Referee: W. H. Hollan | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 | Chesterfield, -1964 🆘
Replacement Referee: H Burns | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 |
🆘 Where to start? The original referee Hollan had already lost control allowing increasingly violent Everton challenges to go unpunished which eventually led to both Sidebottom and Wylie having to leave the field of play. Sidebottom permanently with concussion from an Everton challenge meaning Villa were reduced to 10-men with John Sleeuwenhoek playing as emergency ‘keeper. You could explain that away as just bad luck but more questionable officiating was around the corner. Hollan booked Wylie after he had suffered a studs up challenge to the chest by Everton’s Kay. Hollan himself would then leave the field which raised hopes of some normality returning but it was not to be. Hollan's replacement, one of his linesmen, H Burns, proceeded to book two more Villa players for dissent at his decisions before awarding an offside goal to Everton after his own replacement on the line failed to raise his flag. That linesman was a member of the Everton coaching staff, chief coach Ron Lewin. Unsurprisingly the Villa protests were long and vigorous leading to Lewin being replaced by an actual linesman. The damage was, however, already done. Burns then failed to sanction dissent from Vernon despite penalising Villa for the same offence in the first period and to make matters worse awarded that player a soft penalty in the 55th minute, after emergency 'keeper Sleeuwenhoek was deemed to have fouled Vernon who scored from the spot. Before the end of the game both George Graham and Charlie Aitken were on the pitch but injured after more Everton challenges went unpunished. And we haven’t even mentioned the fog that descended on the pitch in the second half.
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