BOURNEMOUTH’S DAN GOSLING has called for referee Jon Moss to apologise for alleged comments made to Cherries players during the club’s 2-1 Premier League loss to Sheffield United at Bramall Lane on Sunday.
The former Everton and Newcastle United man labelled the official ‘a disgrace’, claiming that Moss had mocked him and his team-mates during the encounter with jibes regarding their current struggles near the foot of the table.
Eddie Howe’s outfit took the lead against the Blades after Callum Wilson fired the visitors ahead, but lost their advantage just before half-time when local boy Billy Sharp restored parity with his second top-flight strike of the season.
Then, with six minutes left to play in the second period, John Lundstram struck from close range to leave Bournemouth in 16th place in the English top tier, two points outside the relegation zone having played one game more than the majority of their fellow strugglers.
The result alone would have stung after going into the match with two wins on the trot, but a furious Gosling felt that referee Moss contributed to the final outcome with poor officiating coupled with ‘sarky comments’ aimed at the midfielder and his team-mates.
“The referee didn’t help,” the 30-year-old told the Daily Echo. “Giving soft fouls away and little comments to two or three of the lads didn’t help as well, really. I thought it was very disrespectful what he was saying.
“It was just the little niggly ones and then the little sarky comments. The officials talk about respect at the start of the season and there was no respect from John Moss on Sunday. I thought he was a disgrace.
“The comments that he made, especially to me and other players – talking about the relegation zone and ‘you’re still in the relegation zone, you’re having one, your team’s having one’ – this and that. It was very, very disrespectful.”
Asked to clarify whether Moss’ alleged comments were made with the match ongoing, Gosling added: “During the game, yeah. I think he should really come out and apologise because I thought he was a disgrace.”
Bournemouth will get a chance to return to winning ways after the winter break when they travel to Burnley on 22 February.
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Sounds worrying
@geraldo: he has a point about thr penalty count. When your winning handy enough there’s no excuse to give away penalties.
Hard to stay disciplined and motivated if you are winning by 50pts. The big problem is the overlap with international windows. It effectively means each club has to have two teams. If there were fewer games it would be more competitive. A pool or conference system is the only way to go without asking unions to reduce the number of teams they have.
@Rudiger McMonihan: few clubs lose a whole team to the international windows. Maybe one in each country would lose 15. I think a 2 division league might work but as soon as the SA teams come in it would be them and the 3 Irish sides. So maybe not.
@Chris Mc: I think this year you need to include all four provinces. If Connacht had played all their games they would be second in conference B.
@Chris Mc: no union will ever have relagation, would the FIR, WRU or IRFU risk one or more of their professional teams being 2nd division teams? Glasgow, Edinburgh, Zebre, Benetton lose as many players as Leinster to international call ups and have nowhere near the same resources. Its little surprise Leinster are walking it against those teams.
@Rudiger McMonihan: think we touched on this before, clubs need the 10/11 home games. The proposed new rugby calendar if it gets agreed will sort it out. With no overlap durning internationals. It has a 29/30 week club season, but I think it would be the end of the HCup. As the French Top 14 takes 29 weeks and if given the choice between changing their league system or leaving the HCup the French would leave the HCup. The Pro 16 and English Prem would have maybe 5 weeks that they could fit a new European rugby cup in (Current HCup, takes 9 weeks), but no way can the French fit in a 29 round league and 9 round HCup in 30 weeks, and if there are no French is it really worth it?
@Kingshu: yeah I said they need to reduce the number of club games. Pre-covid Super rugby teams played far fewer games (16 + 3 knock outs). The best players go on to play internationals after (14 in a normal year). Then the rest play in the mitre cup (10 + 2 KO’s). So everyone gets game time, the calendar is more coherent and the games are more competitive. The way our calendar is set up is ridiculous. There is so much overlap between pro14, Heineken cup and internationals. We bounce between the 3 all year too. Teams dont get enough time together to build momentum and their position on the table is often down to how well their 3rd or 4th choice player is.
@Rudiger McMonihan: The New global calendar proposal
Is
Autumn internationals: October-November
Club and European games: December-July with a 7 week break for
Six Nations: April-May and same time the Rugby Championship: April-May. Players get a break from end of July to start of Oct.
Thats a 30 week club season with 7 week break with no games played durning 6 nations/rugbt championship. I just can’t see the Top 14 fitting their league and Hcup into that window.
@Con Cussed: have they not lost 2 games so far. They are a bit off the top 3 to be fair.
@Kingshu: I am with you on this. The system that has been cobbled together over the years has suited the Irish set-up more than anyone else; its deficiencies are increasingly obvious but it is hard to see that there will be changes that will be beneficial in the round.
The underlying problem is that there are only 2 countries – England and France – with the resources to support a domestic professional ‘club’ set-up. The rest have to rely on subsidies from the mens’ senior international game and an artificial cobbled-together league combining the remaining countries.
For us the real focus of the ‘club’ game is the Heineken Cup, but this can only really exist if the English and French clubs want it to, and only a minority of them are really committed