No conspiracy theory about the big four clubs, yadda yadda yadda. Remember Saints V Hull KR in last years challenge cup? Francis Meli got sent off in the first half of that match & rightly so. Ferres indiscretion was the start of the downfall only compounded by the lack of composure in the last 5 minutes by some feeble organising when it came to the drop goal attempts. IMO not enough credit is being given to Saints goal line defence & charging down of the kicker when most players were fatigued and out on their feet.

Funny how nobody on here has spotted any decisions that went huddersfield's way. Like the knock on by Masoe in front of our posts when the tackler very clearly still had hold of his ball carrying arm while he's trying to put it on the ground. Should have been penalty Saints but given as knock on to Hudds. Or the ball steal on Roby on front of your posts where the ball comes out forward and into the hands of a Hudds player stood in an offside position. Given as play on but should have been penalty to Saints.

As regards the drop goal, I'm not sure whether it went over or not. The camera angles are very deceiving due to the foreshortening of long shots which does distort the picture. Not sure the video ref could have seen it any better as he'd just have the same camera angles. Maybe Bentham was right and he isn't actually bent and out to get you.

But the video ref decision would have been inconclusive. One shows wide, one shows in. The video ref would have been in limbo, and unable to make the call it'd have been referred to the on field ref for his decision which would have been no DG.

Going to the screen wouldn't have made any difference to the DG being given.

Do you mean the one by a Hudds player close to his try line after he'd picked up an attacking kick and didn't want to get dumped over the line? Or didn't you see that one?

No the one by hohaio when he just dived to the floor at the end, didn't you see that?

But then we would be talking about a decision which was at least looked at to try and make the correct decision instead of just dismissing the effort as bentham did. If the decision is looked at by the video ref and cannot be decided upon then fair enough it can be accepted but to just dismiss it is wrong when the video ref is there and has been used for other decisions during the game which were in some ways meaningless compared to this one.

Yes, but I also saw the other one that Huddersfield fans apparently couldn't see. The point I'm trying to make is that you can't just pick and choose which wrong decisions you want to complain about. If you want to complain about the ones that went for Saints then you need to be unhappy about the ones that went for Hudds too. Just because an incorrect decision is made in the last 2 minutes of a game which is close at the end doesn't mean it's more important than one earlier in the game. If the earlier decisions had been correct then the score could have been completely different in the 78th minute. So they're all as important as each other and you can't just disagree with the ones that don't suit you.

He didn't just dismiss it. He made his call. Why would he refer it if he felt he was sure? Do we want a situation where every single incident is referred even if the ref is sure, ''just in case''?

Bottom line is, no one knows. Not you, me or ultimatly the video ref if he'd been called upon. The guy with the best view, was bentham, and he called no DG. That's it.

Still, even after this the ball was deep in saints half and hudds somehow allowed them right up the field into prime DG territory within only a few tackles.

really? im not so sure, saints/bentham had the ascendency by then, summed up by jerry conceding a penalty for being shoved.
the game was evenly balanced up to that point, after that it was all one way traffic regards officiating.
no one deserved to lose that game today, ferres red card was right decisions but in no way was that the gamechanger, benthams decision to screw us was!

True and no one seemed ready to pressure the kick when everyone in the ground knew who the ball was heading to.

You can't just pick the camera angle which suits your opinion either. Huddersfield fans come away from this game feeling robbed. Poor old badly done to huddersfield. The establishment doesn't like them. Blah blah blah.

.

Ferres' stupidity put them a man down, brough's incompetence ruined numerous DG opportunities, the teams incompetence allowed saints into a DG position at the end of the game. The 50/50's went both ways throughout the game as you have pointed out.

Hudds lost because of hudds.

What actually was the Walsh and jerry penalty for? Jerry tackles him. Walsh loses the ball, pushes jerry. Penalty saints!?

Does it make it easier to cope with hudds defeats if you create a fantasy where hudds have lost purely because of the officials?

Because this is ridiculous. Completly ignoring and bypassing all the decisions that went in hudds favour.

get a grip ffs!
most giants fans are wishing saints well, nothing untoward from their players, it's the referee we are angry with, and i have yet to see one fartown fans "forget" the ferres tackle, we all agree it was reckless and warranted red card.

If washes drop goal had been ruled out how many saints fans would be complaining!

Felt Bentham had a poor game, but at least in the first half he was consistently poor ie. both hudds and saint got away with offside and forward passes. Once again though a dodgy decision goes against us and we give a string of penalties away in response to that in quick succession!
Not buying the conspiracy theory, think it's just a case of the 'established' top 4 knowing exactly how to milk refs for pens, which we keep falling for with mucking about at the ptb!

this is spot on. most people after the game were saying how he goes to then VR for every minor little thing and every try to find something, yet the most important decision of the day an the one that had the biggest effect on the game he chooses not to!

Agreed we are the most guilty of the top clubs of giving away penalties and we must address that. The range of offences we give away is scary and if it was one or two offences we might have a chance of changing it quickly but I guess we conceeded about 15 pens today and they were for 7 or 8 different things. Not good.

But you're assuming that Bentham either thought "That went over but I'm going to say it didn't because I don't like Huddersfield" or "I'm not sure whether that went over so I'll just say it didn't" when he might have thought "That clearly missed so I'm confident that don't need to refer it".

There's no reason to think the video ref could have made a better job of it having seen the camera angles shown on TV.

How can you say the other incorrect decisions are meaningless just because they were earlier in the game? Do you have some way of knowing what would have happened in the following plays if the incorrect decision hadn't been made? If you have then Derren Brown may want to speak to you.

not at all, some decisions went in our favour no doubt, but every major decision in the last 15 minutes went saints way,enabled them a way back into the game ( albeit with the help of a man advantage).
i have said on other threads that saints would have won the game evantually with a man advantage but the one sided nature of the officiating has left a very sour taste tonight.

I've been requested to post this here, so...

It makes me laugh when I see people like Rogue's with his say what you see attitude or Danny Brough's "What's missing about that?" opinion. Whilst I wish I could clear this up using elaborate mathematical equations and physics, I think a basic knowledge of geometry and common sense will do.

This all revolves around why the two angles appear to show different outcomes, this is simple - perspective! And how people point to how the ball looks inside the sticks without even thinking of perspective just beggars belief.

[url=http://s610.photobucket.com/user/StHelensRovers/media/Broughs%20Drop%20Goal%20Analysed/wideexplaination_zpsc0384ba9.jpg.html[/url

From this angle, we can see the moment the ball is kicked, it is roughly 6ft from the approximate spot of the post - using the pitch lines (I've gone over them in white). The yellow asterisk is where the ball would be on the try line (all measurements are of course approximate).

[url=http://s610.photobucket.com/user/StHelensRovers/media/Broughs%20Drop%20Goal%20Analysed/behindgoal_zps4184ad6a.jpg.html[/url

So from behind the goal, the thing that is catching everyone out is how the ball looks inside the sticks for most of its journey. We can now use the same reference spots from the previous photo (I have changed the hue so the lawn lines appear sharper). We know the ball is 6ft outside the sticks, but look - it already appears inside the sticks from this point. The fact is that the ball needs to make up 6ft of ground.

[url=http://s610.photobucket.com/user/StHelensRovers/media/Broughs%20Drop%20Goal%20Analysed/perspective_zps2945fe98.jpg.html[/url

Here is the true perspective of the top of the sticks. At this point, given as I say I am not qualified to work out distance x time etc, we rely on common sense. Does the ball appear inside the corridor of the lines? Of course that is only one still and proves nothing, but I would say think about this perspective and the reference points I have given and watch the video yourself. I have examined it and I am very confident it didn't


And that is why, on that angle ^ the ball looks to be sneaking in (if you imagine the lines not to be there)...


[url=http://s610.photobucket.com/user/StHelensRovers/media/Broughs%20Drop%20Goal%20Analysed/circled_zps9658a94d.jpg.html[/url

...but on this angle the ball appears wide.

Just my opinion, I could be wrong, but I would hope others would think a bit harder about what they think they saw before berating Phil Bentham. I believe the ball missed by by a comfortable enough distance and Phil Bentham was stood in a perfect spot to see it. He is not stupid (banter aside) he would have known the connotations by going up to the video ref, if he was not 100% he would have used that, enormous pressure off his shoulders, but he also knows the video could give false impressions, so he must have been 100% confident.

Excellent post - but I have no idea whether it was a goal or not.

More importantly how would a video ref been able to decide............

No goal

Thought Bentham had a fairly decent game

Apart from never, when in this country has the video ref EVER handed the decision back to the on field ref?

Sorry mate, not having that....there was no way there was that many fans sat behind them posts in that top pic, did you photoshop them in? I bet if I zoom in it'll be Elvis.