The Inconsistency of Inconsistency

As I write this the news has come through that Jack Rodwell has had his red card overturned.

And quite right too. Everyone can probably agree that Rodwell didn’t deserve to be sent off in the incident with Luis Saurez and that today, in a rare occurrence for the FA, common sense prevailed.

Referee Martin Atkinson, is I am sure, a decent honourable man, who gives decisions as he sees them and is recognised as one of the elite officials in the country, but it is fair to say that he didn’t have the best afternoon of his life at Goodison Park.

He sent off Rodwell for a tackle which probably wasn’t even a foul, he allowed Tony Hibbert to get away with a disgraceful lunge and caused all the pundits to talk about “inconsistency.”

It is interesting, though to note that certainly for the Rodwell challenge he was mere feet away, so yes he got it wrong, but he gave what he thought he had seen.

There were plenty of talking points too, in the Swansea v Stoke game the day after. Referee Mike Jones booked eight players in the match and one, Potters full back Andy Wilkinson, can consider himself very, very lucky to stay on the field.

Cue lots of discussion about the perceived “inconsistencies” and much conjecture about how fortunate Wilkinson was “when you consider what happened to Rodwell.”

All of which, on the face of it are reasonable statements except for this:

Inconsistencies – human error – can happen and always have happened and always will happen.

There is no reason to suppose that just because one referee sees something one way in one game that he will see the same thing in the same way the next week. So why on earth should two refs see the different incidents in different games on different days in a similar light?

Put another way, if every striker scored every chance he had then wouldn’t football be dull? And if every striker scored every chance he had, how could every goalkeeper make every save he is presented with? And how could every defender win every tackle and…..well you get the picture.

After the Merseyside derby on Saturday, David Moyes made some pretty disparaging remarks about referee Atkinson, calling it a “strange appointment” and alluding to the fact the official had some sort of vendetta against him and his club. All nonsense of course and all remarks for which he may, on an ordinary basis, have got in trouble for. This time, however, he may well escape punishment on the grounds that the FA might want to draw a line under the whole thing.

However, next time Mr Moyes or any pundit who is “driven mad by inconsistency” wants to criticise they might do well to think of this: Do they always do the same thing. In the same situation. Every time.

Thought not, its just not human nature.