Yet again an away game with Coote at the helm, the 5th in a row where he has officated.

Yet again he is in the pocket of the crowd and makes some ridiculous decisions.

This time though there is no vitriol from the terraces as all the bias is one way. That doesn't make things any better.

It surely cannot be long before this referee is shown his cards.

This is his 5th successive appalling performance, everything seems to be about him with a subservience to the baying crowd mixed in and a total lack of objectivity. You genuinely get the impression this guy could make any decision, however delerious, any second.

Postcript

This would prove to be Coote's final game as a referee.

Shortly after the game video evidence was circulated showing his evident bias *against* Liverpool amid accusations of him havinig being compromised by an assocaite.

The irony knew no bounds, the reality was however that Coote had expressed a dislike for Jurgen Klopp after a contretemps between the pair.

Further video would also show Coote apparently taking cocaine whilst on duty with FIFA.

The fact that Coote was even seen as a FIFA standard referee draws its own deep concerns.

Coote was suspended. That should have been unsurprising however for PGMOL it was not.

A consistently poor referee since the inveption of VAR and something Villa had unfortunately had to experience on multiple occasions, Coote would also apparently be seen on film allegedly admitting influencing games to enable his alleged associates to make bets on in-game outcomes.

Few people, who had been paying attention beyond the recent headlines, were surprised.

Coote was sacked but his apparent admission of match fixing was never publically investigated.

Another away game, another appointment of Coote and 5 Villa players booked without a tackle of note being made as well as four for Leicester. Total lack of self control as usual from Coote.

The last two Villa matches in which David Coote has officiated have both resulted in shockingly poor performances as the official lost control of the matches early, allowed them to descend into little more than brawls and made bewilderingly inconsistent and plain wrong decisions throughout.

And so it continues, by no means as bad as Goodison and Brentford but just moments into the game it was clear that Coote was easily influenced by the baying home fans.

He just seems incapable of controlling his urges in the middle, thankfully, and maybe probably because all involved shared the concerns with his officiating, the players reigned in more than normal.

It shouldn't be like this though, Coote clearly has issues that surely PGMOL can see. All they need to look at is the Villa games he's officiated in this season.

Unbelievably Referee Coote takes charge just weeks following the battle of West London as he proved to be “totally out of control, failed to clamp down early, gave Mee the benefit of the doubt, chaos ensued.” Breath duly held.

Coote's performance against Brentford was so poor that there was no expectation he would be seen again.

Goodison proved to be an almost exact re-run.

Coote cannot manage a game, seems oblivious to his surroundings and any context and just reacts in a manner that seems totally uncontrolled.

That he's now delivered 🟨 45 and 🟥 2 reds to Villa players in 18 games at an astonishing rate of 2.61 per game suggest either he has an issue with the club or he really should not be officiating, at any level.

A terrible, terrible referee who now on three of the last four occasions has brought a stadium to a dangerous boiling point.

One of the most shocking refereeing performances in recent memory. A complete lack of control, something we saw against Brighton in May, but this time the lawlessness of Brentford and the failures of Coote created an incredibly dangerours situation. To put it midly the referee lost the plot early, Brentford soon after, and all Villa could do was try an adopt some damage limitation whether avoiding injury or suspension. Stuart Attwell lacks commonsense and game management without necessarily making huge howlers (anymore) but Coote is on another level, almost as if he really does not know what is happening out there. Very concerning all round. Often in these cases a referee this poor is quietly shuffled off, will we see Coote again? One hopes not for everyone's sake, to have faltered like this twice in three games suggests this isn't his calling.

Following his last outing 6 months earlier this was a much improved performance although it stood out for another reason.

For the first time in 16 games refereed by Coote he did not book a single Villa player having averaged 2.47 cards per game over his previous 15 matches.

A strange performance from a referee who had previously shown to be one of the more balanced on the circuit. A total loss of control, Brighton allowed to exploit fair play in their usual way but a seeming unability of Coote to either recognise it or deal with it. The game itself began to unravel with the referee's sub par performance at the centre of it. No one massive mistake but a strange sense of no control. Odd.

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