Why Argyle could have no complaints about time added
MUCH was made – by Plymouth Argyle – of the fact that Adrian Mariappa’s equaliser for Burton Albion on Saturday was officially timed at 90+7 minutes and that the game went into an eighth minute of time added, when six had originally been signalled.
It was the Brewers who came out on the right side of this when they salvaged a point from the 2-2 draw but, of course, things tend to even themselves out.
Bolton Wanderers’ winner against the Brewers a couple of weeks before was also in the eighth minute of stoppage time.
The thing is, wherever your favours lie, added time seems to be getting longer these days. You will not have had to go to football for too long to be able to remember when a referee almost routinely added a couple of minutes and then, more recently, four minutes seemed to be the norm.
Today, more and more managers set great store by what is loosely termed “game management” and Burton’s
Dino Maamria is no exception.
There is nothing wrong with game management that involves keeping possession, perhaps running the ball into safe areas near the corner flag close to the final whistle. The ball is, after all, in play in those times and the onus is on the side out of possession to do something about it.
What a great many of us find increasingly tedious – or, if you like, downright cheating – is the number of times players with some clubs go to ground close to and during stoppage time; the length of time taken over goal kicks, the length of time it takes for a substitution.
In the cold light of day you can see why it gets done, as long as it is not clamped down upon – and the fact that it is not is where the problem lies, not in the rules.
I decided to analyse the stoppage time in the Plymouth game and, actually, the game could have gone on longer than an eighth minute.
The first thing to note was that Argyle keeper Michael Cooper, once he had actually picked up a loose ball in the penalty area – he was perfectly entitled not to for as long as possible of course – actually held it, bounced it and walked around his area for 18 seconds before releasing it.
He is not alone in that. I’m sure Ben Garratt would have done the same, if allowed to get away with it, if Burton had been winning. How often do you see a referee give an indirect free kick in the box for such an infringement, though? If they were all told to start doing so and then all did, that particular aspect of time-wasting would be wiped out. Plymouth made a substitution during stoppage time, for which I think refs routinely add 30 seconds. They had a player down with cramp. Regardless of whether or not it was genuine, it took 50 seconds.
Then came the clash of heads between Mickel Miller and Tom Hamer. Disregard the argument about whether or not it was a foul, as Plymouth claimed. Whether it was or not, 40 seconds elapsed to ensure both players were OK before the restart.
That, then, is two minutes of nonplaying time for injuries and a substitution to be added to the original six, without considering whether or not Cooper should have been penalised for wandering around ball in hand for 18 seconds.
Plymouth had not done themselves any favours in the time after taking the lead and they paid for it. You could argue that the Brewers did against Bolton.
There are more substitutions allowed now than there used to be, which will inevitably add more time to games, so it is not uncommon, in fact it is becoming more the norm, to see stoppage times of six minutes and more signalled.
It is a shame, though, that we have ended up debating this.
In the two previous games at the Pirelli, in the FA Cup against Needham Market and the League against Charlton Athletic, there had been a refreshing lack of gamesmanship, play-acting and moaning at the officials and the games flowed as a result.
Argyle boss Steven Schumacher’s snide – and inaccurate – comments about Burton’s playing style after Saturday’s game did him no credit. Perhaps we should cut him some slack, given that it came immediately after the disappointment of the equaliser but he might have had more credence if Plymouth were themselves playing silky football worthy of a higher division. They are not. They succeeded with a route one approach in the second half against Burton after being outplayed in the first.
On Friday night, I watched Portsmouth’s Cowley brothers harangue the fourth official almost constantly during the game against Derby County. Danny Cowley speaks well in the calm after a game. During a game, he is doing nothing to incur any sympathy from any official.
We have all seen the other serial offenders in the division. Bristol Rovers’ Joey Barton, Wycombe Wanderers’ Gareth Ainsworth are two. Their teams’ behaviour tends to reflect the managers’ approach.
It would be good to see a change of approach, a realisation that fans want to see their teams actually playing the game, throughout the Football League. But I won’t be holding my breath.
Argyle keeper Cooper held the ball, bounced it and wandered around his area for 18 seconds before releasing it