No thankfully its the RFL's own communications system its garbage to say the least.

The MC appeared to be telling the Leigh 'bench' that there weren't enough players on the pitch. Leigh staff then shoved Tommy on. I don't think it involved any communication with the ref or TJ's Fred - they were waiting for Nanyn's goal kick, from a try.

Got a downer on us tonight have `nt you.........tut tut.

Just playing devil's Advocate!!!

yeah but hang on, everyone in the ground knew Dave had been sent off in the first half, if the commissioner didnt wouldnt that mean he was not doing his job properly?

Surprises me.Is there a rule that says for example if you have 10 players on the pitch when you may legally have 13 it is illegal ?

HEY FITTLER'S FAN CLUB - YOU ARE BRILLIANT !!

[iBet you'll even disagree with that one !!!![/i

What's it got to do with the MC if we only have 12, 11, or 10 players on the pitch - as long as we don't have too many. I find this a bit strange

I was in the box next to the Sheffield Directors and as soon as Tommy stood on the pitch they were yelling "Aston they've got too many players on the pitch". I hope the MC has officially recorded the incident or we could be in trouble.

If anything comes from this ie Eagles complaining then it would look like sour grapes after loosing against 12 men ,surely they would'nt stoop so low

How long was he on for

didn't notice it to be honest.

Aston is renowned for his liking of sour grapes.

The MC isn't linked up anyway, only the ref and TJ's use it. Bizarre incident if true

Did he play any part in the game when he went on or did he come straight off again.

to be fair, it looked that the MC had twigged there were too many players on the pitch, and was telling the bench staff to get goulden off.........well thats the way it looked to me, as it was right in front of us!

In answer to Ian C, Tommy Goulden played no part in the game whatsoever. He was literally on the pitch for all of thirty seconds maximum and this time was punctuated with him being brought off and then back on again and then finally off again. It was that farcical. The time that Tommy spent on the pitch was during a break in play so he had absolutley no effect on the game at this point.

No, Goulden was only sent onto the pitch AFTER the MC went down to the bench. From where I was in the stand, (near the MC) he was counting, then went down to the bench, then Goulden went on. He didn't take part in any play, (goal kick being taken, fortunately) but was on the pitch for a minute or two. My point is that the MC definitely generated the situation.

Thanks for the info, at least he didn't take any part in the game so that is a relief.

Think he was only trying to even things up because, Eagles had 14 men!

No he was on and off in a matter of seconds and the on field action was no where near him so lets hope nothing comes of it.

Also, it was very interesting to see that none of the players came into the big room after the match even though the bus was still there when I was leaving the ground about 5:45pm.

.....nor were any of the directors there when Allan Rowley was doing the post match presentations, so there was no one from Sheffield to respond on behalf of their club.

Thats changed then as I remember an incident at Oldham a few years ago when the match commissioner was stood next to us in the gantry and told the ref by the radio link to send Tim Street off, den the Menace could second that one as I think he made reference to it in his commentary.

Aren't they just wired up for live TV games?

No, every championship game, but the one at the LSV currently is faulty.

This incident happened right in front of me. The match commissioner (Who had the best sun tan I have ever seen) was telling IM that they were missing a player so the decision was made to send on Tommy. IM asked Jock to check the number of players on the field but he ran out of fingers and gave IM the nod to send on Tommy. As Tommy ran on the field me and everybody around me did a quick count and realised we already had 12 on so a collective shout went up to get Tommy off the field. He stopped and ran straight back off again. He could have only been on the field for 10 seconds at the most and was not involved in the play as Sheffield had just kicked off and the ball went to the far side of the field.
After the game I saw the man with the tan approach the third official and apologise. I cant see the RFL punishing us for this one but the Sheffield officials didn't look too happy about it. They were well beaten at that stage and it would be a case of sour grapes if they made an issue of it.
Great performance from the lads and real character shown in the second half when they looked certain to be turned over.