Adam Johnson's Booking Today

[Biamp]

It was ridiculous no doubt.

[CityFanFromRome]

I think AJ's booking was for taking the piss out of the defender. If you see the replay, while going backwards AJ is making gestures and telling something to the Newcastle player, with a smirk on his face. I don't know what that was about but I think that was what cost him the booking, as absurd as I too think the yellow card was.

[Tokyo Blue]

Must be the most ridiculous yellow card since Kevin Horlock was booked for 'aggressive walking'.

I have got no idea what it was for. Same goes for Silva's, Lescott's and Balotelli's.

[branny]

It's the inconsistency that does my head in. Barry's booking against Arsenal was virtually identical to a tackle by Song not long after yet no yellow for Song. De Jong imo has been booked twice for winning the ball. Silva's yellow yesterday was ridiculous, both players were going for the ball with foot up. Balotelli has previously been booked for dissent (at WBA) and yet you see an incident like the Fletcher one vs the gooners, when he didn't get a free kick and ran after Webb screaming and waving his arms then eventually barged into him and no card. Still, at least we're getting the suspensions out of the way now.

[john@staustell]

I actually believe we either have a deliberate policy to keep backchatting refs, or we have a lack of discipline on this. I reckon a Clough-style discipline where you never back chat and complain would pay dividends in the long run. Whereas at the moment refs are out to get us or are getting fed up with us. Some of these seemingly innocuous bookings are surely down to repeated yipping?

[Slim]

AJ booked for smiling.
Balo booked for standing there.
Lescott booked for being hooked by a striker and unable to get free.
Silva booked for being tackled.
Hart booked for going over to the ref.

Tiote kicked lumps out of Silva and Yaya, no booking, was amazed he was still on the pitch, let alone unbooked.
Barton went through the back of no less than 4 players including a two footed lunge on Silva(Kolarov?), no booking.
Guitierrez leads with the arm in a jumping challenge(same thing Lennon got a red for), won a freekick.

Ref was spot on today, shame they didn't have an extra Newcastle strip for him.

[Craig B]

I agree with the concensus here - it was a completely disgraceful decision to book AJ for that. Has anyone noticed that we're currently (according to the statistics) the dirtiest side in the league? Interesting!

Team P Y R Pts
1 Fulham 18 20 0 20
2 Man Utd 17 24 0 24
3 Blackpool 16 23 1 26
4 Chelsea 17 25 1 28
5 B'ham 17 25 1 28
6 Spurs 18 27 1 30
7 West Ham 19 31 0 31
8 Liverpool 17 26 2 32
9 Wigan 18 27 2 33
10 Everton 18 24 3 33
11 Aston Villa 18 33 0 33
12 Blackburn 19 32 1 35
13 Stoke City 18 36 1 39
14 Sunderl' 19 31 3 40
15 Wolves 18 35 2 41
16 WBA 18 26 5 41
17 Newcastle 18 39 1 42
18 Arsenal 17 35 4 47
19 Bolton 19 37 4 49
20 City 19 44 4 56

[Buffalo Soldier]

AJ quite clearly kicked the ball away, he does it every game and normally gets away with it, this time he didn't and he can't have any complaints. If a player for the other team did it against us you'd all be screaming for his head.

Silva and Barton went for the ball studs up, Barton won it, Silva kicked Barton's leg. Was a yellow card but resulted in Barton being kicked in the leg, worth it every time.

Agree that Balotelli's was extremely harsh, if it was his 4th or 5th foul then maybe it would have been justified but as he had just come on the pitch it was hardly worthy of a booking. He gets some extremely poor decisions given against him at times, not justifying his behaviour in some games, but I don't blame him for being a bit frustrated.

[Goataldo]

AJ quite clearly kicked the ball away, he does it every game and normally gets away with it, this time he didn't and he can't have any complaints. If a player for the other team did it against us you'd all be screaming for his head.

Silva and Barton went for the ball studs up, Barton won it, Silva kicked Barton's leg. Was a yellow card but resulted in Barton being kicked in the leg, worth it every time.

Agree that Balotelli's was extremely harsh, if it was his 4th or 5th foul then maybe it would have been justified but as he had just come on the pitch it was hardly worthy of a booking. He gets some extremely poor decisions given against him at times, not justifying his behaviour in some games, but I don't blame him for being a bit frustrated.

Yes, AJ kicked the ball away and blew a kiss - not very sporting but giving a yellow was extremely harsh as it's something that not only goes on all the time, but generally in a much worse fashion than that. Rather typically, it comes down to a matter of consistency for refs - the clown who 'reffed' yesterday might as well have had giant black and white shoes on and kept his cards in a massive pocket. Imo he would never have given it without the baying Geordie hordes clamouring for anything they could.

As for Silva, he went in quite tentatively, and Barton went in, well, like Barton does, which these days isn't considered to be within the laws of the game (pathetic and soft though they may now be).

Balotelli would easily have gotten a straight red for the same challenge. His subsequent booking was little short of victimisation for previously being a cocky sod off the pitch and a primadonna on it. I'm not buying 'persistant fouling' for trying and failing to get the ball three time in ten seconds when he's been on the pitch two minutes.

The other bookings I could normally sort of understand - but alongside the other decisions they too looked skewed and wrong.

If the ref (and his well positioned 'assistant') hasn't seen Joe get blocked then they might justifiably take umbrage to him berating him for 'no reason'.

Lescott (who was MINT btw) was as much getting into the attacker as t'other way round, but when the whistle blew he was being fouled.

Did Barton get booked yesterday?