Nigel Pearson admits Bristol City’s penalty record doesn’t make sense but he insists the club have not sought to apply any undue pressure of the PGMOL (Professional Game Match Officials Board) to investigate their decisions during Robins matches.
City’s wait for a penalty is now at 432 days, with Chris Martin’s successful spot-kick at Coventry City 61 matches in the past. Pearson was especially aggrieved in the wake of their 1-1 draw with Swansea City in the FA Cup last Sunday as he felt his side were denied two clear decisions.
Reports this week claimed City had contacted the PGMOL to request clarification on why they’ve had so few decisions in their favour but Pearson slightly played that down, indicating that all that had happened was the standard match report being filed.
He did reveal referees chief Kevin Friend visited City recently to talk with coaching staff and go over some clips and while wanting to raise a degree of awareness over the situation, Pearson was keen to emphasise this isn’t about trying to influence officials.
“This is something that is over a sustained period,” he said. “We’re talking 300 or something days and I think there’s a stat before that that’s double that. It’s just something that doesn’t make sense and there’s no point in me trying to explain it, because I have no idea why that is the case.
“Over to the authorities, I’m afraid. We try to be as cooperative as possible with Kevin and his referees. It’s not always been easy, I have to be honest with you. It just feels like it's an ongoing problem.
“When he came in, it was good of him to come in; communication like that is badly, badly needed. Howard Webb is going to be taking over and I think there’ll be a lot of weight on his shoulders to affect change.
“We need the officiating to be consistent and fair. And that’s all we can ever ask for.
“Everybody makes mistakes, we’re aware of that; I make mistakes, you make mistakes, we all make mistakes on a daily basis. But there’s a difference between an occasional mistake, something that becomes a bit of a nuisance of a habit, and something I don’t think anyone can explain.
“There’s no point in me being overly negative about it. We have a game coming in and the officials who take to the field at the weekend need to be fair for both sides. It’s not about to try and apply pressure, it’s trying to find out what the answers are and make sure, on any given day, whether you’re home or away that there’s a fairness in terms of how teams are officiated.”
Research by City fan Jack Perry, presented above on Twitter in graph format and referenced by Pearson in his pre-match press conference, has found that since October 1, 2020, the most a Championship club has averaged in terms of matches per penalty awarded is Huddersfield Town with 16. The Robins are averaging a spot-kick every 109 games in that time period.
Pearson has previously got himself into trouble with comments about officials so was unwilling to go down that particular route, having already claimed this season that such is the volume of wrong decisions he’s considered retirement. But he did, like many of his peers, call for consistency from officials with coaches and players apparently unsure from one game to the next as to what constitutes a foul and a penalty, and what doesn’t.
“We always have contact with them,” Pearson added, of match officials. “One of the protocols that we do is fill in reports after games. Kevin actually came in a couple of weeks ago to go through some footage with the coaching staff. Kevin’s been very good this season in terms of being available.
“It’s just a situation in which I can’t give you any answers to the statistics - we are a huge outlier, it’s a massive anomaly. When you look at it in graph form, it’s quite scary really.
“It remains a frustration for us because we’ve felt we’ve had lots of situations or events during a game which have not gone our way.
“I don’t really intend in a press conference to pour petrol on my own head and get fined again for making comments about this as a situation we find to be very, very… it feels unfair. Then again, talking on a Thursday before a game is probably not something I want to go into too much detail, because I don’t think that’s fair either.,
“The authorities need to find out what the problem is. It’s just something managers, coaches, players and officials need to work together to make sure there’s consistency, And that’s been the biggest problem, the interpretation from one week to the next - there’s no clarity, the interpretation it’s just too wide.”
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