Mirallas escape shows need for technology (ESPN article)

by Dave Usher for ESPN

"This is not your father's Merseyside derby" screamed the title of my pre-match blog as Brendan Rodgers prepared to take his Liverpool side across the park to face neighbours Everton. The logic was sound; Roberto Martinez's arrival at Goodison Park would ensure the Blues would adopt a more serene approach to this fixture than we've seen in most previous encounters. It would be one for the purists and the physical stuff that has been a feature of this fixture would be left in the past, where it belongs.

Unfortunately nobody bothered to tell Kevin Mirallas.

Both Luis Suarez and Jordan Henderson were left bloodied and bruised following reckless, dangerous challenges by the Belgian, yet he somehow escaped fitting punishment from referee Phil Dowd and was also defended by his manager who bizarrely seemed more concerned with complaining about a non-existent Steven Gerrard elbow. It seems that in the world of Martinez, jumping with your arm raised but not making any contact with the opponent is a more serious offence than smashing an arm into someone's face and leaving them with blood pouring from an eye. It would also appear that Dowd also lives in that world.

While Liverpool only have themselves -- and specifically Joe Allen -- to blame for not putting the game away, the part Dowd played simply cannot be ignored either. While Everton's second half display meant they were well worth a point and they may even feel they should have won based on chances created, had Dowd done his job properly then the Blues would have been a man down and trailing 2-1. It's difficult to imagine them coming back from that, and after what happened in this fixture last season (Suarez having a last second winner incorrectly chalked off for offside) Rodgers has every right to feel aggrieved.

There have been some truly horrendous errors made by officials in recent weeks and I have to wonder whether we are at all-time low in terms of the quality of referees. Referee's supremo Mike Riley last week apologised to West Brom following the ludicrous penalty decision that cost them two points at Stamford Bridge recently, and if that is to become a trend, then Riley's phone-bill will resemble a Premier League players pay-slip.

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