Best & Worst of the weekend: QPR & Manchester United

Best…

Paddy Kenny’s save from Barry Bannan’s free-kick

This was much more impressive than it actually looks. One of the trade-offs a goalkeeper makes by setting a wall, is that they sacrifice the ability to properly see the ball at the point of contact. That’s why if the free-kick taker gets the ball ‘up-and-down’ well enough, you’ll often see a goalkeeper watch the ball into the net rather than make any motion to actually save it. The keeper can’t really see the ball, it’s pace, or its trajectory until it reaches the top of the wall, which cuts the keeper’s required reaction-time down dramatically. A strong left hand – on his wrong side – that kept the ball both out of his net and away from danger. Top marks.

The sub-plot to this, is how hard Kenny has obviously worked on his physical conditioning. On his first visit to the Premier League, he looked more like the fat kid who was stuck in goal rather than a professional athlete – I don’t know how much weight he’s lost, but his enhanced agility is the reward.

Worst…

Peter Walton’s failure to send off Jonathan Woodgate

It’s difficult sometimes to have sympathy for any wrong decisions that Manchester United suffer, because they’re not an historically persecuted team by any stretch of the imagination. However, Walton’s failure to dismiss Woodgate for his clumsy professional foul on Javier Hernandez was inexcusable.

Had the incident happened after sixty minutes rather than within the first ten, then Walton wouldn’t hesitate to show a red card – Hernandez was through by himself, and Woodgate quite clearly impedes him. What grates, is that this is more than an official just making the wrong decision, it’s an official knowing full-well what the correct decision – and course of action – should be, but failing to act because of how early in the game it occurred.

Nobody wants to see a side play with ten men for 80 minutes, but the rules are there to be applied as equally in the first minute as they are in the last. To borrow Garry Cook’s phrase, Walton ‘bottled it’. Not good enough, if he feels unable to make decisions of significance then he shouldn’t be refereeing at this level.