Jonathan YeomansThe Swans were in league action over the weekend with a 0-0 draw at home to Birmingham City at the Liberty. In a 90 minutes with very little action on the pitch the main discussion for any referees eye was the halftime incident involving first team coach Alan Tate.
Jonathan Yeomans is back for this season casting his eye over some of the key incidents during Swans games and he gives this view of the incident on Saturday
There is the one & only incident. Yes, that incident! What on earth was Alan Tate doing?
However, this incident again demonstrates how hard it is to be a ref. A referee can only give what he sees. It was so quick and so many players in the way, it was literally impossible for him or his assistants to catch.
As a referee sometimes you know something has happened, but you can’t give anything. There no tv cameras not even any neutral assistants to help you.
There has been many a game at local level that I have reffed that has been drab & dour quite like the match on Saturday. These games can be the hardest to ref as you can find yourself drifting away and losing concentration. A flash incident will happen & you’ve missed it.
The incident will be dealt with retrospectively and he will have the book thrown at him. At local level had this been seen he would have an even longer ban. There is no defence for what he did.
He will know he’s done wrong & will hopefully show remorse.
Tate received no punishment at the time of the incident
