It may have been St Patrick's Day this weekend, but St Hubert, the Patron Saint of Opticians, and Our Lady of Lujan, the Patron Saint of Argentina, would have been more appropriate choices as guests of honour at our match against West Ham, where once again the match officials courted controversy and Rovers were left empty handed.
Firstly, Argentinean forward Carlos Tevez was awarded a penalty after Brett Emerton was adjudged to have brought him down. Replays showed the referees decision was wrong and that the West Ham forward had gone down faster than a pint of Guinness, with little or no contact made.
It was a shame as Rovers seemed reasonably comfortable after Man Mountain and crowd favourite Chris Samba scored his first Premiership goal for Rovers, perhaps somewhat predictably from a corner, as he towered above the defenders to put us 1-0 up.
Despite disagreeing with the ref's decision, I also believe that it won't be the first or last dubious penalty that Rovers concede or are awarded. Unfortunately that is just football, and can be accepted to a degree, but the circumstances surrounding the Hammers second goal are even more difficult to digest.
The crowd was stunned as the ball hit Carlos Tevez on the line before being cleared to safety and the referee blew his whistle and pointed to the centre spot.
Replays again showed that the referee was incorrect to award the goal, a simple matter of the ball not actually crossing the line, a fact that was blatantly obvious to everyone except the officials. The fact that Tevez was also in an offside position to allow him to prevent the goal also was ignored as Rovers went 2-1 down.
Surely now it is time for television replays, or in such circumstances maybe the Premier League should be granted the power to chalk off goals?
Handballs, offsides and dodgy penalties are one thing but in a game where Rovers scored one goal, conceded one and yet lost, leaving our UEFA qualification in the balance, surely something now has to be done?
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