Untold Ref Review: Manchester United 4 – 0 Aston Villa. And the bias index shows… « Untold Arsenal: Arsenal News, supporting the club, the players and the manager
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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 Mark Halsey –
| MATCH REVIEW DETAILS – Mark Halsey (2012-04-15) | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Period 1 | ||||||
| Min | Type | Foul from | On | C/NC | Comment | Weight |
| 1 | OTHER | Evans | Agbonlahor | N/C | Push in back | 1 |
| 6 | PENALTY | Clark | Young | N/C | Young contrives the contact and swallow dives, Villa defender withdraws his foot and it is planted on ground | 3 |
| 6 | YELLOW | Young | N/C | Should have been the easiest yellow of his career | 2 | |
| 7 | GOAL | Rooney | N/C | Wayne does not celebrate the goal, wonder why | 3 | |
| 8 | OTHER | Carrick | Gardner | C | 1 | |
| 8 | YELLOW | Carrick | C | Went to ground got none of the ball | 4 | |
| 12 | OTHER | Valencia | Lichaj | C | 1 | |
| 14 | OTHER | Evans | Agbonlahor | C | Same push as in 1st minute but this time spotted | 1 |
| 16 | OTHER | Ireland | Young | C | 1 | |
| 19 | OTHER | Rooney | Hutton | C | 1 | |
| 29 | OTHER | N/C | Halsey tells Villa to kick the ball out because Paul Scholes is injured, it is not a head injury, and Scholes does get up and carry on playing, Villa were denied a good situation, but hey it was Paul Scholes. | 1 | ||
| 36 | OTHER | Bannon | Young | C | 1 | |
| 37 | OTHER | C | Good advantage played after a foul by Gardner on Scholes | 1 | ||
| 37 | YELLOW | Gardner | C | First stop in play Ref issues the Yellow | 2 | |
| 40 | OTHER | Rafael | Ireland | C | 1 | |
| 43 | GOAL | Wellbeck | C | Woeful defending | 3 | |
| 44 | OTHER | Agbonlahor | N/C | Controls ball with his arm, nothing given | 1 | |
| 45 | OTHER | Agbonlahor | Evans | C | 1 | |
| Period 2 | ||||||
| Min | Type | Foul from | On | C/NC | Comment | Weight |
| 48 | OTHER | Scholes | Agbonlahor | C | 1 | |
| 48 | YELLOW | Scholes | C | An easy yellow | 2 | |
| 51 | OTHER | Hutton | Young | C | 1 | |
| 51 | YELLOW | Hutton | C | This could have been a red, he was so late the stadium was almost empty | 2 | |
| 55 | OTHER | N/C | A bizarre moment, Evra goes down with a head injury, but Rooney is attacking the Villa goal so the Ref allows play on, the attack comes to nothing, so the Ref calls it back. Realises the serious injury is to a Villa player who was behind him, and restarts with a drop ball. | 1 | ||
| 64 | PENALTY | Baker | C | big shout for a pen against Baker but his hand was close to his body in a vertical position, and moving away from the ball, so not deliberate | 3 | |
| 64 | OFFSIDE | Valencia | C | 1 | ||
| 66 | OTHER | N/C | Handball against Villa when ball clearly came of head, Villa deprived a good situation | 1 | ||
| 70 | OTHER | Baker | Rooney | C | 1 | |
| 71 | OTHER | Lichaj | Valencia | N/C | Push in back missed | 1 |
| 73 | GOAL | Rooney | C | 3 | ||
| 75 | OTHER | Carrick | Curruthers | C | 1 | |
| 82 | OTHER | Evans | Heskey | N/C | Evans comes through the back leading with the arm into Heskey | 1 |
| 82 | OTHER | C | Again having missed the foul he stops play when he sees how badly the big man is injured, and it is to the head | 1 | ||
| 87 | OTHER | Baker | Berbatov | C | 1 | |
| 90 | OTHER | Bannon | Carrick | C | 1 | |
| 91 | OTHER | Nani | Hutton | C | 1 | |
| 91 | YELLOW | Nani | C | Replay was from bad angle so I am going with Ref | 2 | |
| 92 | GOAL | Nani | C | 3 |
Alan Smith is a Gooner Legend, I was there in Copenhagen for his left foot volley, and there for the FA cup 3rd round V Man Utd when Brian McClair missed his penalty and Smith scored a great header. I never made Anfield but the goal has been replayed millions of times on TV and millions more in my head. So the following quote from him as a Sky TV Pundit saddened me hugely. Referring to Ashley Young
“Whatever you say about the penalty he is playing an important part for Man Utd including his penalty V QPR”
For fuck sake Smudge, you really have sold your soul to the devil and become an apologist for cheating. That is not how you played the game, and not how the game should be played, and you know that. If you too jump on the bandwagon what chance have we got!!
Mark Haley got the big decision wrong and he knew it. In the 6th minute Ashley Young cut inside Clark the Villa defender at some pace. He dived to the ground as one would into a swimming pool. He moved not one but both his feet into Clark, who was simply helpless. The crowd roared, the whistle blew, job done by Young. The apologists for English diving came flooding out of the woodwork. Apparently there was some contact; apparently that makes it a foul. Utter tosh, this was such a blatant dive I was waiting for a splash. Halsey reffed the game from there on in knowing he had to show no bias. And he did just that. However there were two moments of poor judgement that also favoured Man Utd. In the 29th minute Paul Scholes received a dead leg, Scholes did this whilst making a tackle, Scholes went down injured, but play was waived on leaving Villa in a good position, The crowd roared, so the Ref decided to stop play with Villa on the attack. It was weak Reffing, Scholes did not have a head injury, and he got up and carried on playing. The drop ball was kicked back to Given in the Villa goal. Villa nullified.
Then in the 55th minute Evra and Gardner challenged for a ball in the air, Evra came out with the ball but the Ref had his back to the fact that Gardner was badly injured, it was a head injury and Halsey was oblivious. He allowed play on even as Evra fell to the ground with a head injury. Rooney was running at the Villa back 3. Then Rooney lost the ball, so the Ref stopped play for Evra, only then did he realise that the Villa player was almost unconscious Halsey got away with that one. It was again poor reffing and showed that Halsey was not aware of what had happened in the challenge. Had Rooney gone onto to score, and Halsey did invite that scenario, it would have been an outrage, especially considering the Scholes incident earlier.
| COMPETENCY SUMMARY – Mark Halsey (2012-04-15) | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Period 1 | Called | Total | Correct % |
| GOAL | 1 | 2 | 50.00 |
| OTHER | 9 | 12 | 75.00 |
| PENALTY | 0 | 1 | 0.00 |
| YELLOW | 2 | 3 | 66.67 |
| TOTAL | 12 | 18 | 66.67 |
| WEIGHTED | 16 | 26 | 61.54 |
| Period 2 | Called | Total | Correct % |
| GOAL | 2 | 2 | 100.00 |
| OFFSIDE | 1 | 1 | 100.00 |
| OTHER | 8 | 12 | 66.67 |
| PENALTY | 1 | 1 | 100.00 |
| YELLOW | 3 | 3 | 100.00 |
| TOTAL | 15 | 19 | 78.95 |
| WEIGHTED | 24 | 28 | 85.71 |
| Totals | Called | Total | Correct % |
| GOAL | 3 | 4 | 75.00 |
| OFFSIDE | 1 | 1 | 100.00 |
| OTHER | 17 | 24 | 70.83 |
| PENALTY | 1 | 2 | 50.00 |
| YELLOW | 5 | 6 | 83.33 |
| TOTAL | 27 | 37 | 72.97 |
| WEIGHTED | 40 | 54 | 74.07 |
Apart from the above it was a half decent performance from the Ref, heavily tainted by Ashley Splish Splash Young.
| BIAS SUMMARY – Mark Halsey (2012-04-15) | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Period 1 | Manchester United | % | Aston Villa | % | Total |
| Correct For | 6 | 50.00 | 6 | 50.00 | 12 |
| Correct For Weighted | 9 | 56.25 | 7 | 43.75 | 16 |
| Incorrect Against | 2 | 28.57 | 5 | 71.43 | 7 |
| Incorrect Against Weighted | 3 | 23.08 | 10 | 76.92 | 13 |
| Fouls Commited | 6 | 60.00 | 4 | 40.00 | 10 |
| Fouls Penalised | 5 | 83.33 | 4 | 100.00 | 9 |
| Period 2 | Manchester United | % | Aston Villa | % | Total |
| Correct For | 7 | 46.67 | 8 | 53.33 | 15 |
| Correct For Weighted | 12 | 50.00 | 12 | 50.00 | 24 |
| Incorrect Against | 1 | 25.00 | 3 | 75.00 | 4 |
| Incorrect Against Weighted | 1 | 25.00 | 3 | 75.00 | 4 |
| Fouls Commited | 4 | 44.44 | 5 | 55.56 | 9 |
| Fouls Penalised | 3 | 75.00 | 4 | 80.00 | 7 |
| Totals | Manchester United | % | Aston Villa | % | Total |
| Correct For | 13 | 48.15 | 14 | 51.85 | 27 |
| Correct For Weighted | 21 | 52.50 | 19 | 47.50 | 40 |
| Incorrect Against | 3 | 27.27 | 8 | 72.73 | 11 |
| Incorrect Against Weighted | 4 | 23.53 | 13 | 76.47 | 17 |
| Fouls Commited | 10 | 52.63 | 9 | 47.37 | 19 |
| Fouls Penalised | 8 | 80.00 | 8 | 88.89 | 16 |
The bias index shows the usual Old Trafford treatment of visiting teams.