I agree Mrs Hicks, but he's a grown up now so I doubt he'll lose much sleep over a few boos at the end.

I agree Hicks was poor but I felt we were due a game where the 50/50 calls went in our favour. Today was our day, simple as. The Ainscough knock on was a dead cert as everyone stopped and looked at the referee. The other calls were 50/50 and we seemed to get the rub of the green in the second half.

Imagine if the popular side had a roof...

I suppose our crowd's time would be better spent shouting racial/homophobic chants instead then eh?
Grow up, the booing is all pantomime and the ref knows it.

Grow up yourself you weed.


I don't condone any of that chanting. Neither do the majority of Cas fans.

Quite the opposite I feel. As he got the boos, he lowered his head and actually had a cheeky smile on his face about it as he entered the tunnel.

Surely that's the wrong attitude for a referee to take??

I don't think so. I'm sure it was just a slight chuckle to himself as he'll get boos regardless of what he does on the pitch, as 99% of referees do.

Don't think it was a "Muahahahahahaha, I screwed them" kind of evil laugh

Anyone who has graduated to reffing at SL level is guaranteed to be totally impervious to boos. When you think of the stick they will have taken from junior level, to maybe running the line in tight grounds like Fev or Keighley, where all you get is 80 minutes of stick, there is just no way they take any notice.

Also, while I can understand the choruses of boos when perceived slights by the officials have reached a certain level, I've yet to see a ref react by putting his hand up and suddenly starting to give every decision to the booing fans' team, so other than getting it off your chest, it seems a futile excercise.

Plus, from Hicks' point of view, while he hears the boos, he's just called it as he's seen it, so why would he be bothered anyway? Especially given that booing the officials off, and sometimes on, the filed is pretty much in the job description anyway, and telling the officials how to do their job is part and parcel of every fan's matchday duty.

Certainly those enraged frothing at the mouth morons sat in front of me didn't think it was part of the pantomine. I suggest those who think the kind of vitriol our referees are subject to these days have a look at a thread of VT, where at least one up & coming ref is stopping reffing junior games due to the grief he is getting off the touch line. It's not just RL, I was walking the dogs round a football pitch before yesterday's game, the crowd were shrieking at the players & ref. I had to stop in disbelief when the coach (as usual wearing a track suit with his socks rolled down on the outside, patrolling 1m onto the field) was imploring his side to 'compress the midfield'. Fortunately the 9 year olds ignored him. Further on to where Ilkley yawnion youngsters were playing in front of manic deranged parents baying for blood. I once saw a parent run on to a yawnion pitch & scream in his son's face 'Get up! Get up! you soft git' to his poor injured young lad. I would love to ref but there is no way I would endure that sort of crap until I reached the level where I was physically separated from the plebs.

I did used to referee both junior and adult football, but the amount of greif you receive for giving up a sunday morning or saturday afternoon hardly seemed worth the £10 you were paid. The funny thing about refereeing is the "feedback" that every team has to give. The winning side always thought you were the man who should be refereeing the world cup final, yet the losing side wanted you "put down" there and then...

Oh the memories

I suggested a campaign a couple of years ago to cheer the referee when he came out of the tunnel and when his name was announced, then constantly shout words of encouragement and praise to him, even go as far as chanting his name from the terraces. In an effort to boost his ego and swing the decisions our way.

Nobody seemed interested