When is playing advantage not an advantage?

The third goal for Fulham today came after the ref played an "advantage" following a foul on one of our players. Following the foul, Mendez-Laing had the ball about 45 yards from the opposition goal with about 8 players between him and the goal.

Play continued for about 3 seconds until Mendez lost the ball and then Fulham went straight back up the pitch and scored.

In what way could we be said to have had an "advantage" following the foul? Is it an advantage just because we retianed the ball? Of course not. At Bolton, the ref played an advantage to Bolton but as soon as their player lost the ball he called play back and gave them a free kick.

And famously at Sunderland in the Premier League, Mark Halsey played an advantage when Juan Cala fouled Conor Wickham, who the played on, dribbled around Marshall, took the ball to the bye-line, cut back inside, beat another defender and had his shot blocked at which time Halsey gave a penalty and sent Cala off.

Just for the benefit of Steve Zodiak I am NOT blaming the ref for our defeat today - we were comprehensively outplayed by a much, much better team but the inconsistency in the way the so-called "advantage" rule is applied drives me nuts!

I wasn’t at the game so can’t comment on that situation. But normally refs wait 2-3 seconds at least before seeing if there is a genuine advantage.

I prefer referees to play advantage where possible, as it lets the game flow much better.

Referees discretion unfortunately! Bound to be inconsistencies in way interpreted.

The same thing happened in the first half where Fulham were allowed to play an advantage. In this instance however, after a short period of time the advantage was deemed to be lost so the referee reverted back to the original incident and awarded Fulham a free kick.

Whilst I openly admit I don’t fully understand the rule, surely some sort of consistency has to be applied?

Having said that, I’m not trying to atone for our dire performance and congratulate Fulham on a well deserved victory.

Bluebirds!

Happened right in front of my seat. Mendez-Laing lost a bit of his stride and momentum after the foul, so the advantage was lost. It was 2-1 at that point, and we were having a comparatively decent patch. The third goal completely finished it. Not blaming that for the loss, but it didn't help.

Yea I thought the same. Should have been a free-kick. But until that goal it looked like we was going to get and equaliser. But that's football and once again poor ref standards.

Ref definitely got that one wrong today and it was a key moment for us as we were well on top at the time.

However I'm sure Fulham fans would say they should have had a penalty after 5 minutes. Looked stone wall to me

Also, their already booked striker Ojo kicked the ball away at a free kick at 3-2 and the ref totally ignored it.

Another one where there is terrible inconsistency

Ref definitely got that one wrong today and it was a key moment for us as we were well on top at the time.

However I'm sure Fulham fans would say they should have had a penalty after 5 minutes. Looked stone wall to me

Also, their already booked striker Ojo kicked the ball away at a free kick at 3-2 and the ref totally ignored it.

Another one where there is terrible inconsistency

Agree on the penalty - couldn't believe it wasn't given.

Evens up the one at Bolton that was given but never should have been.

The penalty incident was right in front of me in the Canton stand and I couldn’t believe the ref didn’t point to the spot. If that had been one of our players,the fans would have gone nuts. Overall I thought the ref did okay and no doubt the better team won but we allowed them too much space and time in midfield.

IMO the ref should have pulled it back for our free kick but I do t think this would have prevented us from losing. We showed urgency in the last 5-10 mins but it was all too late! We needed to show this a lot earlier - perhaps the players are knackered!

Not sure about the Fulham penalty appeal. The ref seemed to have a good view, and just shook his head and indicated 'get up'! Don't remember their payers making too much of a fuss about it.

When you dont take advantage of the advantage

Totally agree i took my brother in law with me to the game and he is an Newcastle suppoerter, we both said at the time where was our advantage ? The Ref should have blown up as soon as we lost the ball which was seconds ?
I also agree that we were totally out played i just hope this will be a wake up call for us