On This Day (19 March 1988) Another Ref Controversy – But Marco The Subject of Smith’s Fury!

After leaving Wigan’s Springfield Park frustrated after a controversial refereeing decision had denied his team all three points – which came off the back of a controversial referring decision denying his team all three points at home to Blackpool the weekend before – Denis Smith’s regard for the footballing authorities wasn’t at its highest level. Those four denied points had left Sunderland in second place in the table, and In the week leading up to a top-of-the-table clash at Roker Park against Notts County, the Football League once again provoked Smith’s ire, with the news that Gordon Armstrong would now serve a suspension after his booking against Blackpool had taken him over the disciplinary points threshold, and fellow midfielder Steve Doyle had had his ban for a sending off at Preston a month earlier extended by a couple of games. Doyle, to be fair, had threatened to ‘stamp on the face’ of North End striker Nigel Jemson, but Smith – still fuming after a run of poor refereeing decisions had cost his team – wasn’t at all happy.

Steve Doyle has been punished enough already. He has missed two games, been fined by the club and cannot get his place back in the Sunderland first team – all for being sent off for something done in the heat of the moment. Let’s face it, he didn’t come in with a tackle that would have broken a leg and there are players getting away with that every week.

We had an example of that against Gary Owers on Saturday. He was subjected to a diving two-footed tackle that, if he hadn’t been so nimble in getting out of the way, would have broken one of his legs. The referee didn’t even take the offender’s name – yet that was far worse than Doyle’s offence.

While suspensions didn’t occur immediately in those days, and Doyle was available for selection for the game against Notts County, Smith viewed appealing the ban as pointless. We are dealing with an organisation outside normal democracy. It’s like a private club, where the members have to abide by whatever rules are made.