it was a perfectly good try infact id go has far has saying it was great awareness from riley to do what he did,he never changed his line of running just simply took off a yard of pace to make the defender after go round him which he didnt.

Atkins was in easily anyway, maybe if the defender was closer there would have been a problem.

Sometimes they just need a talking point and so try to create something out of nothing.

Definte obstruction. Slowed his run tp deliberatly get in the way of the defender.

Our game will start tp become American Football if blocking like that is allowed.

This.

Dear O dear. Think how stupid you sound. Are you seriously saying referees should look at sprinting speed as a pointer to judge obstruction?? If he had changed his line and ran in to the.player then fine but he just slowed down

It was perfectly legal, and clever play from Riley to get himself between the ball carrier and the chasing defender. Riley did exactly what he should have done in that situation.

this , we really are hated aint we

Nothing wrong with what Riley did, just intelligent play. Had he stuck an arm out or changed the angle of his run it would've been a different matter.

is the right answer.

Its no real surprise that a brain dead Goon is calling it obstruction.

Had roles been reversed, we would probably have been screaming that our equivalent of Riley was merely running in support of the ball-carrier, and it was hardly his fault that the defender was the wrong side of him?

I thought I saw some contact between the two, and at the time I was screaming obstruction like most other people - more in hope that it might influence a decision than anything else. But I don't think any contact was anything other than our man trying to get round Riley, and its hard to contend anything other than Riley was doing what he should have been and was where he should have been.

No matter how hard I might wish for a valid reason for it to be otherwise.

This.

Atkins would have scored yes, but imo Riley knew exactly what he was doing. He clearly slows down once he is in the middle of the two players and that meant Atkins scored under the posts and not in the corner.

If he was chasing as a support player then surely he would want to be on the inside of the Bradford player??

EDIT - Had he not CLEARLY slowed down then I'd have said no problem. No speedometers needed it was obvious.


Still, was a much better game than I anticipated.

Nothing wrong with it. Perfectly legitimate and fair try. If the defender wants to get to Atkins he can always go around Riley.

The speed of running doesn't come into it (no matter how much you want it to). It's all about angles of running, and Riley ran a perfectly straight line.

It looked worse than it was because the Bradford player tried to milk it and con the officials by running staight at Riley then pushing him. Surely that's not in the spirit of the game.