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With so much play acting, time wasting and feigning injury in the modern game, one man and one man only should decide when a game stops and starts, the referee. He may be guided by his other 3 officials when necessary. Peterborough's game plan was obvious from the start. To frustrate. Win the toss, turn the teams round to play towards their fans first half rather than second. A mind game. Niggle, wrestle, complain, do the ugly things, hope to nick a goal.Worked perfectly. Six minutes, 1-0, now close out the game, run down the clock. Waste time, play on the break. But come on. The time wasting was ridiculous, if effective. It breaks up the flow, kills the atmosphere, prevents momentum from building.The first booking was coming. The ref had warned them twice. Third time was enough.The second booking was a proper heads gone moment. Fully deserved but from that moment, Toney, having given a fair impression of a wrestling octopus for 40 minutes, completely lost it and deliberately tried to get Wilks sent off. It was blatant cheating and should be reviewed as the incident as not punished. However, when a team of charlatans, like Peterborough, cheat so openly and deliberately how can they expect the opposition to then observe some unwritten code of moralistic conduct that is alien to everything that has gone before it in the game?What caused the keeper to throw the ball into touch is bewildering. There is no logical explanation. He made a mistake and in a game of fine margins it is the role of the opposition to try and punish errors, however they may be presented.Football is a physical contact sport. Occasionally a player gets injured. Whether a game is stopped is clearly in the remit of the officials. Players should play on. The only exception is if there's a clear and obvious head injury.I get Peterborough's frustration. They had every opportunity to hurt us had they played to their strengths, ie, attacking us. Be in no doubt they have a team that during the early part of the season was scoring for fun. Instead they chose to be negative. No good crying over spilt milk now. Bad tactical choices cost them dearly. The rest is simply trying to deflect attention And garner undeserved sympathy.
I think they turned us round because Ferguson knew the sun would be in our defenders eyes first half and not be there in the 2nd half.
I would go further, no team should ever kick the ball out to stop play, leave it to the man with the whistle. All these tactical injuries, including fake head injuries would soon stopIt's either that or allow a player to be treated whilst the game continues and then only stop play when the treatment would interfere with play