Jump to content

Stephen Finnie - Worst Referee In Scotland?


Recommended Posts

Certainly put in the worst refereeing performance I've seen at Cowden. Not even in a bias way, he was shit for both teams.

Poor refing is a regular occurrence at this level. One of my favorites of last season was a player tripping himself up and getting the "foul" with the nearest opponent about 5 yards away.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 80
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Poor refing is a regular occurrence at this level. One of my favorites of last season was a player tripping himself up and getting the "foul" with the nearest opponent about 5 yards away.

 

Kevin Harper once got called offside...while running with the ball.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

It's a damning sign when you remember a ref many games later, and despite seeing many other refereeing performances since, and Stephen Finnie is certainly memorable.

I was at the Cowdenbeath - Dunfermline game and it truly was embarrassing. Clearly, you're not going to like decisions that go against your side, but what had fans on both sides angry at first (later just laughing in disbelief) was not bias, but general incompetence...

- It's rare to see a ref get in the way of play, but he managed to get hit by the ball twice in this one match

- He got so wound up by criticism from the bench after one decision that not only did he send the complaining manager to the stand, but he then forgot what the stoppage had been: The Cowden players told him it was a goal kick, the Dunfermline players told him it was a throw. He clearly had no idea and his arrogance didn't allow him to listen to either set of players. No help from the linesman either.

- Following a tackle that a Cowden player thought was a foul, Dunfermline won the ball, switched play to the other wing and we're making a strong attack on goal, and Finnie eventually blew the whistle and brought the play back to the site of the tackle, awarding a free kick to Dunfermline for the Cowden player's dissent.

- As mentioned elsewhere, he did the admittedly common refereeing practice of realising too late that he'd made bad decisions and attempted to make up for them with his next one. That way, every decisions becomes a kind of averaging of all recent transgressions on both sides, and consistency goes out of the window.

His arrogance has been mentioned many times, and he uses it because he has no charm or ability to win players' confidence. Apparently, all the training refs get is about the rules, and it's possible to referee games at a reasonable level without ever having had any face to face coaching on the people skills that can make all the difference.

Some refs should simply find another hobby, where you having a bad day doesn't impact other people.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It's a damning sign when you remember a ref many games later, and despite seeing many other refereeing performances since, and Stephen Finnie is certainly memorable.

I was at the Cowdenbeath - Dunfermline game and it truly was embarrassing. Clearly, you're not going to like decisions that go against your side, but what had fans on both sides angry at first (later just laughing in disbelief) was not bias, but general incompetence...

- It's rare to see a ref get in the way of play, but he managed to get hit by the ball twice in this one match

- He got so wound up by criticism from the bench after one decision that not only did he send the complaining manager to the stand, but he then forgot what the stoppage had been: The Cowden players told him it was a goal kick, the Dunfermline players told him it was a throw. He clearly had no idea and his arrogance didn't allow him to listen to either set of players. No help from the linesman either.

- Following a tackle that a Cowden player thought was a foul, Dunfermline won the ball, switched play to the other wing and we're making a strong attack on goal, and Finnie eventually blew the whistle and brought the play back to the site of the tackle, awarding a free kick to Dunfermline for the Cowden player's dissent.

- As mentioned elsewhere, he did the admittedly common refereeing practice of realising too late that he'd made bad decisions and attempted to make up for them with his next one. That way, every decisions becomes a kind of averaging of all recent transgressions on both sides, and consistency goes out of the window.

His arrogance has been mentioned many times, and he uses it because he has no charm or ability to win players' confidence. Apparently, all the training refs get is about the rules, and it's possible to referee games at a reasonable level without ever having had any face to face coaching on the people skills that can make all the difference.

Some refs should simply find another hobby, where you having a bad day doesn't impact other people.

Really had a good laugh on Saturday when  a (very loud) Cowden fan shouted at the ref  "Munro, you'r worse than Finnie " He wasn't quite that bad but clearly exasperated both sets of supporters and players on both sides with a good number of  bad decisions and inconsistencies. Performance 3/10

Link to comment
Share on other sites

We had him on Saturday, thankfully Forfar were the only team it really mattered to so was fairly low key. Finnie still managed his usual annoying performance with his handling of it. Had to laugh late on in the game we had a player trying to block a clearance from a Forfar player, he slid in but was at least 3 yards away from the defender but Finnie still managed to see something amiss.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Aye, Finnie wasn't great on Saturday. He wouldn't just let the game flow, not a bad tackle in the game. The stand side linesman was poor though.

The enclosure side linesman failed to see the Peterhead goalie throwing a near full water bottle at an old man on the terrace.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Colin Hardie.

 

I'm convinced he was just playing it for laughs most of the time.

 

Queens Park were playing at Somerset in about 2006 IIRC. Long ball gets played through aimlessly from Ayr (shock) and QP keeper gathers it easily. Ayr players funnel back to the halfway line, keeper throws it right to the fullback who's on the touchline who tries to trap it, fails and the ball skites out for a throw. Lino raises flag, Ayr players move up to take the throw. Hardie whistles and awards the throw - to QP.  :lol:  

 

Just one example of the worst ref I've ever seen. Or maybe not, maybe he was just taking the piss. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Colin Hardie.

 

I'm convinced he was just playing it for laughs most of the time.

 

Queens Park were playing at Somerset in about 2006 IIRC. Long ball gets played through aimlessly from Ayr (shock) and QP keeper gathers it easily. Ayr players funnel back to the halfway line, keeper throws it right to the fullback who's on the touchline who tries to trap it, fails and the ball skites out for a throw. Lino raises flag, Ayr players move up to take the throw. Hardie whistles and awards the throw - to QP.  :lol:  

 

Just one example of the worst ref I've ever seen. Or maybe not, maybe he was just taking the piss. 

 

Hardie and Cassidy were both around at the same time and were both abysmal. If Hardie was refereeing your game you were guaranteed that it would descend into a string of inexplicable yellow cards in the second half. Another of the wee red-faced self-important despot brigade.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

And it was Stephen Finnie who booked Hibs keeper Mark Oxley for time-wasting when in fact he'd lost a contact lens. He misses the semi final as a result. Apparently Finnie was the only person in the ground who didn't understand Oxley pointing to his eye by way of explanation.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...