Love it when he referees Salford games! What a guy! Surely he should be in front of Mr Phillip Bentham blowing the whistle ( literally in Childs case

) the major finals / internationals? For what it's worth Wigan was the better side tonight Farrell and Hansen stood out for me. Poor game all in all never got going stop start through penalties tries more penalties. Just glad the team didn't crumble and have 50 put past them although you could argue Wigan eased off second half? Child's tried to even the count up once the game was gone? More worryingly Ashurst went of and Williams, to what looked a ludicrously high shot, maybe even leading with the elbow? All in all we was expected to lose to Wigan, thought once we got to 8 - 6 it could of been a decent game ( Holdsworth kicking needs to be addressed ASAP?!?! what is his %? ) We go into Hudds game not too disheartend, after Leeds game I was upset with players because we was outclassed but all I went away from tonight was thinking about Mr James Child. See you douche bags Good Friday

Most refs do that tbf

Child was useless tonight, Wigan were the better team and deserved to win the game but Child's & the touch judges inconsistency ruined the game.

How many times did he penalize Salford for not standing square? Yet never penalized Wigan?

How many times did he blow for offside against Salford and not against Wigan?

The touch judge came on and penalized Salford for a high shot, which was a correct call, then stops off a few minutes later for a similar Wigan high shot.

Hock loses the ball, Child gives a knock on, Hock throws the ball away, Child gives a scrum, pathetic.

I just think he's a crap ref. I presume (or should I say hope) that he gave a double knock on in the second half when Josh was under the posts??

I came away last night angrier than I ever have. Granted Wigan were the better team, but if we`d have had a bit more posession who knows what we could have done? How can we get more ball with a ref like Childs? Rule number one in Rugby League is , You cant beat the ref !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! He whistled us out of the game. I have never seen such a one sided, biased , show in my life

Firstly I think it's fair to say that as a team we were no angels last time, a lot of what we got picked up on were penalties. The biggest problem last night was the complete inconsistency and one sided refereeing that seemed evident. Both teams were equally bad at not going back the 10 and not standing square but time & time again Child just completely ignored it for Wigan yet pulled us up almost every occasion. The touch judge who was so quick to see that Williams was offside (seemed a bizarre call from where I was sat) couldn't see a forward pass right in front of his eyes!)

The standard of refereeing has to improve across the whole league, last night was ruined as a spectacle for me.

On the game itself, Wigan deserved the win, no arguments there. Thought there forwards were very dominant and we missed a lot of tackles that opened up gap after gap (how Vinnie Anderson has made it this far as a professional rugby player with his tackling ability is beyond me!). Lots of positives to take from the game though. Again we looked very good with ball in hand and scored a couple of belters. If Williams try at the end of the 1st hand stands then we would have gone in 24 - 12 down rather than 30-8 with not having seen much of the ball. Anything could have happened from there. But as they say, IF my auntie had balls she'd by my uncle. Decent effort, much to be improved on but 100% better than the Leeds game.

I reckon Mr Childs would make an excellent rugby union ref---------always missing the blindingly obvious infringements, yet nit-picking and giving penalty after penalty so stopping a free flowing game..

Did you see Matty Smiths reaction about 20 mins from the end when Childs gave yet another penalty against us?
The players must have all been fuming as they and we know Wigan dont need the refs help to beat Salford.
All everyone expect is a level playing field and that just was not there last night.

He is the worst ref in the competition- he did exactly what he did to you last night to us when we played London, he must have been trying to redeem himself to us last night. He will probably do the same for you next time you get him. He got dropped for a round after his performance in the Wigan v London game so hopefully he will next week as well but I doubt it with it being the Easter period. Absolute worst ref I have ever known and I felt sorry for you lot last night.

I thought it was the worst display of refereeing I have seen in many a long year. It was made worse by the decisions made by the touch judges who did not seem to know what appear tackle was; nor did they help the referee to spot any forward passes - except the one from Patten to Veivers in the second half.

Wigan were the better team but we were not allowed to play them on a level playing field. I was told the first half penalty count was 10 - 2. That gifted Wigan possession and they must have had 60% - 70% of the ball in the first half. Because of their field position many of the penalties were near our own line and tries almost inevitably resulted. We didn't deserve that half time score.

In the second half we managed to make a game of it. I know that Wigan had got the game won and may have switched off a bit but we competed and gave 100% to the end of the game.

Yes we missed some tackles, and Wigan's pack made yards, but we have learned how to attack under Veivers and Long and do manage to worry good teams. We proved that we can score some good tries too. I think we have a lot to build on and left the ground feeling deprived of a more even contest by a referee who seemed set on penalising one team for many minor infringements whilst letting the other team seem to get away with the same errors.

Never thought we'd win the game last night I just wanted a decent effort from the lads and I came away happy with the team. Didn't think we performed that bad to be honest expect from the last 20minutes in the first half, the team looked knackered and not bothered, but a part from that they gave all in all a decent performance against one of the top sides. Yes Childs was awful last night but we can take a few positives out the game and build on them for the Easter weekend. What was beyond me is that on nearly every occasion when we kicked off to Wigan just after they caught the ball the pass to the running man was forward and they didn't get penalised once. Not to sure why the try we got disallowed was disallowed, couldn't quite get a good view of it but it didn't look like anything was wrong from where I was stood. Credit to Wigan though some of their attacking play was top class, but we need to improve our sliding defence and the players need to stop cutting in the so often, lost count of the amount of times there's 2-3 of the opposition players attacking just our winger. I thought Patterns try was top class, Williams break and pace was nice to see. All a side I was quite happy with the performance, look at half time as though they'd put 50 past us, in the past we would probably crumble and they would of but tonight showed the spirit in the team not to give up. One last thing, I think Veivers is lacking in confidence, every time he got the ball he'd cut in from the wing and pass it to the middle of the pitch.

A thought on the role of penalties in the modern game. We seem to be seeing more and more tries in modern RL scored on the back of penalties, and I'm not just talking about Salford. I really don't want to see RL go down the route that Union went down when so many of the points come as a result the referee's whistle (although it's more direct in union). Would it be better for a penalty to simply reset the tackle count rather than gift 30 metres? I suppose that would mean that you almost get a "free shot" on the first tackle, but I think something needs to be done to curb the influence that penalties have on scores.

Appreciate that, I've stated on another post if I was a Wigan supporter I'd have been embarrassed with the amount of border line decisions given to Wigan as opposed to Salford. It was blatantly one-sided.

I was level with Holdsworths kick to Williams in the first half and I'm convinced Williams was onside, so much so I stood and ranted and raved and nearly ripped the stitches I have in my back out. That decision completely swung the game away from Salford albeit I thought Wigan were the better side and would have won in any event.

A definate no. If your rule came into play i reckon you would see more foul play and more penalties which means the referee would blow more constantly resulting in less flowing rugby league. If you abolish the kick for touch it benefits the defending team not the attacking team. IMO foul and idle play deserves penalising, if it means scoring on the back of penalties, so be it ( sort your discipline out ) I don.t want to poke a hornets nest here but Child's can't be wrong with every decision he's made, there were obviously ill disciplined foul and idle play committed by salford last night. Maybe it is time for 2 referees due to the increased fitness levels required and the off the ball happenings what are being missed.

I don't think you need 2 referees, after all there are two touch judges and two in goal judges so there's enough folk around. The real point that I think needs addressing is the role of the touch judge - if you read the rules of RL then the ONLY things they are allowed to do is flag for in touch and foul play. So many fans call for them to raise their flag for other things (forward passes, offside etc) but they are simply not permitted to.

Now a good referee will work with his TJs as a team and look to them for assistance, but most don't seem to. I think it's time that we got the touch judges to be able to indicate foward passes and offsides and get a more consistent application of the rules.

I think Child is missing his true vocation in life: being the member of a Samba band.

Yes I noticed that as well..In fact i may be wrong but didnt it actually hit the ref?
Why didnt he give a penalty

Can I ask how you can give a penalty for not standing square when the defending team are all stood on the try line?

Child spoilt what could have been an entertaining game, Wigan were by far better than us without a doubt and deserved the win

Quite simply the worst referee in Superleague by some considerable distance. If you ever want a game of rugby league ruining give this guy the whistle.

Not taking anything away from Wigan but they didn't need all the help they got from this poor excuse of a referee. Child should be given a nice flag to keep perminently because he isn't up being a Superleague ref.

He totally ruined the game for everyone before half time with his safe approach of pedantically over penalising the team expected to lose. Made me laugh how he gave us some very late decisions to make the count look a little less embarrassing for him.

Lets hope we don't get 'tight pants' again this year.

It's the club you should be blaming, not Childs. With the rumours of Sale moving in, the board are aware that some Sale fans have been attending Salford matches to check out the stadium. They decided at a board meeting last week that they would target these fans and try to entice them to become regulars. So, in order to appeal to those Sale fans, they had a word with the referee before Friday's match and asked him to make it a stop-start affair, littered with inexplicable penalties.

Yet another Salford c0ck up.

Before this game I was of the opinion the referee had improved over the years and was one of the fittest referees who positioned himself correctly to give the correct decision.How wrong could I have been ?
More knowledgeable and qualified people than me have gone completely out of character and lost their self-control over this individual and [url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2011/apr/04/rfl-hull-richard-agar-refereeperhaps there was something remaining from this Hull game[/url as I cannot find any link to favouring Wigan;just a number of coaches complaining.

Credit has to be paid to Phil Veivers for his restraint and also our players who once again kept their composure
and didn't even lower themselves to a fit of pique and throwing the ball away as demonstrated by Hock.

I see he is at it again..... Wonder if the game follows the same pattern Mr Smith will have choice words about Mr Childs, yet against little old Salford nothing gets mentioned.


Edit. All 3 tries upto now on the back of penalty's, Kills the game for me, was 6 nill to Widnes then on the count, Wire get pen and go up other end and score.