Lino awful in Kidder draw

lino, a right jessy
By KJ
November 1 2003

Harriers battled out a 2-2 draw against Cambridge Utd today. A fair result and a good game. Spoilt by a weak little man who thought we;d come to watch him. No not the ref, a silly man, who was so sure of his decisions, he had to keep telling everyone how right he was.

DRAW FOR KIDDY AGAINST CAMBRIDGE
A BRIEF REPORT
THE GAME
Harriers had to settle for a point against away day specialists Cambridge at Aggboro today. Jan made changes from last weeks defeat to Doncaster, JJ Melligan was absent, someone said he was back in Ireland for personal reasons, of course, his loan expires this week. Also missing was Kenny Coleman. Steve Burton made his 1st start, and Craig Hinton moved over to right back. Sean Parrish returned in midfield, Graham Ward dropped to the bench with Matt Gadesby making his 1st start under Jan. Up front saw new boy Andy White partner John Williams.
In an eventful 1st half Harriers played quite well, and new boy White was proving a handful upfront. Harriers did take the lead on 41 minutes. From a corner, White went up with a couple of the U’s defenders and the ball broke kindly for Sean Parrish, who gleefully buried it into the roof of the net. Then “Paz “ treated the home end to the “Catapillar” celebration. Hopefully we will see more break dancing from him soon.
So Harriers went in ahead at the interval. Into the 2nd half and Cambridge started to come back strongly, forcing Brocky into a couple of smart saves. Then came the controversial moment, or should I say the cheating moment or one hell of an error. It deserves a paragraph to itself, so I’ll put it at the end. From the corner which shouldn’t have been, the U’s equalised through Kitson who headed home and despite the efforts of Hinton on the line, the ball went in, Cambridge were level, and the lino was detested, by me in any case. Things got worse for Kiddy, when Cambridge went ahead, a short time later. Their new loan man, Williams, firing in an impressive goal, from the edge of the area.
Harriers now looked down and out. Jan brought on Shilton for the tiring debutant White. Kidder did draw level with 10 minutes to go. Big John Williams crashing home a fine goal from the edge of the area. From then on Harriers did have a slight upper hand. Matt Lewis came on for Big John, for what could be his last Harriers appearance. Late on Danny Williams had a chance with a free kick, the power was there, but unfortunately Danny didn’t get his body over the ball and it went over. Right at the death, Cambridge were reduced to 10 men, Goodhind, was sent off for a 2nd booking. Despite a few half chances at either end, the final score remained 2-2. After such a game I think a draw was a fair result and the point was useful. It also lifted us up to 21st in the league. Now for the lino.
THE LINO
I’m not sure which linesman it was today, in the programme, they were listed as Kevin Barnes and Ron James. So I humbly apologise to the innocent one. The one in question today gave Cambridge a corner when it was so clearly a goal kick. Of course they equalised and nearly went on to win. Ok, it was only a corner and of course we should have dealt with it. can I just say now, I dont think it had that much of a bearing in the end. BUT it was 100% a goal kick. An error ? ok, but that lino was unstable. Throughout the game he was constantly chatting back to players, I heard him in the 1st half, telling some Cambridge players to “go away”. I think I’ve seem him before. If I remember rightly, he lined the Rushden league game at Aggboro in January. I recall giving him a good touret like verbal volley that day. A real good un, one where you knew he heard and seemed shaken. Of course he got another today. Yes its was I who shouted “you should have gone to specsavers”. That was before the goal went in, afterwards it got lively, not too bad though. What annoyed me, as in the R&D game, he constantly kept assuring himself and everyone that he was correct. Today he was wrong. it was an awful decision. You don’t mind when it’s 50/50 or the official is unsited or the incident is on the other side. This was right in front of him. He was a joke to the game as whole. I think that such errors should see the official miss a few games. Something needs to be done about constant rubbish which is week in week out littering the beautiful game. Such incidents can cost lots of money and at some grounds could cause riots. SACK THE GIT !
Finally, sorry to Cambridge. Form the above outburst, I’m not insinuating that the lino got you a draw, you would have probably got back in the game in any case. In fact, he did give an offside later on, much to your managers displeasure. I think there were players in offside positions, but who knows ? Maybe he was then “balancing” his errors.