Have the Premiership Referees Got A Campaign Against Liverpool Football Club

With the wind beginning to swirl around the stadium the game began and it looked as though Liverpool had the upper hand from the off.  The style of play was again the pass and move one which we have all come to enjoy since January and rings were beginning to be run around the Stoke players, so much so that it looked as though Liverpool's first goal of the afternoon was not too far away.

Then came the first of several questionable incidents, a penalty was given to Stoke by Mark Clattenberg, who appeared to indicate that Jamie had wrapped his arms around Jon Walters and impede his next move.  Now I was watching the game on a computer stream and I am sorry but what I saw was totally different.  Jamie went for the ball and seeing an easy scoring chance young Jon Walters did all he could to kid the referee and unfortunately it worked.  Stoke were now one up and it appeared to knock a slight bit of confidence out of the Liverpool players.  

The momentum they had built up seemed to be lost for the rest of the half, a half where there was a blatant hand ball but strangely this was missed by both the linesman and Mark Clattenburg.  Luis Suarez was also it appeared having one of those days, having tried not only to set up a couple of goals but to try scoring his own to no avail. 

Half time came and as the teams re-emerged for the second half, it was immediately evident that no changes had been made.  Kenny had decided to keep his faith in the lads on the pitch, after all there was still time to turn the game around.

In fact Liverpool had come out of the dressing room with more intent than in the first half.  They were quickly all over Stoke and the appeared to be in the Stoke half.  The determination to get the goal to pull us level was there, but it was just not going to happen and shortly after the sixty minute mark Kenny brought on Andy Carroll and Craig Bellamy for Dirk Kuyt and Jordan Henderson. 

The travelling over the last few weeks for the Dirk I suspect had taken their toll because he seemed out of sorts.  Jordan Henderson I am sure is quite ready yet to appear on the big stage week in and week out.  He seemed to appear anonymous for most of the game until he had several sitters saved by the Stoke goalkeeper.

Did Andy Carroll make a difference to the team, that I am not sure off.  Apart from one shot of the goal his game was still not as fluid as it should have been and to me from the moment Craig Bellamy came on the pitch, you could see the commitment and the passion in his play.  On another day I am sure he could have scored.

The game continued, but the goal was simply were not going to come.  Martin Skrtel, who Kenny decided to replace with Glen Johnson, even had a chance at the goal, but the kick was too hard and the ball flew straight over the goalpost.  Things then took a turn for the worst because his replacement, Glen Johnson, having only been on the pitch for a matter of minutes injured his hamstring once more.  This brings up another set of questions as to why he was passed fit in the first place, but that is a discussion for another day.

We then had another missed penalty situation.  There was clearly a handball in the goal area and once again this was missed by the linesman and Mark Clattenberg.  Luis Suarez, who can be very hot tempered went over and complained to the linesman and earned a yellow card for his trouble, which was totally wrong, because he only saw, we all did sitting at home.

After a further frantic ten minutes of play the game finished with Stoke winning and their 27 year old history intact.  It did though raise as I have said many questions about the refereeing of Liverpool games from the boss himself, Kenny Dalglish.

Now Kenny as we know, since his return has kept his feelings about the officials to himself, but I guess yesterday's blatant misses were the last straw.  In his post-match press conference, he did say that he could not understand why not only were the decisions today  given against us, but also in the previous three games. Decisions which we the supporter, know should have been made, having watched the events leading up to them unfold.

Kenny being a gentleman, rather than rant immediately, has said that he will speak to John Henry before making any comments to either Mike Riley from the Referees Association or indeed whether he should indeed make any comments to the referees in charge of our games in the future.  As he himself said, if those decisions impact on his football club, then something needs to be done.

Which of course it does, because these so-called top referees, are supposed to all go by the same rule book.  It should not matter whether they are refereeing Liverpool Football Club or Manchester United.  There should be no favouritism or indeed lack of respect for the team on the pitch.  They are there supposedly to ensure that fair play takes place, not to help the team of the moment to yet another premiership title.