Untold Ref Review: MU 2 – Norwich 0

The Christmas gift for the fan with (almost) everything

By Ref Reviewer 03

If you are new to this series you might like to see the note at the foot of the article

For the game Manchester United – Norwich we reviewed ref Stuart Attwell. How was his score?

Min	Type	Foul from	On	C/NC	Comment	points	weight
3	OFFSIDE	Johnson		C		1	1
10	OTHER	Hoolahan	Nani	C	Trip	1	1
11	OTHER	Morrison	Valencia	NC	Shove – not given	0	0
12	OTHER	Valencia	Tierney	C	Obstruction	1	1
13	OTHER	Morison	Valencia	C	Trip	1	1
18	OTHER	Evans	Bennett	NC	Holding – not given	0	0
23	OFFSIDE	Chicharito		C		1	1
24	OTHER	Morison	Evra	NC	Linesman called a foul but it looked like normal contact	0	0
26	OTHER	Jones	Morison	NC	Barged into player before winning header – not given	0	0
33	OTHER	Chicharito	Ruddy	NC	Backed into the keeper with arms extended during corner kick – not given	0	0
33	OTHER	Valencia	Tierney	C	Trip	1	1
35	OTHER	Chicharito/Rooney	Ruddy/	NC	1 Chicharito was again interfering with the keeper during a corner. 2 Rooney climbed over Martin to win header. 3 Ball last went off of Martin but goal kick given to Norwich.	0	0
38	OTHER	Chicharito		NC	Chicharito slipped and blocked the ball with his arm – not given.	0	0
39	OTHER	Tierney	Rooney	NC	Tierney held Rooney by upper leg – not given though Rooney still managed a shot off target	0	0
40	OTHER	Johnson	Nani	C	Looked a committed challenge, perhaps there was a little shove	1	1
40	OTHER	Tierney	Nani	NC	Pulled him down – not given	0	0
41	OTHER	Naughton	Evra	NC	Trip at the edge of the area – not given	0	0
43	YELLOW	Fletcher		NC	Simulated fall in the area – should have been booked	0	0
44	OFFSIDE	Chicharito		C		1	1
46	OFFSIDE	Chicharito		C		1	1
	Half time					9	9
			CORRECT			45,00%	42,86%
	YELLOW				0	1	0,00
	RED				0	0
	PENALTY				0	0
	GOAL				0	0
	OTHER				0	2	0,00
					0	3	0,00
	OFFSIDE				4	4	100,00
	Second half
47	OTHER	Nani	Johnson	NC	Caught the Norwich player’s boot as he cleared the ball – not given, advantage not signaled	0	0
47	OTHER	Morison	Evans	C	Shirt pulling	1	1
52	OFFSIDE	Chicharito		C	very close call but can’t tell from angle – assumed correct	1	1
54	PENALTY			C	Rooney fell to ground under minimal contact by the Norwich player trying to head the ball away. No penalty was correct	1	3
54	YELLOW	Rooney		NC	Rooney should have been booked for diving	0	0
55	OFFSIDE	Evra		C	Assumed correct	1	1
57	OTHER	Nani	Hoolahan	C	Tugged on his shorts	1	1
60	OTHER	Evans	Johnson	C	Climbed over him	1	1
62	OTHER	Barnett	Rooney	C	Holding	1	1
68	GOAL	Anderson		C	Goal okay	1	3
71	OTHER	Welbeck	Tierney	C	Kicked Tierney’s boot as the Norwich player cleared the ball	1	1
71	YELLOW	Welbeck		C	Dangerous play deserved card	1	2
78	OTHER	Welbeck	Johnson	C	Got the ball, but a bit of the player too	1	1
79	OFFSIDE	Valencia		C		1	1
81	OTHER	Giggs	Crofts	C	Trip	1	1
82	OTHER	Park	Hoolahan	C	Trip	1	1
87	GOAL	Welbeck		C	Goal okay	1	3
90	OTHER	Jones	Tierney	C	Trip	1	1
90+3	OTHER	Jackson	Evans	NC	Push – not given	0	0
			2nd half score
	TOTAL					16	23
	%		CORRECT			84,21%	85,19%
	YELLOW				1	2	50,00
	RED				0	0
	PENALTY				1	1	100,00
	GOAL				2	2	100,00
	OTHER				0	1	0,00
					4	6	66,67
	OFFSIDE				3	3	100,00
			TOTAL SCORE
	TOTAL					25	32
	%		CORRECT			60,98%	66,67%
	YELLOW				1	3	33,33
	RED				0	0
	PENALTY				1	1
	GOAL				2	2	100,00
	OTHER				0	3	0,00
					4	9	44,44
	OFFSIDE				7	7	100,00
	Correct calls		For Man U		8	30,77%
			For Norwich		18	69,23%
			Total correct calls		26
	Wrong calls		Against Man U		4	30,77%
			Against Norwich		9	69,23%
			Total		13

Atwell scored very poorly in the 1st half, rather well in the 2nd half, but overall had a poor score of 61%.  Incorrect decisions favoured Manchester United by a 9 to 4 margin though there really wasn’t anything too controversial in these decisions.

For example, in the first half, Chicharito was often interfering with the Norwich keeper from corner kicks and getting away with it, and although Manchester opened the scoring from a corner kick halfway through the 2nd half, the goal was scored legitimately.  Note that Chicharito had been substituted two or three minutes earlier.

There were also two instances of a Manchester United player throwing himself to ground in the area and appealing for a penalty, Fletcher in the 1st half, and Rooney in the 2nd half, both of whom should have been booked for simulation.  However in both cases the ref didn’t fall for it, nor were Fletcher or Rooney guilty of any other bookable offenses in the match.

Regarding the correct calls, Norwich received 18 correct decisions compared to Manchester’s 8, indicating that Norwich was on the receiving end of more fouls in addition to the fact that United was whistled 6 times for offside compared to just once for Norwich.  While neither side was dirty, except for maybe one tackle by Welbeck for which he was booked, Norwich played a relatively clean match with little fouling and were perhaps unfortunate not to come away with a point as they spurned several good scoring chances.

———————

Background: Initially Untold Arsenal started to publish referee reviews of Arsenal matches, and through this we found some evidence of what appeared to be consistent bias by referees against Arsenal.  The point was then made we would get a better overall picture of what is going on if we also analysed errors made by referees in non-Arsenal EPL games as well.

This site records our findings.  A summary of our position from the point of view of evidence is given here.…

Untold Referees is written by a team who draw together their reports on how referees have performed in various matches, based on TV reporting of games.  We use the TV since it allows us to check and re-check decisions – but we are at the mercy of the TV stations which don’t always show each and every decision.  If you would like to contribute to the work of the panel please do get in touch with us via WalterBroeckx@hotmail.com