FA Cup - Clevedon Town 1 Parkway 0

[Ian Pethick]

Clevedon Town 1 (Ross McNab ) Parkway 0 ( HT 1-0)

Parkway's FA Cup dreams and their 100% record for the season may have ended today , but they can come away from the Hand Stadium with their heads held high after a narrow defeat against opponents 2 levels higher in the pyramid .

It was an even first half in which Parkway played the better football , but also one where a big and physical Clevedon side looked a constant danger from set pieces and crossed balls . Indeed, Parkway could certainly feel slightly hard done by when they went in a goal down after Ross McNab'scross-cum shot found the back of the net via Ben Elphick towards the end of the first half . Parkway started the second half on the front foot , and a got a good spell of pressure going in which the impressive midfield trio of Steve Colwell ,Dan Hart and Danny Lewis controlled the game . Unfortunately , Parkway didn't manage to trouble the home keeper at all during this period ,with one glorious opportunity in particular going begging when Levi Landricombe screwed his right foot effort wide when through on the keeper .

If I am honest , I cannot say that Parkway got enough efforts on goal to merit a replay , but equally , Clevedon didn't threaten Elphick's goal either in the second half .

On a separate note , I am not one to criticise referees , but today's official was poor . He seemed very hot on the minor issues, and seemed to relish long blasts on his whistle for minor offences, but took no action with regards to a stamp on Marc Bonney , a head butt on Steve Colwell and a 2 handed shove on Levi Landricombe in the penalty area .

[THE BALD ONE]

Thoroughly agree Way of the park. I was gutted by the result and still think we should have had at least a replay. But we would have had to put the ball in the net for that. I thought the back 3 were excellent yesterday ( ok Gav - you have won me over bud - a good positive Captains performance ).

Danny Lewis , Hart and Colwell ran the game and we slightly lost our way when Hart was substituted early in the second half ( this kid is one for the future - he haunted the youth team I used to run and I can see him causing the same problems for senior teams for many years to come ).

My man of the match was Danny Lewis.

Great away support yesterday and on another day Levi Landricombe would have bagged a double.

Unfortunately that's how it goes and next stop Launceston in the league.

Great effort lads , it was a good game to watch.

[Guest Monty]

If you are not one to criticise referees then don't.

[THE BALD ONE]

Monty , I agree with Way of the Park ( once again ). The ref failed to make at least 2 important decisions correctly.

I accept that referees will either miss something or read a situation in a different way, but the blatant penalty claim and the headbutt was right in front of this ref. I think he bottled it.

There were plenty of possitives to take from the match.

Move on to the next game......

[Ian Pethick]

If you are not one to criticise referees then don't.

Good morning Monty ,

I am not in the referee haters camp , I appreciate that it is an incredibly tough and thankless task ,I do believe that some of the players and managers who constantly harangue match officials need to examine their own mistake littered performances before they criticise . It is though a measure of how poor this group of officials were that I feel moved to post something . At the end of the day though , I know it was not the officials that lost us the game , they were not the one's that misjudged the cross for the goal or missed efforts when they were through on the keeper .

[Guest Monty]

The Bald One / Way of the Park,

Thanks very much for your response, The referees world is tough and its getting tougher. My pet hate is the fact that it is aired in public on websites like this, if supporters think that the referee as missed a few critical decisions the chances are the referee will be beating himself up knowing that he has missed a few critical incidents. What im trying to say is that the views of the referee do not have to be incorporated into a match report whether he/she has had a good game or not. We do take on board negatives and constructive criticism to try and improve our game, but with every game being different the chances of pleasing everyone is very low. Its really important for us to keep that competitive world within the referee circle because standards will no doubt increase. Have a good season

[THE BALD ONE]

Monty , a headbutt is a headbutt.

[Guest Monty]

Im not or never said i was disputing that, as you where there and i wasnt. What im trying to erase is it really nesserceray to publish within the match report that the match officials where poor.

[THE BALD ONE]

Sorry Monty , I can not see any harm with it.

[Ian Pethick]

Im not or never said i was disputing that, as you where there and i wasnt. What im trying to erase is it really nesserceray to publish within the match report that the match officials where poor.

Evening Monty ,

It was an opinion of what I saw during the game . Yes , it was tainted by my obvious leaning towards Parkway , but I have no axe to grind with any officials and consider myself to be at the opposite end of the spectrum from the usual droll form of referee abuse . I do though believe that it was a sub-standard display from a set of officials that are presumably of a higher level in the referees rankings than we usually see in the Peninsula League . He was in clear view of all the offences listed previously , but chose not to act . Just by way of balance , he/his assistant also missed a glaring handball by Danny Lewis (Parkway) in a decent position for Clevedon.

[Guest Monty]

I personally dont like reading things negative about officials, so im just going to leave it there.

[BIG AL]

Referees never make mistakes ah ah!

[Guest Monty]

We do, that never was the conversation. There where no referee basher on here until big Al butted in.