Why was that given? There were continuous offences commited by the Leeds players and we get punished for it? So Fox commits it once and gets punished for it. It's pretty inconsistant refeering in my book, the only possible thing he could have done was warn both teams. Didn't think he had a word with both the captains though?

I cannot believe we won the penalty count either, but that's little reward with the major and decisive decisions going against us.

Still, very impressed again by Fox.

Fox got done for a professional foul (and correctly so) not persistent offside/laying on.

I have no idea how you can moan about the ref. Bentham did his level best to hand you the game on a plate.

That's a bit OTT, granted he gave us more penalties then Leeds yes.

The major decision was ruled out from Ian Smith!

Also, you don't think Sinfield or one or 2 other Leeds players should have been given 10mins for 'persistantly offending'?

TBH in one respect it was quite refreshing to see Leeds pulled up for offside so regularly when they usually get away with it.



However, I don't think Bentham was consistent and should have penalised Rovers more for interference. Generally he just seemed to spot every infringement from Leeds but let similar play from Rovers pass.

As far as more sin-bins are concerned - the one did the trick.

If by 'major decision' you mean the Webster knock-on, that was correctly given by the VR.

He deserved it professional foul end for stopping Mcguire quick play the ball...correct decision...i don't know can't even beat a depleated Leeds outfit while having the ref on your side also......oh dear!

You can't give a balanced view of that considering the cameras tend to only focus on the ptb. If it showed the defensive line you may think differently.

Professional foul ten metres out. Had to go to the bin. bentham was shocking though and hammered leeds in the penalty count. It got even worse after sinfield's hissy fit in the 1st half

Thaught Bentham had a decent game to be honest and yes the vr ruled out the Webster effort and rightly so there was definately a cheeky little knock on in there

yup, rovers got off lightly

Professional foul matey at the end of the day.

Technically it was the right call.

Yep!

I echo these comments! At that end of the field after a player has broken the line, any infringement is deemed as purposefully delaying the play of the ball to allow the defensive line to get set, therefore it's a professional foul and an automatic 10 mins in the bin. You can't have any arguments over the decision.

On the whole Bentham gave you the majority of the penalties- Leeds should have been there for the taking.

Could quite easily have been a 20-30 points victory for Leeds. Every penalty Bentham gave was justified, but he could've pulled Rovers for at least as many offsides as he gave against Leeds.

As a neutral thats the way i saw it, Bentham could and should have pulled you for offside several times but seemed hell bent on just hitting Leeds.

Fox = sin bin Pro foul.

Unless you was at the game how can you tell that we were offside????

In the first 10mins Leeds were a good yard or two offside on the flanks and it went unpunished, then the crowd really got on the touchy's back and I think it was obvious something had to be done.

I know Justin's big thing in training is making the line and is quite strict in that department as he see's those as silly penalties. What I did notice though was that while Leeds were getting away with it someone must have seen this and alerted Rovers to do the same and we did in fact get away with it most of the time however not to the extremes that Leeds were trying to get away with it.

Cant say Bentham had a mare though, he penalised what was in front of him, if Leeds want to be consistently offside he's going to get to grips with it, I love the way fans like to blame the refs for everything yet if Leeds were onside he cant penalise it, if Fox had got off straight away he wouldnt of been sent to the bin...etc maybe time to start taking responsibility instead of passing the buck?!

He can only see whats in front of him?


I think Bentham needs to turn his head in a different direction then, blatant offsides by Rovers on their try line goes unnoticed a few times by Bentham and laying on in the tackle also go a miss


poor game by Bentham

Scoreline definately flattered rovers cos of it.

Reading this thread it seems that all Rovers fans think that Fox was hard done too and FC fans think it was a correct decision.

SL is back



FWIW I think that 3 tries to 1 means Leeds deserved it overall, but I honestly think a penalty against Fox would have been sufficient and Bentham was balancing things up, subcontiously he would not have liked Leeds to lose because of a man down and that didn't help Fox.

Jakes try would have been given on another night and I bet we see many decisions given this season that are less of a try than his was (or wasn't), consistancy is still going to be a problem with the video refs.

Last night at the game I thought it was an awful decision but that goes without saying, after watching the game on the box I thought it was the correct decision. I think if Fox hadnt made the extra attempt to turn McGuire than he would have been ok.

By this do you mean the wrestling cr@p Leeds were trying all game.

Yep, the length of time he was on wasn't the problem, it was attempting to flip McGuire over long after the tackle had been completed that was. Bentham had no choice; it's an automatic sin-binning.

youve only beaten a very poor Wigan team so far, lets see how you fair against Leeds.

but Diskin did this earlier on and only gave a pen away, one of the many (persistant) that HE gave away.

but i think the ref had a pretty good game TBH, some poor decisions against both teams but other than that he did well, esp standing up to Sinfield like he did, some refs would have wilted.

Firstly, he didn't do anything anywhere near as obvious. Secondly, Diskin's infringement didn't come after a clean break and didn't prevent a try-scoring chance. That's what made Fox's an unavoidable sin-binning.

it must have been obvious cause the ref penalised him didnt he? fair point on the try scoring part thou, i also thought that Paul Cooke had tripped Maguire in the build up to Fox's sin bin but when i watched Sky this morning you couldnt tell.

Only if you're assuming both that referees don't make mistakes and that they also only see obvious things.