Mark Cooper, David Ellary and Eddie Wolstenholme are three names that the Alex will be glad to leave behind if our promotion bid is successful this season. All three have left Crewe fans with a bitter taste in the mouth after their disgraceful performances.
Firstly, on November 2nd away at Wigan, Cooper sent Alex rookie Richard Walker off in the early stages of the game for nothing less than a minor scuffle, which he described as 'violent conduct', and gave a penalty in the Latics' favour. Throughout the rest of the match Cooper gave every little decision to Wigan, and infuriated the travelling Alex fans for months afterwards. Luckily 'The Doorman' had his suspension overturned when Dario Gradi appealed against the decision. Wigan went on to win the game 2-0.
The Alex welcomed promotion rivals Oldham Athletic to Gresty Road on December 29th, in what promised to be an explosive contest of flair and imagination. Steve Foster overhauled fiery Oldham forward Wayne Andrews with the score at 1-1 in the second half, but was luckily given a second chance when Ellary pulled out a yellow card. Later on in the game, Andrews forced Foster into a sliding tackle in the bottom corner of the pitch, which the academy graduate timed pretty well. The linesman, only two yards away gave an Oldham throw, but Ellary overturned his assistant, despite being 50 yards away, and Foz was off.
Lastly, Eddie Wolstenholme's wayward performance on Tuesday was the icing on the cake in terms of shocking, unbelievable and arrogant refereeing. Right from kick-off when Efetobar Sodje recklessly clattered Lee McCulloch, his ineptness was evident for all to see. He booked Sodje, when the majority of referees would have dismissed the clumsy Nigerian for his high-footed attempt at playing the ball. The sending off of Sodje was scandalous. He merely went up for a header from Kenny Lunt's floated corner. The clash of heads is a regular occurence in football. Were the players involved in the infamous Terry Butcher or Paul Ince incidents even talked to by the ref after their bloody episodes when on international duty? No. It was nothing more than that.
The thing that infuriated the Alex fans the most was Wolstenholme turning a blind eye to the horrific treatment of Steve Jones, who was targeted by two or three scything, pre-meditated attempts at ending his season. The Tony Dinning horror tackle was the one that has had us all talking about. He got away with a caution. Firstly, it was two footed, secondly, it was from behind and lastly, the referee was only a few yards away. Wolstenholme's inexcusable comments (which I do not care to repeat) were a total disgrace. Luckily, Jonah has suffered no broken bones.
The authorities have to sort these fools out. This is not sour grapes either. I for one thought that the referee on News Years Day against Mansfield was in our favour from the off, but when you win, you don't really notice it do you?
We have all seen the likes of Pierluigi Collina and Kim Milton Nielsen taking no rubbish from superstars such as Beckham and Batistuta over the years. I for one think that these top quality refs should be brought over here to sort out the mess that the British refs leave every other game. The foreigners have the bottle to do what they believe is right, whereas the likes of Ellary and Wolstenholme (who were once Premiership referees) just seem to listen to the crowd or the manager in the technical area. I understand that these refereeing superstars would not feature in the Nationwide league, but with the threat of superior foreigners coming over to replace them, maybe these so called Premiership standard referees will realise the crap job they are doing and pull themselves together. At the end of the day, the Nationwide League is looked down on though, so I am afraid that the only solution is a major overhaul and investigation into lower league officials, or just getting on with the job, trying to ignore these fools. Sadly, the latter seems the more realistic.
The three aforementioned idiots who have been in charge of Alex ties this season were totally incompetent and did not have the ability to control a football match within the laws of the game. They were plain and simply awful. It is not on.
I've just realised how long this is, so I'll leave this simple message - Sort these chimps out, they are ruining our game.