Untold Ref Review: Norwich City 1 – 6 Manchester City – is there a pattern here?

Posted on by WalterBroeckx

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:

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 Chris Foy –

MATCH REVIEW DETAILS – Chris Foy (2012-04-14)
Period 1
Min Type Foul from On C/NC Comment Weight
2 OTHER Johnson Zabaleta C 1
8 PENALTY Bennett Tevez N/C Foy makes a really poor call and misses a blatant pen on Tevez 3
8 YELLOW Tevez N/C And rubs salt into the wound 2
10 OTHER Pilkington Aguero N/C Pulls him back outside the box 1
11 OTHER Holt Lescott C 1
13 OTHER Wilbraham Hart N/C Deliberately blocks the goal keeper allowing Holt a header on goal, Lescot clears off the line, poor awareness from the Ref 1
15 OTHER N/C A goal kick given to City but it should have been a corner to Norwich 1
15 OFFSIDE Aguero C 1
16 OFFSIDE Aguero C 1
17 GOAL Tevez C What a hit 3
19 OTHER Norwich Tevez N/C Has him by collar as ball is in air 0
20 OTHER Ward Tevez C Could have been a yellow 1
22 OFFSIDE Aguero N/C Just off but he was let go 1
24 OTHER Holt N/C He backs into Kompany and falls to the floor, minimal contact, Holt is playing for a free kick and the Ref should have a word 1
26 GOAL Aguero C Those Argies can play together 3
29 OTHER De Jong N/C Handball, he played the ball with his upper arm 1
29 OTHER Johnson De Jong C 1
37 OTHER Bennett Tevez C 1
40 OTHER C Ref plays advantage after a foul by Nasri on Bennett 1
40 OTHER Nasri Bennett N/C Wilbraham breaks with the ball but he has no support, so no advantage gained, should have taken it back to the foul Mr Foy 1
42 YELLOW Nasri C At the first chance he pulls out the yellow for the previous foul, at least he got this bit right 2
43 OTHER Bennett De Silva C 1
44 YELLOW Holt N/C As in the 24th minute, he waits for Kompany and falls to the floor, should have been a yellow, this referee clearly has never played and serious football and cannot read a game 2
44 OTHER Holt Kompany N/C The Ref should have awarded an indirect free kick to Man City for unsporting conduct against Holt 1
Period 2
Min Type Foul from On C/NC Comment Weight
49 OFFSIDE Aguero C 1
50 GOAL Surman C 3
52 OTHER Man City Norwich C TV did not show assumed correct 1
53 OTHER Tevez Norwich C 1
55 OTHER Surman Silva C 1
56 OTHER Aguero Howson N/C Aguero overuns the ball and pulls the shirt of defender, nothing given 1
58 OTHER Bennett Tevez C 1
58 YELLOW Bennett C easy yellow 2
60 OTHER Clichy Ward C 1
62 OTHER Barry Hoolahan C 2
70 YELLOW Holt N/C Once again he waits for the touch and falls to the floor, the Ref should have stopped this nonesense earlier 2
70 OTHER Holt Kompany N/C Once again it should have been a Man City free kick for unsporting conduct 1
70 OFFSIDE Tevez C 1
72 GOAL Tevez C Anything you can do I can do better 3
74 GOAL Aguero C I Can do anything better than you 3
79 GOAL Tevez C No you cant! 3
82 OTHER Holt Kompany N/C Holt gives him a little pull as he runs past him, nothing given 1
92 GOAL Johnson C 3

Last week I had the pleasure of reviewing Chris Foy in The Sunderland V Spurs game, in the 87th minute Larsson went past Kaboul, who impeded Larsson with the Ref looking straight at it. Foy not only did not give the Foul but he cautioned a bemused Larsson with Kaboul grinning like a Cheshire Cat. It was poor Reffing.

Fast forward to Norwich V Sunderland and in the 8th minute Tevez is tripped in the box with Foy once again in a great position. Once again he does not give the foul (penalty) but he cautions Tevez who is also bemused. Again it was poor Reffing.

Now let’s talk about Grant Holt there is a lot in the papers about serial divers, and the ones that win penalties tend to get the headlines. Now Grant Holt is what my mate would call a “Big Unit” he would take some knocking down, and when he wants to use that weight to his advantage he is hard to knock off the ball. But when he chooses to he is in the habit of suddenly becoming weak at the legs and falling to the floor, usually as soon as he feels a defender on his back, and usually when he is backing in. How a man goes from being so strong to so weak only he can explain, but his attempts to win a free kick are obvious and constitute simulation. It was clear what he was trying to do, yet never once did he win the free kick, this means the Referee must have been aware of it. The Referee did not speak to him, nor caution him for persistence; it is unacceptable abdication of responsibility by Foy, who has been selective in his application of the laws, as highlighted in the incidents above, inconsistency of the worst kind

I struggle with this sort of inconsistency; all supporters want from Referees is the consistent application of The Laws of the Game regardless of who the law breaker is. Good strong refereeing is always appreciated by players and supporters alike, consistent refereeing we should be able to take for granted. Sadly we are far from that place.

 

COMPETENCY SUMMARY – Chris Foy (2012-04-14)
Period 1 Called Total Correct %
GOAL 2 2 100.00
OFFSIDE 2 3 66.67
OTHER 7 15 46.67
PENALTY 0 1 0.00
YELLOW 1 3 33.33
TOTAL 12 24 50.00
WEIGHTED 17 33 51.52
Period 2 Called Total Correct %
GOAL 5 5 100.00
OFFSIDE 2 2 100.00
OTHER 6 9 66.67
YELLOW 1 2 50.00
TOTAL 14 18 77.78
WEIGHTED 25 30 83.33
Totals Called Total Correct %
GOAL 7 7 100.00
OFFSIDE 4 5 80.00
OTHER 13 24 54.17
PENALTY 0 1 0.00
YELLOW 2 5 40.00
TOTAL 26 42 61.90
WEIGHTED 42 63 66.67

Foy had the worst first half of any Referee I have ever seen, take away the goals, and the offside decisions given by his Assistants and you get a 1st half score of 35%. That is astonishingly poor and perhaps is another reason why Mancini has, this week made the comments he did.

BIAS SUMMARY – Chris Foy (2012-04-14)
Period 1 Norwich City % Manchester City % Total
Correct For 4 33.33 8 66.67 12
Correct For Weighted 5 29.41 12 70.59 17
Incorrect Against 4 36.36 7 63.64 11
Incorrect Against Weighted 4 26.67 11 73.33 15
Fouls Commited 11 91.67 1 8.33 12
Fouls Penalised 6 54.55 0 0.00 6
Period 2 Norwich City % Manchester City % Total
Correct For 7 46.67 8 53.33 15
Correct For Weighted 9 34.62 17 65.38 26
Incorrect Against 1 25.00 3 75.00 4
Incorrect Against Weighted 1 20.00 4 80.00 5
Fouls Commited 4 50.00 4 50.00 8
Fouls Penalised 2 50.00 3 75.00 5
Totals Norwich City % Manchester City % Total
Correct For 11 40.74 16 59.26 27
Correct For Weighted 14 32.56 29 67.44 43
Incorrect Against 5 33.33 10 66.67 15
Incorrect Against Weighted 5 25.00 15 75.00 20
Fouls Commited 15 75.00 5 25.00 20
Fouls Penalised 8 53.33 3 60.00 11

 

The bias shows a clear advantage to Norwich. Was it just home bias or MU-bias against City?

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13 Replies to “Untold Ref Review: Norwich City 1 – 6 Manchester City – is there a pattern here?”

  1. Hi Gooners, City fan here. Great site, bookmarked for further perusal at leisure. As a hopefully not too blinkered City fan, here’s my observation on reffing cockups at City this season, which have affected our season.

    1. Foy sending off Kompany .. we missed him at Everton, where….
    2. Dzeko (I think) was taken out by the guy who score for Everton
    1 point nicked

    3. Chelsea away. Appalling display by Clattenberg, with a nailed on trip on Silva in the box ignored, and two bad studs up tackles, the latter due a straight red (commentators agreed). These both happened after we were 1-0 up and before Chelsea scored. Had we been 2-0 up and Chelsea down to 10, we would I am sure have won.
    3 points nicked.

    4. Sunderland. Offside goal by a good yard and a half.
    1 point nicked

    5. Stoke. Crouch – great goal but he pushed Barry out of the away before to get the ball.
    2 points nicked.

    So that’s seven points we should have had which we didn’t – and had we had them, the fight for the title would be over.

    I should also mention that we had two clear pens at Bayern before they scored. Again, commentators and pundits agreed. We still get ten points, and are the first team in 7 years not to go thru’ to the KO stage with 10 points.

    The MSM then proclaim we bottled it. FFS!

  3. MU-bias a new copyright Untold sentence? After the Webbalty and many others 😉

  4. Jeremy, welcome feel free to come back.

    I will check your remarks with the ones our ref reviewers made in those games if we reviewed them but I think we did or still to be done

  5. Jeremy,
    But I have to take 2 points away from City 😉 The cancelled offside goal from RVP which was onside.

  6. Glad to see Holt getting shown up for his diving. He tried two or three against Arsenal earlier this season–and he was a late substitute! He’s a proper English player so he is, just like Rooney and Gerrard. Good thing we’ve got those foreigners like Tevez to show them how to stay on their feet.

  7. although FOy`s record with us is not Dean-esque im starting to worry about him refereeing our match vs stoke..if i remember correctly he had one of the worst performance this season in a stoke match vs a north london team..really hoping he doesnt do just that against us

  8. Mahdain,
    Foy is also one of 4 named regularly by footballisfixed as a killer bee in service to Don Fungus (via Queen Bee, Micky R)

  9. @bob yeah he has officiated only 1 united defeat apparently..so as Mr Marriner who is to take charge of the “tittle decider” on Monday..according to FIF united has a record of 12 wins,1 draw and 1 loss in matches Marriner has ref’d

  10. And perhaps the remarkable show of a bias towards Utd is the photograph of the Ref ( cannot remember who it was ) smiling unabashedly after Utd had scored…. Following Kompany’s sending off against Utd, in the following game against Liverpool , one of their defenders does a far worse studs up tackle on Silva and yet remains on the field.

  11. Excellent review and sentiments. Nice to see City fans realising what is going on and hopefully realising also what Arsenal have had to put up with for the last 4 seasons. Now their real work begins. I hope they will join the fight to uncover who is behind the cheating and the mercenaries who are doing the dirty work for them.

  12. I have been totally convinced for many years that football is corrupt. The problem is that there is not one but many competing corrupt groups, These are aided by the silence of the FA and the media, all concerned more about their revenue than the game.

  13. I hereby propose from next season to simply give out the damn trophy to MU in August. Then we can watch the games with ease and the poor refs don’t have to bend so far!!!

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