I suppose in Havens defence when they complain about something its never original, potentially pure fantasy or with more than just a smidgen of spin but definatly something 'different'

Standards are slipping though,
Not one one mention of a baseball bat

Will they be using Fred's DVD as part of their investigation?

Well I doubt they have one of their own otherwise they would not be making themselves look ridiculous as Leigh never had 14 players on the pitch when the game was in play.

Stokes obviously has not seen a dvd of the game.

Sounds like Ged may be a little bit bitter about the loss

Well at last saturdays u 15's u16's and reserve team games they had an official running EACH bench not just the one.

Having the correct number of officials can only help to avoid mistakes and probably removes the chance of an official being harrassed also

Those officials are appointed by the local society not the RFL. The RFL only appoint a reserve official (ie one) to first team games. They only appoint 2 to cup semi-finals, finals and play-off games. The 2nd reserve official is appointed by the local society. The Leigh society always appoints someone to Leigh's first team games and tries to appoint 2 to Leigh's reserve and scholarship games.
It is not always possible for the Cumberland society to appoint someone to Whitehaven and Workington games. Especially when they're both at home on the same weekend as they were this week.

Rob,

I think the benefits of being able to have two were pretty obvious after seeing how harrassed the fourth offiicial was getting on Sunday. I felt sorry for the poor guy!

Alan I know where you're coming from and having done the job myself in the past. Unfortunately Cumberland Society is only a small society (and most of us work shifts and weekends) and we are not always able to cover the interchange official's job. There are, unfortunately, even times when we can't cover all the local league games. And it is unrealistic to ask someone to travel what could be (certainly in my case) upto a 70-80 mile round trip to do a job that is unpaid.

i dont think the issue of 13 or 14 men on the pitch is the main issue here.

i think the 2 main issues are that

1. it appears duffy entered the field of play illegally(throwing his number on the floor instead of handing it to the 4th offical) and then provided the pass for robbies try .What the rule on this is i don't know the RFL may say he was an illegal player so the try should never have stood or they may say it was a technical error and fine the player.

2. the most contentious how can a player be red carded then allowed to be replaced by a sub again i don't know the rule but im told as the substitution was not completed correctly then it has to be reversed regardless of any cards

what ever happens i think most decent RL fans would admit if their team was on the receiving end of this shambles they would expect their club to appeal even if just to find out how it happened and what the rules are.

all this seem to have detracted from what was a very tough game in very tough conditions and both teams should be pleased with their efforts

TBH if you dont know then why throw allegations?

Stokes has made a first class pratt of himself by claiming 14 men its costing ME a lot of time and effort to refute those claims and I hope the RFL make haven pay for my time and not Leigh

On your point 1 above. There is a post somewhere on here from FredP who is our official DVD man. In it he mentions is has viewed it over and over again, now I haven't looked for it again but from what I remember he mentions the 'card to the official' incident and it suggests that Duffs went to hand it to the fourth official.

One thing that always bothers me about haven is how the team benches seem very close to the action and in a close tense game such as Sundays and previous ones coaches and subs all seem to be stood up and are close to encroaching on the field of play. It looked absolutely chaotic over on the sidelines and if there was an official short as has also been suggested elsewhere, its no surprise that mistakes are made.

I will say though, that if the match is ordered to be replayed I will not be venturing to Cumbria, and won't be again unless we can be assured that the ground safety issues (your stewards) have been dealt with.

I would also point out that Fred has never been known to post anything unless it is fact

what do you mean allegations, i dont know the law but i know what happened, for point 2 to happen then point one must be correct or why would duffy be red carded??

take your red and white specs off fred and admit if it happened against leigh you expect your club to do the same and appeal

dont think it will be ordered to replay think the most that will happen is the players gets some kind of fine etc