I did not think he reffed too badly at all, generally consistent. Yes he allowed saints to hold down but he also allowed cas the same luxury.

Powell could have reffed the game himself and not affected the outcome.

according to the stats cas got more penalties ?

Child was truly awful. He gave Saints everything & killed Cas early in the game. I'm a fan of neither side & actually took Saints at 6/1 to win the GF.

I'm glad they are just 80 minutes away from being able to try & erase that run of bridesmaid appearances, but I completely agree with Powell on this.

He does also say Saints were too good for Cas & that his side need to be far better.

Up until Friday Saints were yet to win a game with Child this year after 4 attempts... So our win percentage under him was 0%

That must have been a proper pulling off!!

must read posts back before posting!

Beat me to it

Every club's fans think Child is against them because he can produce horrendous performances time and again so there is a good well to drink from if you want to bring up some perceived historical slight.

Unlike certain referees, I don't think he is biased; he just isn't very good.

Very surprised at how Powell has criticised the ref. I think his game management was good.

I can't think of many decisions that were questionable too. The only two I can think of is where Thompson lost the ball but he called a strip (understandable given how the ball came out) and the forward pass that never was (but not sure who made that call).

Can you attribute blame to a ref in a 41-0 defeat, yes I think you can, I remember Ganson reffing us v Hudds inna playoff game, he reffed in such a way it played to our strengths and eliminated all Hudds strengths.

So yes I think you can blame a ref for a one sided loss.

Question though, do I think Cas lost due to the ref? No, all their own fault.

I would be interested to hear from Powell what actual incidents he thought went badly against them. On first viewing I thought a few decisions went against them when I was watching in real time but when the replays were shown the officials got it spot on.

I think both sides had one bad decision go against them first half but bar that there wasn't that much to groan about referee wise imo.

Maybe I've got my Cas blinkers on but rightly or wrongly Powell has complained about the referee after just two of our nine league/playoff defeats this season - Salford away back in April, and St Helens on Friday night. James Child was the ref for both. Which is hardly blaming the referee after 'every defeat.' I have yet to see Fridays game so can't comment on his performance.

The referees for our 28 league/playoff games have been:

Child 7
Thaler 6
Roby 4
Silverwood 4
Bentham 3
Hicks 2
Stokes 1
Cobb 1

But what incidents is he actually complaining about? What was so horrendous? Nobody seems keen to elaborate.