[Exile on Spencer St]

The game - players, managers, and officials - have totally abandoned or lost any ability to stop cheating.
The only thing that changes is the methods of cheating. The latest is head injuries. For every genuine one like Doug Tharme suffered, there are ten or more simulations to break up attacks or waste time. The players and managers know the refs have no discretion.
Like many Stanley fans I’ve done my fair share of criticising refs but I think players and managers should take most of the blame.
It was lost when such behaviour was described by eminent pundits as “gamesmanship”, the total opposite of what it is.
I heard a perfect example on Friday from Fleetwood’s manager (not exactly an innocent himself when playing) who complained that the ref gave Cambridge a penalty when, in his opinion, the Cambridge player ‘dived’. He then said that it was “fair play to him” for diving.
It’d need ten refs in each half to stop it now.