Its a bit sad that we have to blame the referees!! But it is true that in general standard of refereeing is slipping.
That said, again the players should take a bit of responsibility. Why do they steal 10 yards at every throw? Why do they timewaste? Why do they place the ball outside the corner quadrant if they can get away with it? Why do they appeal for everything even when its plainly obvious it isn't their ball? Why do they "foul" to stop a player getting away and then protest their innocence? Why do players go down at the merest touch?
All of the above examples are cheating.....some call it gamesmanship, some call it professionalism....I call it cheating!! It all needs to be clamped down on. Both teams, all the time.
I laugh at home games....there are a couple of vociferous "anti refs" who sit on the back row of the West who call for everything, slag the ref and linesman off all the time, but conveniently forget when "our team" does exactly the same!!
The Blackburn game Cornell was time wasting...he even had a chuckle about it!! The Wigan game their keeper was taking an age......part and parcel of the game??
Yes we have poor refs but it’s the same ref for both sides. The chap I sit next to in the north bangs on all game every game about where the opposition take throw ins / free kicks from, what they appeal for (for which they are always labelled cheats) but obviously has no problem with our players doing the same. Every defeat is the refs fault, without fail. Every decision is unfair, every booking is unjust. Every infringement by the opposition is met with “our player would be sent off for that”.
We’re all obviously biased but I do worry that some folk genuinely believe we’re the most discriminated team in world football.