English Premier League: Losers of the fourth league weekend – Part 1
Several teams ended up as shorthanded on their weekend adventures in the latest round of the English Premier League matches. These teams and the individuals within them have got a lot to prove from now till the end of the 2010-2011 season. One of such individuals, a man who wasn’t supposed to be on any one’s side but still gave an impression that will live in the mind of all football fans for weeks to come, is Martin Atkinson.
Mr. Martin was in charge of the Everton versus Manchester United match at Goodison Park on Saturday. The events that unfolded in the blue half of Merseyside, have initiated the age old debate of referee’s favouring “big” teams. Teams who have a reputation to look after, teams have been successful more often than not. One of such teams is Manchester United.
Leading 3-1, then drawing 3-3 to Everton in the blink of two to three odd minutes was not expected of the former English champions but were they on course for a possible loss even? Everton were rampant after getting their second goal and with the home support at their back and United just labouring in the ending couple of minutes, anything was possible but let’s take a more comprehensive look at what happened during the match.
Everton took the lead in the first half, then United scored twice before the half time whistle to take a 2-1 lead into the break. After the second half resumed, United scored once more through Dimitar Berbatov to double their lead and take the score line to 3-1. In the 90th minute of the match, to be more precise 89 minutes and 59 seconds, the speakers inside Goodison Park announced that there will a minimum of three minutes of injury time that will be played at the end of the match.
When the clock hit 90 minutes and 37 seconds, Cahill scored for Everton to give his team a fighting chance. After celebrations, the game re-kicked off at 91 minutes and 10 seconds. At 91 minutes and 55 seconds, Arteta netted for Everton to bring the score line to 3-3. At 93 minutes and 29 seconds played, Martin Atkinson blows his whistle to bring an end to the match. This happened just before Steven Pienaar was on his way towards the Manchester United goal, on his way to creating a goal scoring opportunity for the Toffees.
Now to put things in perspective for every goal, referee is supposed to add around about thirty seconds to the already added time to cater for the time that is lost in retrieving the ball back to the half way line and the celebrations. Last year at the start of the season, when Manchester United took on Manchester City, it was Martin Atkinson who was supported by the F.A when he added time to the already added injury time which allowed Michael Owen to score with virtually the last kick of the match. It now seems as if referee Atkinson found it incorrect to adopt the same principles and apply the same rules for Everton against Manchester United on September 11th, 2010. Martin Atkinson should surely thank his lucky stars that Everton’s players went on and Jagielka’s shot at the end was saved by Edwin Van Der Sar.
If that shot had indeed ended up inside the United goal, then one can be sure that Moyes and his employers would have been more stressful in their protests. It is this type of hypocritical refereeing that has brought the profession of refereeing and officiating football matches into disrepute. One only demands that a referee should be consistent in his ruling and impartial in application of the rules.
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