Goaters 103 wrote:Poor refereeing overall, that made the job that much harder.
At least we scored plenty of goals - good job we did - and Aguero ran his socks off up top in a great display.
Much as I dont agree that Nasri merited a red and Bassong only a yellow, Nasri's slight head movement forwards means I cant see us winning any appeal for that red card - should have been two yellows or, even though it would have been wrong two reds, but to dish out different punishments was daft. For the Garrido backpass I think the ref simply didnt know the rules, end of. There was also multiple other occasions where a decision went against us when it shouldnt have done, so to overcome this said a lot for our character.
Our defending, particularly at set-pieces, requires an overhaul as it was downright piss poor. At this time of year the result is everything and it was an important 3 points. That said, we need another 6 or 7 of these wins on the spin to put any pressure on Utd, and with Arse away on the horizon, sans Ya Ya, that looks rather unlikely.
I agree that I don't think we'll win an appeal for Nasri's red card. I think the ref should have just issued 2 yellows and told both players to get on with it, but Nasri's head movement is more noticeable than Bassong's and so I think the FA will use this in their justification to support the ref's decision.
The ref did have a poor game though. His decision against Kompany that led to the free kick for Norwich's first goal was terrible, not to mention the handball on the back pass and the 2 potential penalties we could have had. The players did extremely well to overcome all of this.
