City + Mike Dean 2 – 1 United

At the risk of sounding awfully Scouse, the referees are looking like they’re increasingly against us this season, ever since Sir Alex Ferguson criticized Alan Wiley and the referees union declared war on Sir Alex.

Now I’m not into conspiracy theories. I’ve always been of the opinion that bad decisions happen to every team sporadically throughout the season. And while decisions don’t ever even themselves out like the old wives tale suggests , they do seem to happen to most teams every now and again.

This season has been something different though. Since Fergie had a go at Wiley I can remember very few decisions that have gone in our favour, and many that have gone against us, not least two key decisions tonight.

The first one was the non-existent penalty that was given, and the second was the corner that City scored their second from.

Rafael was naively caught out of position by a good Tevez pass and a good Bellamy run in behind him. Rafael, as he tends to do when caught out of position, had his hands all over Bellamy as he fought to get back into position.

He fouled Bellamy well outside the box and the referee gave nothing. He then fouled Bellamy again still outside the box, but the referee Mike Dean immediately gave a penalty without a moments hesitation, with that usual smug look on his face as if he knows his decision is wrong but he doesn’t care anyway.

Dean justified the penalty by insisting it was for the second foul. This brings up two issues:

If you don’t give the first foul you can’t give the second for the exact same thing. If anything, you allow an advantage to be played and if there is no advantage to be had, you pull it back for the initial foul.

The first foul was well outside the box and the second foul, while being closer to the box, was still outside of it. If this is the foul that Dean has given a penalty for then he has to come out and admit that he’s got the decision wrong.

The second one is more debatable. Should it have been a corner? Personally I think not, but I’d like to see a few more replays before I give my definite opinion.

It wasn’t just those two though. Carlos Tevez went in late with his studs raised and raked them across Wes Brown’s knee. it’s a yellow card offence minimum, but Dean didn’t think so. Further into the game Bellamy went in two footed and late on Valencia. It could have been a yellow card in itself, but to trip a United player 20 seconds later and still not get booked was quite frankly ridiculous.

It’s becoming all too familiar though. Big decisions are going in our opponents favour more often than not and it’s becoming slightly obvious now.

I’m sure City fans won’t care that they should have lost tonight’s game and that Mike Dean has gifted them one foot into their first final since 1981. And I’m sure a lot of them will come on here and call me a sore loser. I’m sure the more deluded ones all of them will all also tell me that it was a definite penalty and they were the better team.

The team going away from the council house tonight aggrieved at the result is obviously us. We dominated the majority of the game and could have won comfortably. At the very least we should have been heading back to Old Trafford with a 1-0 lead and with a proper referee in the second leg we just might be able to put this outrageous result right.

And with a little bit of honesty from the FA, Mike Dean will be refereeing in the Championship next week as punishment for his disgraceful performance tonight.

Some other posts you may be interested in:

1. Report: Manchester City 2 – 1 Manchester United
2. Becks: City will never be as big as United
3. Once, twice, three times losers: City 0 – 1 United