We must therefore be appealing the Bednarek red card.

Good news if true. Dean in particular shouldn't be allowed to continue his personal vendetta against the club. We knew what he was going to do and before the game we were already discussing what red cards he was going to give to Saints' players and what penalties he was going to give to Man United.

In my experience, if the club gives a referee or his team a poor mark the league will send them back to officiate until such time as they get a good one. Expect to see more or Dean and Mason in the near future.

If there was any justice, both Mike Dean and Lee Mason should be fined and charged with bringing the game into disrepute.

I can't help wondering if Mike Dean hasn't got a bet on about how far he can push Hassenhuttl before Ralph's entirely admirable principle of not whining about the refereeing cracks.

The sending off of Bednarek was an utter disgrace. Martial should be ashamed of himself; it says a lot about you as a person that you are prepared to cheat in this way when your side is 6-0 up, and damage a fellow professional in the process. What a tosser. The worst thing is that Mike Dean was called over to look at it on the monitor and STILL persisted with his ridiculous penalty decision AND got his red card out.

The Adams disallowed goal was the most ridiculous VAR offside decision to date; even worse than the one on Ingsy's goal against Villa.

Was Mason the V A R referee yesterday? According to the Southampton Echo the official was Graham Scott.

Good news and hopefully this also reflects the appeal over the rd card too.

As someone mentioned yesterday which I was unaware of Dean was the VAR man who sent Bertie off and back in season 2018-19?? the same parasite was in charge of the game when we lost 3-2 to Chelsea. Not only did he miss Long being studded down his achilles 8 yards from where he was standing but he also allowed them to take a free kick from where they wanted to which lead to their wining goal. The man has a problem.

A good move by Saints. It will be interesting to see what comes of it.

I think the standard of referees at the top level needs addressing. VAR was brought in to correct poor decisions but all it has done has highlighted the issue and it goes unchecked on some occasions. Why? It’s because referees themselves manage the VAR decision so they have self interest in closing ranks.

In my experience of refs at grass roots football the vast majority are brilliant at what they do but their job is made so much harder by some past it, self interested refs at the top level which fans see on Sky or MOTD and assume all refs are the same.

https://www.hitc.com/en-gb/2019/10/28/garth-crooks-says-referee-mike-dean-instig

Pretty pointless exercise-I would imagine most/all clubs (except the big clubs who they favour) have put in this request previously yet, here we are, with those 2 buffoons still “refereeing” at the top level of our game.

if nothing comes of it at least Saints have stood up to these cretins.

I'm not sure that's a wise move. The powers that be at the Premier League will just close ranks and that will make it more difficult to get the Bednarek red card overturned which has to be out priority.

What has become clear in all of this is that whoever presides over VAR must be independent of the Premier League referees body. VAR referees are currently using VAR to rubber stamp the decisions of their mate on the pitch refereeing the game and that just wouldn't wash in any other walk of life.

WOW! FINALLY THE BOARD IS ACTUALLY GOING TO DO SOMETHING DECENT FOR ONCE! SHOCKER!!!

Thanks for that link Dirk Doone.

I, like saintmark76 saw that Mason wasn't listed as Vid Ref. Dean is the issue though. Mason is simply incompetent whereas Dean sees himself as the star of the show. I bet he has photo montages of himself raising red cards on the wall at home.

VAR needs radical reform, not tinkering round the edges. Digital technology has its uses of course but in the end human decisions are still central + human relationships/hierarchy. Is a more 'junior' ref going to overturn a Michael Oliver decision? If the ref and the video man are friends or enemies will also have an impact. Easiest thing in the world to think that your mate has got it wrong and let him off the hook - reverse for enemies.

These two offside lines across the pitch decisions (the first 'toenail' decisions we have suffered) have brought home just how stupid it is. I thought that video review meant a guy looking across the line and saying 'offside' or 'level' not loads of technological flim flam that is still subject to human error. Even goal-line technology was shown up in that Villa-Sheffield game. We are shown that nice diagram showing that the ball was 1 mm away from a goal and we all coo about how close it was rather than asking about how they generate that visual and is it accurate to a high enough level.

Finally, we musn't let the VAR questions, important as they are, distract from the question as to why last night happened. No other club is losing players like flies to muscle/hamstring etc injuries. Ralph admitted that his style was contributing to this and more or less said it was a price worth paying. We paid the price last night.

Dean has a serios issue with us, why?

I knew this would happen with that megalomaniac, all week OGS has been crying that referee decisions go against Man U and lo and behold what happens Mike Dean screws us over, royally. The bloke is an utter disgrace and I am still really angry about it now, woke up at 5.30 this morning just wanting to smack him.

To be fair he didn't intervene until we were 6-0 down. And believe me I do not want to be fair to the little ****er

This is not necessarily related to last night's debacle, bit in all honesty I've always felt that referee Dean had a grudge against us. Previous games where he booked our player after one foul whilst opposing defenders " break legs" without so much of a caution.

Regardless of his sometime dubious on-field decisions, this man's sycophantic body-language is undeniable. He loves refereeing " big teams " and getting the glad-hand from the "top managers" who he addresses by their first name, but they have all sussed him out and make the best of the relationship. He is the worst example of a "home" referee.

Fair's fair and all that, but anyone who can relate the history of this man cannot deny he shows an obvious "bias" towards certain teams - and not just Saints.
AND to referees in general - Have they abolished the rule about a booking for "diving "?. I've watched dozens of games this season and not once has anyone been cautioned.

That's a really interesting point underweststand. I don't remember them changing the rule but no one is ever booked for diving now.

The bloke needs to be sacked and the the last goal chalked off at least and adams good goal stand . A more respectible 8-1 result .

I joke ofcourse that would never happen . Not to a club like ours .

The fact that he can continue to ref games is criminal, he was desperate to give that penalty and was quick as a flash getting out the red card for the first one and the dramatic way he delt with the second red was just hilarious .

I still cannot see how adams was given as offside it wasnt even marginal , not even close ffs .

I absolutly agree that the club needs to make a point on this ,at the very least that cheat doesnt ref us again and our games are looked at more closely now .

darthvader - even Mark Lawrenson on the BBC's live text update said 'Dean couldnt wait to point to the spot.' Mark blOOdy Lawrenson.

Dean couldn't wait to point to the spot in the first half and he got that wrong too! Its all about him, he is the Jeff Winter of now

There are more than a few changes needed in the interpretation of VAR picture.
Bertrand's red card in the Leicester game was a clumsy tackle, on a very wet pitch in pouring rain and was not seen by the ref. at the time but later called back by VAR. We can see "off -the-ball " incidents/fouls in every game that go unpunished - WHY?

One of the worst examples nowadays is the " late offside flag " allowing play to continue when clearly the game should be stopped. The infamous Pickford tackle (on VvD ) could never be called "accidental " but was totally disregarded by VAR - because of a previous offside decision suggesting that anyone can commit such an offence - provided it can be shown to be offside.
The now-ridiculous offside decisions based on shirt sleeves, "diverse body parts" and, the size of a tall player's feet must be addressed properly and common sense applied.

How on earth could they let him continue refereeing after this?

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2005/feb/27/newsstory.sport4