Untold Ref Review: Manchester City 3 – 0 Blackburn Rovers

Today’s referee is Michael Jones – Alias Smith and Jones was a western series from my child hood days, but this Jones is the man with the whistle and not with the smoking gun. But who knows one day…

MATCH REVIEW DETAILS – Michael Jones (2012-02-25)
Period 1
Min	Type	Foul from	On	C/NC	Comment	Weight
5	OTHER	Zabaleta	Olsson	C	Trip	1
8	OTHER	Petrovic	Silva	C	Tried to give advantage first but when he saw nothing was on he gave the first foul	1
12	OTHER	Petrovic	Balotelli	C	Trip	1
15	OTHER	Toure		C	Handball	1
15	OFFSIDE	ManC		C	assumed correct	1
16	OTHER	Petrovic	Balotelli	C	Holding	1
21	OTHER	Petrovic	Silva	C	His fourth foul is a push	1
21	YELLOW	Petrovic		C	Should be booked by now 4 fouls in 20 minutes	2
22	OTHER	Hanley	Yaya	C	Tackle from behind	1
22	YELLOW	Hanley		C	Caught him on the ankle from behind	2
25	OTHER	Hoilett	Silva	C	“Blocked his leg first, then got the ball. Was a foul”	1
27	OTHER	Aguero	Petrovic	C	Push on defender	1
30	GOAL	Balotelli		C	Correct goal	3
32	PENALTY	De Jongh	Pedersen	NC	“He makes contact with the ball with his right foot, Pedersen takes the ball with his left foot and then De Jongh clips the ankle of Pedersen with his left foot. Was a foul, not given”	3
34	OTHER	Balotelli	Dann	C	Push	1
39	OTHER	Orr	Silva	C	Push	1
Period 2
Min	Type	Foul from	On	C/NC	Comment	Weight
46	OTHER	Hoilett	Kolarov	NC	Push not given	1
47	OTHER	Orr	Balotellu	C	Jumped in the back	1
50	OTHER	Zabaleta		C	Handball	1
51	OTHER	Orr	Balotellu	C	Advantage given after a kick on the ankle leading to a short and a corner for City	1
52	YELLOW	Orr		C	before the corner is taken the ref gives a yellow for his late tackle. Excellent refereeing!	2
52	GOAL	ManC		C	“The icing on the cake is that City score from the corner, correct goal”	3
65	OTHER	Orr	Balotellu	C	Push	1
67	OFFSIDE	ManC		C	assumed correct	1
69	OTHER	Zabaleta		C	Handball	1
71	OTHER	Aguero	Pedersen	C	Jumped in the back	1
72	OTHER	Silva	Pedersen	C	Push	1
73	OTHER	Orr	Balotellu	C	Leaning on him	1
77	OTHER	Balotelli	Orr	NC	Came in with his arm against the defender	1
77	OTHER	Kolarov	Yakubu	C	Push	1
81	GOAL	ManC		C	correct goal	3

I don’t know what Petrovic was told before the game but it could have been something like: rough them up a bit. 4 fouls in 20 minutes. Not really bad one but I think the ref should have rewarded his efforts with a yellow card.

His team mate Hanley paid the price a few minutes later.

The only bad moment was a not given penalty for Blackburn in the first half when it was only 1-0 for City. De Jongh came in touched the ball with his right foot but Pedersen still had the ball under control of his left foot. De Jongh then clipped the right foot of Pedersen when he had just passed him. The ref was close and I think was fooled by the first contact with the ball that De Jongh made. And therefore he maybe missed the second contact when no ball was played any more.

Would it have changed the game? City was well in control over the 90 minutes and scored 2 more goals.  But still a miss is a miss from the ref.

Some good refereeing proceded the second City goal. An advantage given that resulted in a shot and a corner. Then a yellow for Orr for his late tackle and then from the corner a goal was scored. That was good – you sometimes need a bit of luck as a ref so we will see if the points are also good.

COMPETENCY SUMMARY – Michael Jones (2012-02-25)
Period 1	Called	Total	Correct %
GOAL	1	1	100.00
OFFSIDE	1	1	100.00
OTHER	11	11	100.00
PENALTY	0	1	0.00
YELLOW	2	2	100.00
TOTAL	15	16	93.75
WEIGHTED	17	20	85.00
Period 2	Called	Total	Correct %
GOAL	2	2	100.00
OFFSIDE	1	1	100.00
OTHER	9	11	81.82
YELLOW	1	1	100.00
TOTAL	13	15	86.67
WEIGHTED	18	20	90.00
Totals	Called	Total	Correct %
GOAL	3	3	100.00
OFFSIDE	2	2	100.00
OTHER	20	22	90.91
PENALTY	0	1	0.00
YELLOW	3	3	100.00
TOTAL	28	31	90.32
WEIGHTED	35	40	87.50

And yes they are. A score of 90% correct calls is really good. With the weight added it goes down to 87,50% but a very, very respectable score in this game. The big question that remains: was there any visible bias in the ref his performance?

BIAS SUMMARY – Michael Jones (2012-02-25)
Period 1	Manchester City	%	Blackburn Rovers	%	Total
Correct For	9	64.29	5	35.71	14
Correct For Weighted	12	70.59	5	29.41	17
Incorrect Against	1	50.00	1	50.00	2
Incorrect Against Weighted	2	40.00	3	60.00	5
Fouls Commited	6	46.15	7	53.85	13
Fouls Penalised	5	83.33	7	100.00	12
Period 2	Manchester City	%	Blackburn Rovers	%	Total
Correct For	7	53.85	6	46.15	13
Correct For Weighted	12	66.67	6	33.33	18
Incorrect Against	1	50.00	1	50.00	2
Incorrect Against Weighted	1	50.00	1	50.00	2
Fouls Commited	7	58.33	5	41.67	12
Fouls Penalised	6	85.71	4	80.00	10
Totals	Manchester City	%	Blackburn Rovers	%	Total
Correct For	16	59.26	11	40.74	27
Correct For Weighted	24	68.57	11	31.43	35
Incorrect Against	2	50.00	2	50.00	4
Incorrect Against Weighted	3	42.86	4	57.14	7
Fouls Commited	13	52.00	12	48.00	25
Fouls Penalised	11	84.62	11	91.67	22

And this is really amazing with only 4 wrong calls over the whole game the ref has done an excellent job. And the best part is that he managed to make 2 mistakes against each team.

So apart from the missed penalty for Blackburn a very good game from the ref and the numbers showed a very unbiased performance also.