Untold Ref Review: Norwich City 1 – 2 Manchester United

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:

• Untold Ref Reviews …
• Untold Corruption …

Although this is a site built for Arsenal supporters we welcome comments from fans of other teams, although we tend not to publish comments which are simply abusive or which are completely off topic.

Today’s referee is Andre Marriner –

MATCH REVIEW DETAILS – Andre Marriner (2012-02-26)
Period 1
Min	Type	Foul from	On	C/NC	Comment	Weight
5	OTHER	Jones	Jackson	NC	Crashed into him to win ball, not given	1
7	OFFSIDE	Chicharito		NC	Slightly offside and interfering with play on Scholes goal	1
7	GOAL			NC	Shoud not have counted	3
8	OTHER	Jackson	Evans	C	Trip	1
10	OTHER	Johnson	Nani	C	Won ball from behind with right foot, took out Nani with left leg	1
10	YELLOW	Johnson		C	Deserved	2
12	OTHER	Nani	Fox	C	Shove	1
13	OTHER	Johnson	Welbeck	C	Shove	1
14	OTHER	Holt	Scholes	C	Ran into back of him	1
18	OTHER	Johnson	Evra	C	Attempted trip, kept possession but no advantage	1
20	OTHER	Jones	Surman	C	A bit dangerous in the challenge	1
23	OTHER	Evra	Jackson	C	Trip	1
29	OTHER	Evans	Jackson	C	Trip	1
32	OTHER	Evans	Jackson	C	High boot	1
36	OTHER	Jones	Holt	C	Ran into back of him	1
38	PENALTY	Scholes		NC	Handled ball in area, not given	3
41	OTHER	Drury	Nani	C	Kicked his foot	1
46	OTHER	Holt	Evans	C	Foul	1
Period 2
Min	Type	Foul from	On	C/NC	Comment	Weight
48	OTHER	Evans	Hoolahan	C	Hauled down by shirt	1
48	YELLOW	Evans		C	Evans out of position in Norwich’s half, intentional foul to stop counter, good booking by ref	2
52	OTHER	Naughton	Welbeck	NC	Obstruction, not given	1
57	OFFSIDE	Man Utd		C	Assumed correct	1
57	OTHER	Welbeck		C	Handball	1
59	OTHER	Chicharito	Whitbread	C	Shove	1
60	OTHER	Holt	Welbeck	C	Attempted trip, advantage played	1
68	OTHER	Jones	Pilkington	NC	Obstruction, not given	1
74	OTHER	Evra	Hoolahan	C	Held his shirt	1
76	OTHER	Ward	Welbeck	C	Attempted trp, ref first waited to see if advantage developed	1
77	PENALTY	Evra		C	Unintentional from close range, right non call	3
81	OTHER	Naughton	Young	NC	Young fouled Naughton as much or more	1
83	OTHER	Naughton	Welbeck	NC	Fouled in defensive half and pressured, not given, Norwich nearly scored	1
83	GOAL	Holt		C	Goal okay	0
87	OTHER	Young		NC	Challenged unfairly studs up, not given	1
87	YELLOW	Young	Naughton?	NC	Should’ve been booked for dangerous play	2
88	OTHER	Young	Bennett	C	Young fouled/fell on Bennett	1
88	PENALTY			C	Young was looking for a penalty, obviously it wasn’t one	3
91	OTHER	Norwich	Evra	C	Attempted trip, advantage played	1
92	GOAL	Giggs		C	Goal okay	3

Andre Marriner was the ref as Manchester United made the trip to Norwich City.  This match goes back some weeks to a time when Manchester City were still league leaders, and it would not be a match without controversy.

Manchester United scored early in the match with a close-range header by Paul Scholes.  But if we look at the goal more closely we can see that when the cross was made, Chicharito was slightly offside and then he attempted to head the ball.  Therefore Chicharito was offside, active, and interfering with play.  He should have been whistled for offside and the goal should not have counted.

The rest of the half was played fairly cleanly without much incident until the 38th minute when Norwich attacked Manchester’s penalty area with a cross from the right wing.  Grant Holt could only manage to head the ball back across the goal area to a teammate when Paul Scholes slipped inside the Norwich player and controlled the ball with the help of his arm.  The ball was in the air a relatively long time and Scholes brought his arm down to meet the ball.  It was a case of “ball to arm” and Norwich should have been awarded a penalty.  Andre Marriner ignored however the claims for handball and United cleared the danger and went into the changing rooms 1-0 up at half time.

At the beginning of the second half, Johnny Evans picked up a booking for hauling down Wes Hoolahan by his shirt to prevent an attack.  This was a good call by the ref especially considering that Evans, a centre back, was out of position in the opposition’s half.

In the 83rd minute, Kyle Naughton nearly tripped Danny Welbeck in his own half.  The ref should have given Manchester a free out but ignored the foul.  Sholes recovered the ball after a bit of pressure, but then made a horrible pass across the pitch directly to Norwich’s Aaron Wilbraham who nearly scored, forcing a save from De Gea out for a corner.  De Gea managed to punch out the ball out from the resulting corner, but Norwich gathered the ball and sent a long ball back into
the area which eventually fell to Grant Holt who turned and scored the equaliser.

While Norwich didn’t score directly from Naughton’s foul on Welbeck, Manchester never really regained their composure after it, so you could say that United were a bit unfortunate about the goal.  However Scholes did recover the ball only to make an awful pass, and De Gea did clear the ball from the ensuing corner, and therefore I will mark the goal as correct.

As the game entered injury time it looked like a plucky Norwich side would come away with a point, however in the dying minutes of the match Ryan Giggs would get the winner with tap in at the far post.  Norwich were encouraged by their performance on the day but were surely disappointed to walk away with nothing.

The game was played for the most part fairly and while Marriner got most of the calls right, he and his linesman still missed several big game-changing calls in this match.

COMPETENCY SUMMARY – Andre Marriner (2012-02-26)
Period 1	Called	Total	Correct %
GOAL	0	1	0.00
OFFSIDE	0	1	0.00
OTHER	13	14	92.86
PENALTY	0	1	0.00
YELLOW	1	1	100.00
TOTAL	14	18	77.78
WEIGHTED	15	23	65.22
Period 2	Called	Total	Correct %
GOAL	2	2	100.00
OFFSIDE	1	1	100.00
OTHER	8	13	61.54
PENALTY	2	2	100.00
YELLOW	1	2	50.00
TOTAL	14	20	70.00
WEIGHTED	23	30	76.67
Totals	Called	Total	Correct %
GOAL	2	3	66.67
OFFSIDE	1	2	50.00
OTHER	21	27	77.78
PENALTY	2	3	66.67
YELLOW	2	3	66.67
TOTAL	28	38	73.68
WEIGHTED	38	53	71.70

Not the best score but all in all just acceptable.

BIAS SUMMARY – Andre Marriner (2012-02-26)
Period 1	Norwich City	%	Manchester United	%	Total
Correct For	6	42.86	8	57.14	14
Correct For Weighted	6	40.00	9	60.00	15
Incorrect Against	4	100.00	0	0.00	4
Incorrect Against Weighted	8	100.00	0	0.00	8
Fouls Commited	7	50.00	7	50.00	14
Fouls Penalised	7	100.00	6	85.71	13
Period 2	Norwich City	%	Manchester United	%	Total
Correct For	8	61.54	5	38.46	13
Correct For Weighted	11	55.00	9	45.00	20
Incorrect Against	4	66.67	2	33.33	6
Incorrect Against Weighted	5	71.43	2	28.57	7
Fouls Commited	5	41.67	7	58.33	12
Fouls Penalised	3	60.00	5	71.43	8
Totals	Norwich City	%	Manchester United	%	Total
Correct For	14	51.85	13	48.15	27
Correct For Weighted	17	48.57	18	51.43	35
Incorrect Against	8	80.00	2	20.00	10
Incorrect Against Weighted	13	86.67	2	13.33	15
Fouls Commited	12	46.15	14	53.85	26
Fouls Penalised	10	83.33	11	78.57	21

When we look at the incorrect calls it looks to be business as usual one could say. The majority of mistakes going the United way.

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