In the latest of our Fan Blogs, Ironmighty writes about the standard of officials seen by United in the Championship this season:

November 3, 2007, Scunthorpe United sit just outside the play-offs after a 0-0 with Crystal Palace, well on their way to the points total they need to secure Championship survival. How did it all go wrong?

Saturday February 23, Scunthorpe vs. Southampton. A draw that should never have been. A decision made in the final minutes that changed the game. A decision so ludicrous that it should have raised even the most inflexible of eyebrows. But it didn't. What was that decision and was it the first of its kind? It's fair to say that it wasn't the first time.

Let's go back to the Stoke game, the game following the Crystal Palace draw. The Iron are at home, and they dominate the game. They hold on for most of the game but seemed to fall apart in the last few moments. We were bad but not that bad. Two players at two times, in two offside positions. Two offsides missed by the linesman. Two goals for Stoke. Not to mention the blatant handball in the area that everyone in the crowd saw, the bench saw, the people in the Refreshment Kiosk saw, even the driver of the 20.10 to Doncaster saw it. But the officials missed it.

QPR at home on a miserable night in the drizzling rain. A slip on the wet surface, not a foul, prompts the ref to give a free kick in a very dangerous position. Buzsacky scores directly. It was a draw in which the Iron dominated. It should have been a 2-1 win.

Barnsley, I almost don't want to write about this one because it hurt. The ref was appalling, he seemed to favour Barnsley. We were the better side. He played seven minutes of overtime. It said five minutes on the board, five minutes he had found from somewhere; perhaps he had saved them from another game they certainly weren't from this one. Barnsley equalised in the last seconds of the seventh minute. Only then did he blow his full-time whistle. Never has a draw felt more like a loss.

It's fair to say there's a theme developing

Left-back Marcus Williams was shown a red card in United's match at West Brom, one of nine Iron dismissals so far this season.

Remember the 5-0 thrashing at The Hawthorns by West Brom. It was only one-nil (was Phillips miles offside or was it just a perfectly timed run??) when Marcus Williams was sent off for a soft challenge that at most warranted a yellow. The linesman had his say in this one, it wouldn't be the last time a linesman had a critical impact on a game. It wouldn't be the first time Scunny would be down to ten men. Usually mild-mannered Adkins was sent to the stands fuming with frustration. Every United fan in the stands felt the same. I'm not saying that we would have gone on to beat WBA who are a class outfit, but would it have been a five goal drubbing? Who knows what would have happened.

We're away at Bramall Lane against Bryan Robson's faltering Sheffield United. We're looking good. The crowd is singing. We're outplaying them. They don't look like they just came down from the Premiership. We're winning? for the first 8 minutes anyway. Then Grant McCann is sent off. This is what it looked like. The Sheffield United player comes in on McCann with a two-footed lunge, which was a foul in itself (but it is ignored). McCann tries to step over and stands on the player's leg. The Ref Rob Styles calls it stamping. McCann has an early shower. All credit to Scunthorpe we held on for eighty minutes with ten men against 11 (or 12!) for a draw. And this draw felt like a win. But it should have been an actual victory and there's no doubt it would have been if The Iron had had a full team.

And now we come back to Southampton. The Saints never looked like winning it. To be honest we weren't much better. But we had the lead. Time after time bad decisions by the officials have led bit by bit to Scunthorpe United being at the bottom of the Championship rather than sitting somewhere mid table where their spirit, hard work and performances say they should be. It has become a regular occurrence at Scunthorpe matches, so much so that with gritted teeth United fans have come to expect it. So when the linesman called the ref over to report a foul in the box that neither the ref saw or the Southampton players appealed for it was more like a here we go again rather than an I don't believe it!! Not even the Saints crowd saw it and the fans are always the first to shout up about any incident.

It's fair to say, that some decisions by the officials are not fair at all.

Everybody knows that Scunthorpe United are good enough to beat the drop. But can they beat the officials?

UP THE IRON!
Ironmighty