Furious protests and just plain abuse being directed at referees is nothing new, ' The referee's a w*****r!' is practically a staple of the modern game.
Recently the Respect campaign has been implemented to ensure that players, managers and referees give each other the respect they deserve.
But shouldn't respect of any kind be earned?
Saturday's referee Andre Marriner made some odd decisions and was rewarded with chants of 'You're not fit to referee' 'You don't know what you are doing' and 'You want respect, you're having a laugh' from the Boro fans.
He was not the worst referee I have ever seen and his decisions were not make or break but he was indicative of the new style of referee. Ridiculously pedantic sometimes and indecisive at others.
Referee's assistants (What was wrong with 'linesmen' anyway?) are there to help the referee make decisions when he is not best placed to do so.
More and more often however, we are seeing late flags and hearing that the refs assistant 'couldn't keep up with the play' pardon me but is that not a basic requirement of their job?
The main problem I have with referees and their assistants is that the rule book comes before the game and that they overshadow the football.
With that in mind I will return to the Boro v West Ham match.
Justin Hoyte = Just offside? Hoyte's celebration made it apparent he thought he was on, as did his subsequent protests to the referee. It certainly looked onside from where I was sitting. But viewing the replay suggested otherwise. By the 'daylight' rule he was on, following the 'any part of the body rule' he was off.
Speaking of Hoyte, Saturday was a triumph for Boro's new boy. He looked like a different player from the scared little boy lost we saw in his first few outings for the club.
Taking people on, screaming for the ball and nice link-up play with Aliadiere all featured heavily in Hoyte's best game in a Boro shirt so far.
Given time to settle in, Hoyte is starting to look like another astute purchase for Southgate.
And if the majority of the fans were wrong concerning Hoyte's ability, then boy were we wrong about Ross Turnbull.
The young goalkeeper made some truly superb saves to earn Boro a point and even more impressively, as the crowd stood to applaud him he merely pointed out that the match was not finished.
If he can learn to organise his defence better and keep the confidence he is displaying at present then Brad Jones won't get a sniff at the keeper's jersey.
Consistency is, as ever, what we should be aiming for, from the players, the referees and their assistants.
First published on www.newsoftheworld.co.uk/sport/fanzone - Nov 08
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