The bad decisions look even worse on the DVD, I don't like to criticise refs but Laugton had a bad 'un AGAIN!!

Don't ever remember over the last few years a game involving us that Mr. Laughton has reffed and come out with any credibility.

That makes it worse

It could of just been that we all had our cherry and white glasses on but if the DVD proves so as well, then it was an atrocious performance from Laughton. I hope it's long time before he is the official of one of our games.

The worrying thing for Leigh, is that it is more than certain officials that seem to give them very little. From what I can gather, it is the vast majority of them. If it was just one ref and he had had a bad day, well that would be different, but apparently it is not. It is the fact that Leigh are consistently losing penalty counts, having tries ruled out and men dismissed which smacks of something more sinister . I know a lot of fans do not like to criticise referees and believe it or not, I do not like to criticise refs or players particularly myself. However, I do find the situation regarding Leigh and this so called lack of discipline absolutely fascinating.
I am not claiming that sometimes players do not make mistakes that contribute to their own downfall. Of course they do. However, refereeing performances, imo should be looked at exclusively of this. There is little doubt in my mind that is very unlikely that every ref who refs Leigh just has a bad day. Think how improbable that would be. There seems to be more to it than that. None of the other teams in this league that I have watched this season are being treated in the same manner. I find it hard to explain, but when I am watching them, you just do not get the impression that the ref has as much of an agenda. However, having said all this, I really hope I am wrong because I wouldn't like to think that this was happening in such a good sport as rugby league.

There has been a pattern since SL, as a new team we were battered on counts, not that it would have made much difference. A certain RFL top dog was then shocked we wanted to get back in SL, I cant recall too many refs in our favour since. The one ref I always welcome at Leigh is Ganson, he never seems to tow the party line at HQ and is always fairly straight with us. Cummins as a ref killed us every time, coincidence??

I hate to see this bias in sport. Does anybody know if the Leigh club has done anything to try to counter this apparent unfair treatment? Do they complain to the RFL etc? I think the fans really need to get behind your team more than ever. To have won three out of four fixtures so far this season, when they seem to be so harshly treated, does seem to be a very good achievement.

In fact as I ponder yesterday I have come to the conclusion that Mr Laughton ' won ' the game for us

By the totally biased display he galvanised the fans and the players to the point were a momentum built up

We all saw Dave McConnell asking what they hell was going on and then Mr Laughtons blatant reaction to the forward call from the Widnes fans

This resulted in our calling of all Widnes's passes for the rest of the game , this lifted the players as they could see that we knew they were being cheated

Their reaction was for all to see

Thank you mr Laughton

An interesting comment from NK on the radio last evening, and I don't know if it was a slip of the tongue, was that 'the referees are/seem pre-conditioned' but after the Doncaster game I think he said he apologised to Mr Laughton for our indiscipline

Ive just watched the match again on DVD and the ref was a disgrace
People like him should be fired off and demoted ASAP
The players from both sides put there bodys on the line yesterday for our entertainment we the fans pay good money to watch this great game and
people like Laughton are cheating the players and paying public .
There was no need whatsoever for the majority of penaltys he gave
he totally killed off the game as a spectacle and cheated the fans of WIDNES & LEIGH from watching two evenly balanced teams from entertaining the paying public..
RL is a joke these days the clowns who run the game cant see past the
SL Clubs they think its the only thing that matters the game is going downhill rapidly in this country and having idiots like Laughton refereein
just about sums it up hes no idea how to ref a game he doesnt understand its ENTERTAINMENT AND PEOPLE ARE PAYING HARD EARNED CASH TO WATCH PLAYERS TRY TO PLAY R.L NOT PAY HARD EARNED MONEY TO WATCH SOME CLOWN CONSTANTLY BLOWIN A WHISTLE FOR IMAGINARY OFFENCES..FIRE HIM OFF AND LETS GET BACK TO ENTERTAINING THE PUBLIC JUST LIKE THEY DO IN AUSTRALIA !!!

I tend to steer away from looking totally at whether a penalty was warranted or not. That may sound strange, but as I have stated before, a referee in union or league could give a penalty and stop the game more or less constantly and it would be difficult to argue against it. If he goes on the field with that mindset, he could blow his whistle virtually every minute of the match. Of course, as spectators, we do not want to see that. IMO, a ref should ref in the spirit of the game and not to the letter. The fact still remains, that both at home and away over a good number of years, Leigh have suffered very badly at the hands of referees. It has gone on for so long, that I have become fascinated by it and have started to explain my objective observations on here and gauge the reactions of Leigh supporters. Of course, you will no doubt be able to cite examples of Leigh winning a penalty count at Leigh , but I can assure you the times when they lose it is far far more common. Coupled with this, you seem to have a huge number of tries disallowed etc. I have read that Mr.Hewer is taking control of the match tomorrow. Wouldn't it be lovely if he stayed largely out of the game, as I have read several Wakefield fans said he did when you played them. As one of your supporters kindly informed me, it was a 5 4 penalty count in that game against you, even though Leigh were away from home. I am not lying when I say that I really suspected it would be evenish, because Hewer, like myself, knew more or less that Leigh had no chance of winning that fixture. I hope I am wrong, but I strongly believe that Mr.Hewer will be rather more heavily involved in the action tomorrow. Having said all that, from my observations, Barrow are also not a favoured team. It will be interesting to see the penalty count yet again. I bet it will be nowhere near as low as the Wakey one, but I really do hope I am wrong. Finally, another interesting observation IMO, is that on the RFL website, I think it states that the ref is Mr.Hewer and the MC is Mr.S.Nicholson. Both, I believe, are Cumbrians. Should be intriguing!