboy]

Pulis does not have a point. That is the whole theme of the article.

The time has now come for him to step up to the plate and prove his worth as a manager. I sincerely hope that he can rise to the challenge.

[slangking]

Every manager in the world makes lame excuses, grow up ffs.

[surreystokie]

Agree, as commented on this, under 'itv championship' thread.

[northantsmike]

I think Pulis' point is that pulled muscles are rare with the Stoke Team this season and now he has two in one game. The team were out warming up before two thirty and went back inside - bad prepaeration with any athlete could cause muscle issues and TP is suggesting that was the root cause. Could have been I guess.

[bayernoatcake]

Poor excuse, poor performance.

[anarchicalan]

He must have known there was a delay to the kick off. Anyone listening to the radio knew by 2.30 at the latest. We have to assume the club knew well before then.

Ergo, Pulis's fault for sending them out for a warm up, not the ref's.

[stokelad]

wasnt really a good excuse from pulis, the team didn't preform nothing to do with the lateless of the ref.

[Thank you from Moorlander1]

I am told that it is bad to warm up,then warm down followed by warming up again. However I think the referee should have the sack,bloody travelling on the M6 before every match must tell him its easy to get held up. What if the snow we had,occured on Friday night,the ref should be there in the morning to call the game on or off. Just think of the thousands who travel quite long distances to watch there team. I say sack the prat and Styles as well

[powchirper]

Posted this earlier, the ref could have come to Stoke on friday and stayed at an hotel and claimed expenses but chose not to. perhaps he had reasons, work/family etc.

[stokebill]

"He must have known there was a delay to the kick off. Anyone listening to the radio knew by 2.30 at the latest. We have to assume the club knew well before then."

From what I heard on the radio, anarchicalan, I'd be surprised if the club knew of a definite delay until around 2.30pm. Which is too late, players start their warm up well before then. Why on earth would we have sent the players out to warm up if there was a definite delay?

Radio Stoke were in constant contact with the police and officials. First there was a 15 minute at most delay, then they said there almost certainly isn't a delay, then it was a 3.30pm kick off. It was a total shambles.

Whilst I don't generally like the amount of excuses Pulis makes, he does have a point here. That we picked up 2 muscle strains on the day our pre-match preparations were fcuked about may be a coincidence, but it may not.

The fact is that the 2 teams were ready to play at 3pm, the fans were in the stadium. The ref wasn't there. I applaud Grayson's attitude, to just get on with it. But he didn't send his players out to warm up twice and lose 2 to muscle strains, did he.

[Stick It On Cort's Head]

Didn't we build a lead anyway, we were joint leaders with Bristol before the day, now we're one point clear

[stokebill]

Anyone agree with man of the match here?


Pulis ahead of himself with rant at referee


Jeremy Alexander at the Britannia Stadium
Monday March 24, 2008
The Guardian

Referees never get it right. Mike Pike got it wrong before he arrived. Driving from Barrow (133 miles) he was trapped in the tailback from an accident, which closed the M6 for four hours. So were Blackpool, who got here at 2.10pm, 2½ hours after ETA. Pike made it at 2.30. Dialogue with the League decreed a half-hour delay to kick-off. This cut no ice with Tony Pulis, who launched a Premier League rant.
Article continues

"It's very unprofessional," said Stoke's manager. "He gets expenses and should have stayed overnight [official advice is to do so at 80 miles or more] but he chose to travel down the busiest road in the country on the day during a holiday period. Astonishing. We were already warming up. I had to drag my players in, wait half an hour, then send them out again. We never pull muscles here but we've lost Salif Diao, probably for the season, and Leon Cort. We've been punished for other people's failings." Cort's muscle went after half-time. Five victims of the M6 crash were air-lifted to hospital, where two remain.
Managers are always praising their players for showing character. Some could show a bit more themselves -perspective, too. Coping with pressure is part of the job and Pulis, who has exceeded expectation in placing Stoke on top of the table, is not doing it well. "I believe we've copped a hell of a lot of decisions which have been unjust this season," said his programme notes. "You just hope that over the next seven games the club receives the justice it deserves." Pike would not have read that beforehand. He refereed impeccably. He had no comment on Stoke's hotels.

Simon Grayson upheld the dignity of the manager's job despite disappointment that Blackpool's classier play had not been fully rewarded: "We had the team meeting on the bus with toast and cereal bars, with scraps of chicken when we got here. It was not ideal but I told them not to use it as an excuse." Of Ben Burgess, who cancelled out his first-half goal by setting up Stoke's equaliser straight after the restart, when he nodded a corner from beyond the far post back into his own goalmouth for Cort, Grayson said: "He forgot we'd turned round." At 6ft 3in Burgess would qualify for Stoke, whose programme reports confirm a tall obsession by giving the teams' average height. First measure them, then see if they can control a ball.

Blackpool, with two central defensive giants in Ian Evatt and Kaspars Gorkss, stood firm against Stoke's physicality.They are not safe but their determination to work the ball forward through craft deserves to give them a second season in the second tier after 29 years below. Wes Hoolahan was not quite Stanley Matthews, but showed a winger's will to dribble.

Stoke are straight up and down like their stripes, with the once influential midfielder Rory Delap anonymous except for his torpedo throw-ins. They were without Liam Lawrence, their own answer to Matthews who, in 1961, returned from Blackpool to guide Stoke to the top tier 18 months later, when he was 48. Pulis bemoaned the absence of Lawrence, Ricardo Fuller and Ryan Shawcross, his three leading scorers, all suspended, but that is what happens when the cards stack up. Stoke, top of the division's yellow list, were vigorously clean on Saturday. Perhaps a penny has dropped.

Another, about professionalism, could usefully follow but, if Stoke go up, Pulis will find Sir Alex Ferguson confirming his view that, if his side do not take all the points, it is the referee who got it wrong.

Man of the match: Mike Pike (referee)

[anarchicalan]

The long and short of it is that if Pulis and his backroom staff KNOW that 2 warm-ups can potentially cause injury - why do it?

Blackpool had no injuries.

Excusemeister Pulis strikes again!

[RAF]

Asking for the ref to be sacked for being late?
Will you be asking for Blackpool to be removed from the league as they were late aswell?

H

[jarhead]

What about Tony your team selection and hoof it to Mama tactic?

From the squad he picked for sat ie the bench aswell then Wilko should have started at Right-back.
Griffin over to left-back.
Diao on the bench.
Delap in the middle with Whelan.
Pugh pushed up ahead of Griffin to left-midfield then overlap/help each other out in thet left-back position when needed too.
Gallagher on the Right-wing (which after the Norwich game Pulis said he could play there because of Liams suspension)!
And a fitter powerful better player in Jay-B up with Cressy and Sidibe coming on as a late sub to mix it up if we had to change it.

Now how simple balanced would that have been Tony?And your a so called Pro ffs!

But what did we get but a total farce of a setup that just disjointed us and made us look utter crap and the game proved this against mighty Blackpool ffs at home!

[kingdeano]

afternoon peck

[jarhead]

Orate,had a bloody late one son!

[kingdeano]

me too mate, was in that pink last night til 3, 1st time been in, funny as son, all little gays and lettuce lickers, going bookies now try get me money back!

[jarhead]

Ha ha pisser son you rimmer,did you pull!!!

[werrington]

Never mind the poor sods who were being cut free or the poor souls stuck in the traffic!!!!
It was the refs fault for that appalling performance???
Ref late for Burnley at home or Watford last week?
No dont think they were!!

[Spiderman]

jarhead said:

What about Tony your team selection and hoof it to Mama tactic?

From the squad he picked for sat ie the bench aswell then Wilko should have started at Right-back.
Griffin over to left-back.
Diao on the bench.
Delap in the middle with Whelan.
Pugh pushed up ahead of Griffin to left-midfield then overlap/help each other out in thet left-back position when needed too.
Gallagher on the Right-wing (which after the Norwich game Pulis said he could play there because of Liams suspension)!
And a fitter powerful better player in Jay-B up with Cressy and Sidibe coming on as a late sub to mix it up if we had to change it.

Now how simple balanced would that have been Tony?And your a so called Pro ffs!

But what did we get but a total farce of a setup that just disjointed us and made us look utter crap and the game proved this against mighty Blackpool ffs at home!

well said Jarhead I couldn't have put it better myself

[kingdeano]

was trying get jue have a lemon but she wasnt up for it! for a puffs pub its a laugh, bit scarey at times tho, little benders trying chat each other up. i told them im the only gay in the village!

[vientianescfc]

Fuck me! People playing Championship Manager on there PC really does make them believe they are better managers that the real ones! Just picking a team is all there is to managing a team aint it!

As for Pulis blaming the ref - I haven't read anywhere where TP actually blames the referee for the team performance only the fact that him turning up late screwed up there preparation AND out of sheer coincidence we had sustained two muscle related injuries in that very game. From what went on reading on here and on the commentary no one was really sure if the game was delayed or not.

Maybe Mr Pike - should of phoned ahead when he was sitting in traffic for an hour or more and told people that he was going to make it in time - at that point surely the 4th official should have take charge of the game.

[Deleted]

Twice now he has had a rant at referees this season and just where is this going to get him? No amount of moaning whinging will take away a piss poor performance on Saturday. The players are top of the league they should be going out to any match with confidence and look to overpower teams especially at home. What we see is again banging them fucking sqaure pegs into round holes. One person can shag this up for Stoke and its not the referees its Pulis. He has a massive chance to prove many of his critics wrong in that he has the balls to take a team up without bottling out but what we see right now is a team frightened to lose which is throwing a massive unease over everything that has been done so far this season. Get your tactics right TP and stop blaming other circumstances for your shortcomings. we are behind you and the team just don't start pissing about now.

[RAF]

Maybe Mr Pike - should of phoned ahead when he was sitting in traffic for an hour or more and told people that he was going to make it in time

What exactly would that have done?

H

[Vodkab1ock]

i got in the ground early as they wouldn't let me in delilahs due to only members only thing.

when i got in the ground the players where doing there shuttle runs and warming up quite hard, then they got called in. The only player that stayed out was nash and simmo who warmed up for over a hour

and lets face it the fact that there pre-match warm up was fucked up could of been to blame for 2 muscle injuries.

Pulis did not blame the performance on the ref he blamed the injuries to diao and cort.

We played shit nothing to do with the ref, we had 2 players injured possibly due to the ref been late dont see what is so fucking hard to understand!! ??? ??? ???

[kkkkken]

What effinfbignuts says .

It seems to me Pulis is blaming the injuries on the ref not the performance .
Pretty simple really .