Pompey were poor at the weekend and deservingly lost to Spurs, whilst I am not using this as an excuse at all the ref – Martin Atkinson – was poor.
From what Sylvain Distin has told The News it does not appear that it was only several of his decisions that were questionable, Distin feels he also showed a lack of respect and his telling him to ‘shut up’ has led him to question his ‘lack of respect’: ‘The referee was frustrating. Every time we had contact with them shoulder to shoulder it was a foul for them.
‘I told him this once or twice and made my point.
‘He didn’t like that and didn’t respect me.
‘It’s good to protect the referees, but we are also men on the pitch.
‘When you tell someone to shut up you cannot expect a good reaction’.
To be honest I do get feed up with refs being harassed by players, it is uncalled for an unnecessary and as hard as it can be at times – with some more than others! – they do need to be respected, but at the same time they have to show respect to the players too.
Distin feels that he may ‘get into trouble’ for what he has said, but with no biased view at all I cannot see what he has done wrong, so why should he? All he has said is call it as it was and said that all he wants is to be respected, then in return you will get this from him.
PLAY UP POMPEY!
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