Tottenham Vs Aston Villa | Defoe penalty appeal turned down

Description of incident: Defoe controlled the ball just inside the Villa area and Petrov came in from the side to challenge. Defoe went crashing to the floor and the ref, clearly struggling to see the incident clearly, waved play on despite the loud appeals.

Date of Game: Saturday 6th February 2010

Home Team: Tottenham | Away Team: Aston Villa

Referee: Chris Foy | Linesman: Phil Sharp & Martin Yerby

Decision Type: Penalty | Verdict: | Decision Difficulty: 2/5

Affect on Result: Arguably denied Tottenham a vital victory | Winner: Aston Villa | Loser: Tottenham

Players Involved: Martin Petrov (Aston Villa) & Jemain Defoe (Tottenham)

Summary: The referee was bending and stretching to see the incident around a crowd of players. He clearly failed as this was a blatant penalty; Petrov took Defoe's leg away. If he saw it, he would have come to the same conclusion. Either way, wrong decision, the penalty should have been given.

Cheers,
WB

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Aston Villa Vs West Ham | Kovac escapes red card

Description of incident: In the first half, the ref booked Kovac for a foul for pulling back an Aston Villa player. In the second half, Kovac slid in late on Petrov but this time he went unpunished. Moments later, he was substituted by West Ham.

Date of Game: Sunday 17th January 2010

Home Team: Aston Villa | Away Team: West Ham

Referee: Mike Jones | Linesman: Scott Ledger & Stephen Child

Decision Type: Red card | Verdict: | Decision Difficulty: 2/5

Affect on Result: It denied Villa the opportunity of facing 10 men for a significant period of the second half | Winner: West Ham | Loser: Aston Villa

Players Involved: Radoslav Kovac (West Ham) & Stiliyan Petrov (Aston Villa)

Summary: I don't even know how to begin explaining how the referee got this one wrong. For starters, the first yellow card was extremely harsh; I felt Kovac used his body weight well and won the ball cleanly - so a free-kick was harsh & a booking even more so. Yet, once the referee has created this position, the decision to brandish a second yellow, followed by a red to Kovac was a must once the Croat slid in on Petrov early in the second half. He bottled that decision, maybe because he knew the first yellow was harsh. But one thing's for sure, I had to register this as a wrong decision by the referee. Kovac didn't deserve to be sent off, so I suppose the right result was achieved - but as they say, 2 wrongs never make a right.

Cheers,
WB

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