Scunthorpe
United v Milton Keynes, 15-10-16
On a short enforced break from refereeing,
I ended up at Glanford Park, Scunthorpe, to watch the current leaders of the
English third division take on Milton Keynes, the much vilified entity that
stole Wimbledon FC’s identity at the start of this century. It wasn’t a great
game – too many long balls, from Scunthorpe in particular, for my taste – but
as a neutral it was fascinating to watch the reaction of the crowd to the
referees.
In the eleventh minute, Scunthorpe striker
Tom Hopper followed one of those long balls over the top of the MK defence.
Just inside the penalty area, he beat the keeper to the ball, heading it to his
left, then collided with the keeper, who by this time had stopped and was
holding his arms in the air, realising he wasn’t going to beat Hopper to the
ball. Two defenders were in close attention, and one of these picked up the
loose ball (which they likely would have done even if Hopper hadn’t gone to
ground) and cleared.
The crowd screamed for a penalty, but none
was given. The fans around me moaned about it for 20 minutes. The linesman
directly in front of me received abuse for the rest of the first half. The
Scunthorpe bench harangued the fourth official (like it was his fault). All
three officials were booed off the pitch at half-time.
