Untold Ref Review: MU 5 – Wigan 0

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By Ref Reviewer 03

 

For the game between Manchester United and Wigan we had ref Phil Dowd. Any controversy to report about this game?

 

Min Type Foul from On C/NC Comment points weight

1

OTHER Alcaraz Berbatov C Slight trip

1

1

4

OTHER Sammon Valencia C Held shirt

1

1

8

GOAL     C Park – goal okay

1

3

10

OTHER McCarthy Carrick C High kick

1

1

17

PENALTY     C Chicharito went down looking for it, not enough contact for me – good no-call

1

3

22

OTHER Jones Park C Trip

1

1

22

YELLOW Jones   NC It was an innocuous trip, 1st foul, no real scoring chance – wrong to give card

0

0

24

OTHER Evans Gomez C Frontal tackle studs to ankle

1

1

24

RED Evans   NC Potentially leg-breaking tackle – should have seen red, ref gave yellow

0

1

25

OTHER Diame Park C Trip

1

1

26

OTHER Figueroa Berbatov C Trip

1

1

32

OTHER Valencia Gomez C Foul

1

1

37

OTHER Evans Sammon C Foul – not shown, assumed correct

1

1

38

OTHER Sammon   C Handball

1

1

39

OTHER Sammon Carrick C Used hand to face to win high ball

1

1

39

RED Sammon   NC Ridiculously sent off – FA overturned this on appeal

0

0

41

GOAL     C Berbatov – goal okay

1

3

45+2 PENALTY     C Figueroa won ball, Chicharito then fell over him – good no-call

1

3

               
  Half time        

15

24

      CORRECT  

83,33%

77,42%

               
  YELLOW      

0

1

0,00

  RED      

0

2

0,00

  PENALTY      

2

2

100,00

  GOAL      

2

2

100,00

  OTHER      

2

2

100,00

               
         

6

9

66,67

               
  OFFSIDE      

0

0

 
               
  Second half          
               

47

OTHER Moses Carrick C Shove

1

1

50

PENALTY     C Moses went down too easily under pressure byValencia– good no-call

1

3

53

OTHER Evra Moses C Shove

1

1

54

OTHER Evra Moses C Got ball and player

1

1

58

PENALTY     C Looked a bit of holding by both players – good no-call

1

3

58

GOAL     C Berbatov – goal okay

1

3

62

OTHER Giggs Gomez C Pulled arm back and tripped from behind

1

1

62

YELLOW Giggs   C Unsporting behaviour

1

2

63

OTHER Nani Figueroa C Trip

1

1

65

OTHER Macheda Stam C Push

1

1

69

OTHER Rooney   C Handball

1

1

75

GOAL     C Valencia – goal okay

1

3

77

OTHER Alcaraz Park C Trip

1

1

77

PENALTY     C Contact looked on the line – close call but correct

1

3

78

GOAL     C Berbatov spot kick – goal okay

1

3

80

OTHER Fryers Di Santo C Hold

1

1

84

OTHER Fryers Di Santo C Slight trip

1

1

86

OTHER Alcaraz Macheda C Pulled arm back

1

1

87

OTHER Evra McArthur NC Trip/handball

0

0

90+3 OTHER Figueroa Park C tackled ball and player – advantage played

1

1

               
      2nd half score    
  TOTAL        

19

32

  %   CORRECT  

95,00%

96,97%

               
  YELLOW      

1

1

100,00

  RED      

0

0

 
  PENALTY      

3

3

100,00

  GOAL      

3

3

100,00

  OTHER      

0

1

0,00

               
         

7

8

87,50

               
  OFFSIDE      

0

0

 
               
      TOTAL SCORE    
               
  TOTAL        

34

56

  %   CORRECT  

89,47%

87,50%

               
  YELLOW      

1

2

50,00

  RED      

0

2

0,00

  PENALTY      

5

5

100,00

  GOAL      

5

5

100,00

  OTHER      

2

3

66,67

               
         

13

17

76,47

               
  OFFSIDE      

0

0

 
               
  NEW VERSION 1st half 2nd half Total   %
  WRONG NC F MU 1

0

1

1

   
    NCF MU 2

1

0

1

   
    NCF MU 3

2

0

2

   
    Total normal

0

1

1

FA MU

100,00%

    Total important

3

0

3

FA MU

100,00%

    General total

3

1

4

FA MU

100,00%

               
  WRONG NC F WIG 1

0

0

0

   
    NC F WIG 2

0

0

0

   
    NC F WIG 3

0

0

0

   
    Total normal

0

0

0

FA WIG

0,00%

    Total important

0

0

0

FA WIG

0,00%

    General total

0

0

0

FA WIG

0,00%

               
    TOTAL NORMAL WRONG

1

   
    TOTAL IMPORTANT WRONG

3

   
    GENERAL TOTAL  

4

   
               
  CORRECT CF MU 1

8

4

12

   
    CF MU 2

0

0

0

   
    CF MU 3

2

5

7

   
    Total normal

8

4

12

   
    Total important

2

5

7

   
               
  CORRECT CF WIG 1

3

8

11

   
    CF WIG 2

0

1

1

   
    CF WIG 3

2

1

3

   
    Total normal

3

8

11

   
    Total Important

2

2

4

   
               
    Foul HO

3

9

12

   
    FOUL AW

8

4

12

   
               
  OLD VERSION          
  Correct calls For Man U

12

52,17%

 
      For Wigan

11

47,83%

 
      Total correct calls

23

   
               
  Wrong calls Against Man U

0

0,00%

 
      Against Wigan

4

100,00%

 
      Total  

4

   
               
  Total fouls made by Man U  

12

50,00%

 
      Wigan  

12

50,00%

 
      Total  

24

   

 

The ref was Phil Dowd and the match was a relatively clean match with not too many fouls, however it was not without controversy.

Manchester’s Korean striker opened the scoring in the 8th minute with a lapse of concentration by the Wigan defense.

Phil Dowd scored very high in this match but he missed a few important calls.

In the 22nd minute, he gave a yellow card to Wigan midfielder, David Jones, for a trip on Ji-sung Park. It was Jones’ first foul, it wasn’t especially reckless or dangerous, and Park wasn’t heading directly on goal.

In the 24th minute, Dowd looked to even things up a bit by booking Johnny Evans for rash challenge. Replays showed that Johnny Evans had made a frontal tackle studs to the ankle of Jordi Gomez. In all fairness to Johnny Evans, he did bend his knee on contact and didn’t go through the player, but this kind of tackle still deserves a red card.

The main talking point of the match however was the sending off of Wigan striker, Conor Sammon, in the 39th minute. Sammon and Fletcher were jockeying for a high ball when Sammon stuck out his arm and caught Fletcher in the face with his outstretched hand. Dowd was a long distance away, saw Sammon had raised his arm, saw Fletcher rubbing his jaw, and wrongly assumed that Sammon had thrown an elbow, sending off the Wigan striker in error.

The red card was later overturned on appeal by the FA, but the damage was done. Wigan was down one to nil and now they were also down to ten men as well. Manchester United scored their second goal two minutes later, adding three more goals in the second half to run out easy 5-0 winners.

Dowd had a near perfect 2nd half and finished with an overall score of 89.47%. Wrong calls favoured Manchester United by 4-0.

20 Replies to “Untold Ref Review: MU 5 – Wigan 0”

  1. Even scoring very high can be a wrong guide to someone’s performance.He still got most important decisions wrong killing off the game just like everton-liverpool(rodwell sent off).

  2. Walter, Ref Reviewers, Arun
    What are we/reviewers to do about the/this interesting case where the very few wrong calls have greater weight than the many good calls in an overall stellar performance (And Believe me I hold my nose in massive disbelief as I write this with Dowd in mind.) That is, can a ref get everything right except for the wrong decision that counts; and thereby beat the/your statistical rating system? In the end, the final report, there has to be a way to use asterisks or whatever to factor such WEIGHTY calls into your final numbers or something will have gone amiss and major information be lost. Qualitative interpretation matters – as one game changing calls/non-call can throw a match, even as all the rest of the calls are (seem) correct. How would your quantitative approach – now or in the final season report – factor this in?

  3. Bob,
    this is somewhat attempted to highlight in the new summary we use since a few reviews.

    I’m not entirely happy with it because it maybe is a bit too much numbers and so the reader can get lost.

    But in this new summary we count in a separate way the non-important mistakes and the important mistakes. But it all went in favour of United that was for sure.

  4. Ref03,
    Amazing that without video replay Sammon gets sent off.
    Then the FA overturns it, as you say, after the damage is done.
    What a system. This is a prime exhibit, then, in the mounting case for the need for video replay. There would not have been a sending off. The FA has made the case for what it dreads the most – video replay.

  5. All,
    So, Wigan fans are aggrieved. Newcastle fans are aggrieved. And Arsenal fans (well, some of us) are aggrieved. Is there not a mounting basis for a league-wide petition that goes beyond AFC to demand video replay? Hmmm….?

  6. Ref Reviewers, All,

    “Pointing the way to a Championship” now has a new meaning:

    + Fletcher rubs his chin – therefore, ref sends off Sammon.

    + Rooney points to a spot – therefore, ref sends off Kompany.

    Vigilance, mates! Vigilance!

  7. Walter,
    In terms of the final report, would it be too late – and I know it’s a big ask and I don’t have to spend the time – to go back over previous reviews and add weights to the important calls? The reason I raise this and appeal to the Reviewers to do this is so that no one can say at the end (including you guys) that, alas, there was no distinguishing (until half way through) between important and non-important calls; so, they who mean ill would argue, the report is not really significant or substantial enough to be taken seriously. In other words, they who mean ill would argue, try again next season and make that distinction throughout (with proper weighting) and maybe we’ll listen to you then. Walter, Refs, why not close this loophole this season, over the next few months. Otherwise I fear it will be demoralizing to be hit by this kind of “incomplete” complaint – a red herring, but enough for those who mean ill to use as a distraction from what you will have produced. I’m worrying out loud because this seems like something that the reviewers can budget time for – over the next few months – and just revisit the important moments and add them to the new tablized approach and achieve consistency. I love your work and want it iron-clad. And apologize for not putting in the sweat equity that you all do, but hope to be a constructive presence via this comment.

  8. Bob,
    I’m reviewing all the ref reviews for the moment just to make sure we can make the difference between important and not that important wrong calls.

    and once we have done this (and from now on we make that difference in our reviews already) we gone let the dog out on the numbers 😉

    14 done so far 62 to go…

  9. The issue I see about uniting all epl fans towards a common stance against unreliable decision making officials, is that each team only equates to 5% of the league so not all fans feel wronged at the same time so there is not a constant feeling of injustice.

  10. Adam,
    No Stoke fan will complain about the refs this season. You can be sure of that.

  11. There lay the problem. Not all fans will be upset at decisions made. As far as Stoke goes I will have to take your word on that I have no time for them (you are aware that shawcross is a product of the Man utd academy).

  12. Now i love watching football, but as soon as a wrong call is made it ruines the match for me. To continue after a wrong call is disrespectful to the true nature of sport. We generally find alot out about ourselves through the way we play a sport and i find it befitting of todays society that we have to have a site like this that champions fair play and fair judgement something that I as a Brit holds dear. To me the problem runs deeper that just sport.

  13. Interesting you mention stoke, whenever I see them they get away with a lot. Saw,some stats compiled by a twitter group mentioned on the ladyarse site, they suggested stoke get a very easy ride, in fact, an easier ride than anyone else in the league, wonder why that is, maybe this staffs team are showing good old fashioned Yorkshire grit?
    That sammon decision was a joke. At the very best, dowd guessed it, at worst….well…..

  14. @ Dan, yes I have. I am pretty sure she is Gingers4Limpar connected…I could be wrong as I haven’t looked at the site for over a year…I can barely keep up with this one!

  15. Phil Dowd’s unjust decision to send Salmon from the field left Wigan with a mountain to climb in this match. Man Utd held a small advantage at that time but we have witnessed in recent weeks how Utd’s defence has leaked goals.

    This game was far from over before Phil Dowd intervened. The FA have since overturned his rash decision but the damage has already been done as far as Wigan are concerned, nil points Roberto.

    Meanwhile Big Phil continues on his merry path unabated.

  16. Tasos,
    Yes, the damage was already done and FIFA by reversing the terrible decision PROVED the need for video replay. What good is it, except for the haves like Manure, to have Wigan hard done by and then say, sorry, you were hard done by. No red card. This is, well, Manure. Video replay would have reversed that red card in the match, right after it took place based on a manager challenge or a ref in the sky ruling. What more evidence does anyone need.

    Adam,
    There’s no need for ALL fans to be simultaneously aggrieved. If it happens to one, it can happen to everyone. And right now there’s, on the record, Wigan, Newcastle and Arsenal. Is that enough for a start; or do you rule out a start because we have not reached the mythical time when everyone is simultaneously aggrieved? Any thoughts?

  17. Bob I don’t rule anything out , However I am realistic and you have stated that 3 teams lately can feel aggrieved at refs, WOW 15% of the premier is annoyed at the moment the other 85% are happy or content, Time for that uprising eh. However, Top level football does need technology to assist in the decision making process of match officials or to even remove the officials from the pitch. But we also need total honesty from the fans themselves as Walter stated above “no stoke fan should be upset with the refs” this in itself is an injustice to our ball game. Until we see more honesty among the fans there will be no unification only sporadic support.

  18. Adam,
    WOW, 85 percent are happy or content?
    Ya think? I mean ya really think?
    Too bad your cynicism re “the uprising”
    when a petition would help stir the pot.
    You see your perfect is the enemy of the good.

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