Untold Ref Review: Manchester United 2 – 0 Queens Park Rangers « Untold Arsenal: Arsenal News, supporting the club, the players and the manager
This article is part of a series stretching over several seasons in which a team of referees analyse the work of refs in Premier League matches.
Our figures show that when we analyse the errors made by refs there are consistent trends which do not “even out” through the season, as some commentators would have it. All the earlier ref reviews plus analyses of the errors made by refs, and articles relating to our campaign to have the body which organises referees activities reformed, plus an analysis of the background to this campaign, can be found on:
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Today’s referee is Lee Mason –
| MATCH REVIEW DETAILS – Lee Mason (2012-04-08) | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Period 1 | ||||||
| Min | Type | Foul from | On | C/NC | Comment | Weight |
| 3 | OTHER | Hill | Welbeck | C | Late, studs to boot, might have been booked | 1 |
| 6 | OTHER | Diakite | Young | C | Trip | 1 |
| 10 | OTHER | Rooney | Diakite | C | Scythed down from behind | 1 |
| 10 | YELLOW | Rooney | NC | A hard Yellow, but not given | 2 | |
| 14 | OFFSIDE | Young | NC | A yard offside,linesman should have seen this | 1 | |
| 14 | PENALTY | Derry | Young | NC | Young felt Derry’s hand on back and dived to the ground | 3 |
| 14 | RED | Derry | NC | It was offside, not a penalty, and thus shouldn’t have been sent off | 3 | |
| 14 | YELLOW | Young | NC | Should have been booked for simulation | 2 | |
| 15 | GOAL | Rooney | NC | Scored from wrongly awarded penalty | 3 | |
| 16 | OTHER | Mackie | Evra | C | Push | 1 |
| 18 | OTHER | Hill | Welbeck | C | Obstruction | 1 |
| 20 | OTHER | Taiwo | Rafael | NC | Shove not given | 1 |
| 21 | OTHER | Rafael | Diakite | C | Shove | 1 |
| 27 | OTHER | Rafael | Taarabt | C | Trip | 1 |
| 32 | OFFSIDE | Welbeck | C | 1 | ||
| 35 | OTHER | Onuoha | Young | C | Trip, advantage played | 1 |
| 35 | PENALTY | C | Valencia tried to cut inside Taiwo and fell, good non call | 3 | ||
| 35 | OTHER | Taiwo | Valencia | C | Trip | 1 |
| 36 | OTHER | Bothroyd | Carrick | C | Little foul | 1 |
| 38 | OTHER | Bothroyd | C | Handball | 1 | |
| 43 | OTHER | Buzsaky | Rooney | C | Slight trip | 1 |
| 44 | OTHER | Bothroyd | Evans | C | Hand to face disputing header | 1 |
| Period 2 | ||||||
| Min | Type | Foul from | On | C/NC | Comment | Weight |
| 47 | OFFSIDE | Welbeck | C | Just offside | 1 | |
| 49 | OTHER | Onuoha | Young | C | Trip | 1 |
| 49 | OFFSIDE | Welbeck | C | Correctly called onside | 1 | |
| 53 | OTHER | Young | Taarabt | C | Trip | 1 |
| 54 | OTHER | NC | Ball last off Evra, should have been corner to QPR | 1 | ||
| 59 | OFFSIDE | Rafael | C | Beat trap, correctly called onside | 1 | |
| 61 | OFFSIDE | Valencia | C | Assumed correct | 1 | |
| 68 | GOAL | Scholes | C | Goal okay | 3 | |
| 70 | OTHER | Scholes | Mackie | C | Trip | 1 |
| 72 | OTHER | Smith | Giggs | C | Trip | 1 |
| 73 | OTHER | Rafael | Buzsaky | C | Rafael slipped and fell into Buzsaky | 1 |
| 73 | YELLOW | Rafael | NC | Wrongly booked for simulation | 2 | |
| 75 | OTHER | Cleverey | Smith | C | Trip | 1 |
| 76 | OTHER | Cleverey | Onuoha | C | Ran into him | 1 |
| 80 | OTHER | Valencia | Smith | C | Atempted trip | 1 |
| 85 | OTHER | Evra | Campbell | C | Trip | 1 |
| 91 | OTHER | Rooney | Campbell | C | Trip | 1 |
Clint Hill made the first foul of the match catching Danny Welbeck a bit late. And while you could say that the ref might have pulled out a yellow card for this tackle, what Rooney did in the 10th minute was not really debatable.
The Manchester forward lost possession and in an attempt to get the ball back, he somewhat scissor tripped Samba Diakite from behind. It wasn’t a particularly violent tackle by Rooney but it was one that definitely deserved a booking, but Lee Mason decided to only whistle for the foul. However the real controversy of this match happened in the 14th minute.
Ashley Young had slipped behind QPR’s line of defense and then the ball was played to him. He was about a yard offside and it wasn’t a particularly difficult call for the linesman to make. Nonetheless the linesman’s flag stayed down.
As Young ran onto the ball, he felt Shaun Derry’s hand on him, and even though it was the slightest of touches, Young decided to throw his legs out and fall to ground. Young had simulated and deserved a booking, but the ref, perhaps thinking that Derry had tripped him not only gave Manchestr the spot kick, but he sent off Derry for denying an obvious goal scoring opportunity. Now if the linesman had done his job properly none of this would have happened, but as it was, it did happen and QPR were effectively killed off by the 15th minute when Rooney put United up 1 – 0 and Rangers were reduced to ten men.
The match was pretty uneventful from that point onwards. QPR barely committed any more fouls. Paul Scholes added a second goal in the 68th minute which killed off the match, if it hadn’t been already.
Lee Mason would have had an excellent match if it hadn’t been for the erroneous offside/penalty/sending off call in the first half. He did get the vast majority of the other calls right on the day, with one more exception that he booked Rafael for simulation in the 73rd minute well outside the penalty area when in fact the Brazilian defender had merely slipped. Perhaps Lee Mason was feeling guilty for what had happened in the first half, and decided to book a United player as a concession. But it didn’t gloss over the massive injustice that QPR suffered at the expense of Manchester United.
| COMPETENCY SUMMARY – Lee Mason (2012-04-08) | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Period 1 | Called | Total | Correct % |
| GOAL | 0 | 1 | 0.00 |
| OFFSIDE | 1 | 2 | 50.00 |
| OTHER | 13 | 14 | 92.86 |
| PENALTY | 1 | 2 | 50.00 |
| RED | 0 | 1 | 0.00 |
| YELLOW | 0 | 2 | 0.00 |
| TOTAL | 15 | 22 | 68.18 |
| WEIGHTED | 17 | 32 | 53.13 |
| Period 2 | Called | Total | Correct % |
| GOAL | 1 | 1 | 100.00 |
| OFFSIDE | 4 | 4 | 100.00 |
| OTHER | 10 | 11 | 90.91 |
| YELLOW | 0 | 1 | 0.00 |
| TOTAL | 15 | 17 | 88.24 |
| WEIGHTED | 17 | 20 | 85.00 |
| Totals | Called | Total | Correct % |
| GOAL | 1 | 2 | 50.00 |
| OFFSIDE | 5 | 6 | 83.33 |
| OTHER | 23 | 25 | 92.00 |
| PENALTY | 1 | 2 | 50.00 |
| RED | 0 | 1 | 0.00 |
| YELLOW | 0 | 3 | 0.00 |
| TOTAL | 30 | 39 | 76.92 |
| WEIGHTED | 34 | 52 | 65.38 |
A very poor score in the first half. Once the work was done he could become a ref and rescue his score in the second half.
| BIAS SUMMARY – Lee Mason (2012-04-08) | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Period 1 | Manchester United | % | Queens Park Rangers | % | Total |
| Correct For | 9 | 60.00 | 6 | 40.00 | 15 |
| Correct For Weighted | 9 | 52.94 | 8 | 47.06 | 17 |
| Incorrect Against | 1 | 14.29 | 6 | 85.71 | 7 |
| Incorrect Against Weighted | 1 | 6.67 | 14 | 93.33 | 15 |
| Fouls Commited | 5 | 35.71 | 9 | 64.29 | 14 |
| Fouls Penalised | 5 | 100.00 | 8 | 88.89 | 13 |
| Period 2 | Manchester United | % | Queens Park Rangers | % | Total |
| Correct For | 5 | 33.33 | 10 | 66.67 | 15 |
| Correct For Weighted | 7 | 41.18 | 10 | 58.82 | 17 |
| Incorrect Against | 1 | 50.00 | 1 | 50.00 | 2 |
| Incorrect Against Weighted | 2 | 66.67 | 1 | 33.33 | 3 |
| Fouls Commited | 8 | 80.00 | 2 | 20.00 | 10 |
| Fouls Penalised | 8 | 100.00 | 2 | 100.00 | 10 |
| Totals | Manchester United | % | Queens Park Rangers | % | Total |
| Correct For | 14 | 46.67 | 16 | 53.33 | 30 |
| Correct For Weighted | 16 | 47.06 | 18 | 52.94 | 34 |
| Incorrect Against | 2 | 22.22 | 7 | 77.78 | 9 |
| Incorrect Against Weighted | 3 | 16.67 | 15 | 83.33 | 18 |
| Fouls Commited | 13 | 54.17 | 11 | 45.83 | 24 |
| Fouls Penalised | 13 | 100.00 | 10 | 90.91 | 23 |
Look at that bias score in the incorrect decisions. Old Trafford lives up to its reputation. So did the ref.
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