I do think there is a tendency to blame referees for things that really weren't their fault, and to lambast them for mistakes much easier to spot from the stands than the pitch. And with such a lot down to personal interpretation, every referee will always make calls many/most disagree with, possibly correctly, possibly not.
That said, D'Urso is genuinely terrible. His tendency to be one of the biggest talking points after any given game he referees is not a sign of competence frankly. You get refs who get it wrong now and again, that's human nature. D'Urso seems to be that rare breed who gets it right once in a while... but not that often. He's got Milwall and Charlton both agreeing he's awful. That's not coincidence.
Good news I reckon - looked at some of his previous games. He was the ref for our 2-1 win away at Wycombe in our promotion season, and the ref the same season in our 1-1 home draw with Bury when Stephens scored THAT goal on 90 + mins.
My earlier message on here was not very eloquent, so let me start again. I have had the pleasure (many years ago) to undertake 4th match official duties at football league grounds up and down the country including Charlton. To get promoted to the football league list of referees is very difficult, competing with many other wannabe referees. They train to the highest level of fitness, they watch videos of differing football styles to establish their best positioning on the day and are indeed very professional. Refereeing is certainly not easy and some decisions are a matter of personal opinion and a matter of angles. They don't bite, swear, kick or dive and generally referee to a very high standard. It is however, inevitable that some referees will be better than others. Turning to Andy D'Urso, we grew up together in refereeing terms (both living in Essex at the time) and he was a most humble and unassuming referee/person;I simply can't relate to some of the comments attributed to his personality on here. Agreed Andy is no longer on the list of Premiership referees but that does not make him, or any other in his position, a bad referee; it simply means that there are a few, very few better referees around. Nobody is top dog in their chosen sport forever.
Comments
ANDY D'URSO
Paul Harris and Dean Treleaven
Fourth Official Iain Williamson
Not looking forward to this one. They always have the hoodoo on us.
1-0 Millwall. Rubbish game. Deflected winner.
He was the referee for our first game of the season against Bournemouth.
Former referee myself so its not all non-referees with idiotic remarks
That said, D'Urso is genuinely terrible. His tendency to be one of the biggest talking points after any given game he referees is not a sign of competence frankly. You get refs who get it wrong now and again, that's human nature. D'Urso seems to be that rare breed who gets it right once in a while... but not that often. He's got Milwall and Charlton both agreeing he's awful. That's not coincidence.