Atkinson and Shawcross both a disgrace

[QPRDave]

How we never had a penalty at every corner beggars belief as he was literally cuddling Caulker at every set piece with no intention of challenging for the ball. Right in the eye sight of the ref who was not interested

The ref instead each corner wanders up to Shawcross and has a talk!!! Whats that about?? If you feel the need to talk with him each corner before its taken he is clearly doing something wrong so blow the f ucking whistle and give the pen then he will stop doing it

Then Shawcross flies in from behind and goes through and takes out Niko. As far as I was aware a tackle from behind especially with that force is a red

We keep hearing Stoke fans saying why does Shawcross not get a sniff at an England call up well we saw today why nasty, cheating and vindictive player

Didn't see the tackle west, but as far as i'm aware a tackle from behind, especially reckless/out of control is straight red

[Tarbie]

To be fair, Fabio Cannavaro and Alessandro Nesta defended that way for their whole careers and they are widely regarded as one of the best central defensive partnerships of recent years!

[Stanley]

Stan....if, as in hypothetically. I know they don't do it. But my point still stands, wouldn't it be regarded as good defending IF they did a Shawcross. Pretty sure no one would complain, and even condone it if the boot was on the other foot. Just trying to see it from both sides.

As you say TW, its hypothetical and therefore moot IMO.

But to follow the argument, IF they did it then I would not regard it as good defending at all. It's basically fouling your opponent and is a blight on our game. The sooner it's clamped down on the better and the only way thats going to happen is by the FA showing leadership and giving refs the backing to start awarding penalties.

If it happened outside the box they'd award free-kicks all day long, which tells you all you need to know.

[gator]

Even the broadcast team were calling for a penalty a couple of times on corners and we all know they hate us!

[West Acton]

Stan....if, as in hypothetically. I know they don't do it. But my point still stands, wouldn't it be regarded as good defending IF they did a Shawcross. Pretty sure no one would complain, and even condone it if the boot was on the other foot. Just trying to see it from both sides.

No it would not be regarded as good defending what a silly thing to even suggest its stupid and dangerous defending. If the ref does what he should have done and given a penalty everytime would you be saying the same thing??? Your only saying that as the ref never gave the correct decision and bottled it

They were pens plain and simple not examples of good defending

[CroydonCaptainJack]

Would love to have a player like Shawcross playing for us. We need players with cahoonas, we have too many wet lettuces.

I'd rather not have a thug like that playing for us but I take your point.

[Nick]

Even the broadcast team were calling for a penalty a couple of times on corners and we all know they hate us!

Yeah Michael Owen on BT sport called for penalties a few times.... be interesting to see what our 2 biggest fans think on MOTD (Shearer and Lineker)

[Del]

...my point again applies to this.....would it have been bad refereeing had it been the other way round? No.

Yes it would've been bad refereeing, obviously. If in our favour and we didn't care, I wouldn't change the fact. Crouch had both hands on Rio's shoulders with arms at full length when he headed it down. It was as blatant a foul as you could ever see in such a situation and yet the ref did nothing.

As for letting Shawcross get away with his antics every corner it was a joke. Ref was woeful.

[bakes8]

Shawcross is dross, can't believe he played for England, tho if I remember he embarrassed himself that day.

Crouch clearly climbing all over Rio, defo a foul and given 99% of the time.

[Jimmy Floyd Rabbit]

Would love to have a player like Shawcross playing for us. We need players with cahoonas, we have too many wet lettuces.

What's cahoonas?

[W12_Ranger]

Christ did no one see Rangers legend Alan McDonald defend? He'd have eaten Shawcross for dinner.

[twranger]

No it would not be regarded as good defending what a silly thing to even suggest its stupid and dangerous defending. If the ref does what he should have done and given a penalty everytime would you be saying the same thing??? Your only saying that as the ref never gave the correct decision and bottled it

They were pens plain and simple not examples of good defending

..the bottom line is if we did what Shawcross did today, no one would be going on about it at all and slagging off our players for doing it. Fact. You can't argue against that surely?

[Jogo]

What's cahoonas?

Balls

[West Acton]

..the bottom line is if we did what Shawcross did today, no one would be going on about it at all and slagging off our players for doing it. Fact. You can't argue against that surely?

Your talking nonesense and arguing for the sake of it. They were clear fouls and pens end of nothing to do with us getting away with it. Yiu said its good defending when it's clearly not good defending as your risking a pen

And your wrong we would moan and did when it was our player doing it. Do you not remember everyone saying Mbia was a walking penalty when done what shawcross did or you choosing to forget or ignore that

[Kevin Mcleod]

For the record tw, if a r's player did that i would still admit it was a foul on caulker but would be over the moon he got away with it. Would also say it was foul for the goal if it was one of our men. But Rio has played about fifty million games and won every single trophy in the game but he doesnt moan or plead for the foul???? Wtf?