' Well, well, well. ' Did he bottle it?

Well, well, well,Did referee Neil Swarbrick bottle sending dirty Wayne Rooney off against Cardiff?


By Benjamin James

Monday 25th Nov 2013.

Well, well, well. What could have been a damp squib turned into a football match where the pendulum swung more wildly than Wayne Rooney lashes out.

I said we would beat United; in reality we deserved to but had to settle for a draw. On a weekend where the main discussion has been; is the refereeing in the Premier League poor or terrible? It’s sad to say that the final game of the weekend, terrible took the victory!

Neil Swarbrick, a referee who showed a lack of bottle all afternoon, let Rooney get away with what I would describe as assault. There is no way what Rooney did can construed as anything but a red card. Out-muscled by Jordon Mutch, Rooney saw it fit to leather him through the back of his legs.

The ball was nowhere near him. The aggression was Rooney-esque. The referee saw it but only booked him.

Of course, if Mutch had committed the same offence at Old Trafford, the referee would have had the red card out in record time. It was dirty, it was dangerous and it was full of intent. It’s a red card all day.

Instead, the Manchester United rule came into effect. In fact, the whole game was refereed in this spirit. Cardiff players were booked for offences that United players were allowed to get away with. Fellaini was warned and then fouled more without picking up a booking.

Rooney, who shouldn’t have been on the pitch, spent his game berating the referee even when decisions went his way. Peter Whittingham picked up a yellow card where Tom Cleverley escaped one for a similar indiscretion.



Tom Cleverley catches Whittingham at hip height; a long awaited booking for a Manchester United player followed Stu Fors
Perhaps his performance just added to what was a pulsating encounter; and perhaps that’s what made the last minute equaliser all the more sweet.

For all the controversy surrounding the referee, we matched the Premier League champions all over the park.

For once, we came out and attacked. Fraizer Campbell led the line magnificently scoring a great goal and crashing as shot against the bar.

Medel will be pulling Marouane Fellaini’s hair out of his pocket for days, and Javier Hernandez could have saved his afternoon by just not turning up rather than playing like he hadn’t turned up.

We didn’t dwell on bad refereeing, we didn’t let United bully us. We stood toe to toe and you could hardly tell who won the Championship last year and who won the Premiership.

Kim Bo-Kyung’s last minute header was tinged with controversy as an elbow from Fellaini to Medel was retaliated with a slap and that caused the free kick to be retaken. But it was a wonderful header from Kim. He snuck in between the ageing Rio Ferdinand and directed a smashing header past the flat-footed David De Gea.

Not really, it was 'handbags' in all reality and we would have gone 'spare' if it had happened the other way around...

Thought the 'Ref' did pretty well overall in all honesty

Should have gone, simples. Fed up of seeing the refs protect the away sides especially when it's the big guns. And never seen a team of men, moan to the ref so much in a game.

Its about the rules of the game and law - RED should of been outcome - ref`ll be dropped next week

Did the ref bottle it?? no question that he did, the annoying thing about it is that rooney is by far their best all round player, everything good that utd done yesterday went through him if he was sent off just before the eight minute mark i think we would have won comfortably.

In all fairness should of sent off medel for punching fellani

In all fairness should of sent off medel for punching fellani

If you look at the incident again you will see that fellani firstly elbowed medel in the side of the head, then medel retaliated by swinging out with a slap which caught fellani on the shoulder, tit for tat is probably what the ref was thinking otherwise he would have to have sent the BOTH of them off.

In all fairness should of sent off medel for punching fellani

But what action should have been taken for the elbow in Medels face that led to the "bitch slap".
If one was red, then so was the other???.

In all fairness should of sent off medel for punching fellani

More of a slap to the neck than a punch and it was in retaliation to Fellaini elbowing Medel, so if Medel deserved a red so did Fellaini, but Rooney should have gone for sure

In all fairness should of sent off medel for punching fellani

If that's a red to you then there would be a lot of red cards dished out in games.

Another ref bottling it with Wayne Rooney again against Hull yesterday. Sick and tired of seeing refs lacking the barks to make the right casks at least a yellow. Feed up of all the away teams getting extra protection from the refs.