Poll Is A Comedian?!

If we went to our respective work places and constantly made mistakes of poor judgement we would be fired. Poll's antics at the World Cup this summer should have made the Refereeing governing bodies take action. This man isn't fit to ref a kids knock about in the park on a Sunday let alone a Premiership Match. He has a massive ego and I believe plays to the cameras. Anyway he has admitted he's a Chelsea fan in the past, so why are we surprised at his actions on Saturday? He should be sacked immediately for the elite list of Referees.

Graham Poll you are the weakest link...goodbye!

I agree with you jono_forest. Not forgetting these guys are earning a fraction of the money that the supposed superstars are earning. If you think back to the big decisions of the weekend (Villa aside) you can see how hard the job is. The Gallas handball should have been a penalty (refs mistake). Reina out of his area (asst refs mistake, but the referee had to go with his assts judgement, he had no choice). Spurs penalty was a blatant case of cheating by the player (do we blame the player or the ref?). Refs are human and will make mistakes. It is interesting when compared to the players stats. For example Villas pass percentage this season is 73%. That is in the top few of all teams. However it means that 27% of passes are mistakes. I can pretty much guarantee that a referee doesn't get 27% of his decisions wrong. Why is it a player on £40,000 a week can make a load of mistakes but a referee on £40,000 a year is not allowed to make one?? How we help refs is a massive debate, but it does not matter how much training the refs get, or how much they get paid, they are still going to make mistakes. All of which are scrutinised in a way that would never of happened years ago. What fans should take out of this is the role that we can play in pressurising refs into mistakes. It is no coincidence that refs give more decisions in favour of the big clubs. If you have 45,000 redscousers, 75000 Manure, 52000 Newcrapstle or 60000 Arse fans screaming at you for a decision some people will buckle under the pressure. It is pointless saying have more and better refs because as soon as somebody has an interest in reffing they are abused by parents as soon as they start off in the career. Not exactly great encouragement to continue in the career. We all reap what we sow. So as fans I would urge all Villa fans to scream abuse at every linesman and referee at every decision that goes against us. Those around the touchlines have a very important role to play. Lets make sure that we start getting the decisions that the supposed top teams keep getting. We can play our part and until video replays are bought in every fan at Villa Park can help ensure that we start getting the benefit of dubious decisions.

The decisions Poll made were awful and I agree with Voiceoftheholte it is not a great job. But their has to be a happy medium. Who pays them now? Is there evaluations by the FA? I think they should be held accountable somehow, such as 10 obvious (ie penelty) mistakes a season you are relegated to Championship. Also just to play devils advocate Baros got a couple of Penalties last year that were slightly dubious. What happens in that senario?

Agree with that andrew144. The foreign refs fall for the diving antics much more than our refs do. That is still no excuse for Poll's performance on Saturday. If I remember rightly, he favoured Chelsea in the cup final in 2000 and he's got worse

WEBFLASH- Chris Sutton has signed a one year deal with villa. On the OS.

I'm a ref guys and sometimes people can be a bit OTT on them I think. Have a go at it yourself and try and get everything spot on! In my eyes, the Chelsea goal was fine on Saturday, Sorenson wasn't convincing enough. However, Angel was fouled and Makalele should have walked.

Graham Poll is a perfect example of why the fourth official should have TV replay access. Tierney, he should be spotting everything as he is a Premiership referee.

IMO Poll cost us the match, simple as that. no excuses, how bad foreign refs are, how hard the job is, what colour pants he had on, does not come into it, on sat he failed to do his job, one day the powers that be might actualy pull their collective fingers out of their arses and sort out video replays and line cameras, the technology is available, proven, light (for the officials) and inexpensive, so what the hell is going on? Does anyone else know of a multi billion pound business that fails to make such an obvious change for the better to increase customer satisfaction? we are the customers THE CUSTOMER IS RIGHT, we created enough noise about deadly, how about creating a noise that will benefit the whole of football. or am I on my own in thinking that a game that can make you have a happy week or send you into spirraling depression should not be left in the hands of one bung taking, biased, blind, ********* dressed in black. enjoyed that rant, cheers chaps. UTV

VOTH agree about the support and the point, but IMHO there needs to be no doubt, lets just make the ref an on pitch representative of a team of experts watching video screens, or is that just too ******* simple? Villa till I die

I believe the big rugby matches use this type of technology without it moving down into the smaller clubs, anyone can come up with excuses , I understand there would be some whinging from various corners but why not implement the technology for the prem and cup matches, as I pointed out this technology is not expensive, so if little didcot had a whip round in the pub one night and had a stall at their matches selling scones, they could raise the money, and I am not taking this lightly, the equipment is cheap, especially if purchased in bulk and shopped around for. but as pointed out rugby have managed it, so why cant we??? and not uninitiated a sports scientist who has spent many years working in the field of physical and pschological sports training and methodology, who was also in university at the time we looked into this very problem.(and not a spotty student, 43 year old mature student, over 20 years experience in the field) UTV