Untold Ref Review: Newcastle United 1 – 1 Sunderland

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 Mike Dean –

MATCH REVIEW DETAILS – Mike Dean (2012-03-04)
Period 1
Min	Type	Foul from	On	C/NC	Comment	Weight
1	OTHER	Cattermole	Tiote	C	Flying tackle from behind and taking in the second leg	1
1	RED	Cattermole		NC	Ref gives a yellow, should have been red. This was a pure violent attack	3
1	YELLOW	Cattermole		C	Well in a way we should give a point to the ref for giving “”a”” card	2
4	OTHER	Larson	Santon	NC	Larsson pulled out of the challenge and Santon threw himself to the ground	1
5	OTHER	Tiote	Mignoled	C	Tiote has only eye for Mignolet and tries to block his path. To my surprise Dean knows that this is a foul and gives the free kick	1
6	OTHER	Simpson	Cattermole	C	Trip	1
9	OTHER	Coloccini	Sessegnon	C	Trip	1
10	OTHER	Taylor		NC	Runs out of the wall before the free kick is taken, ref gives a corner	1
12	OTHER	Sun?	Ba	NC	Holding not given	1
12	OTHER	Cabbay	Barton	NC	Late tackle on the defender ref gives advantage	1
13	YELLOW	Cabbay		C	ref gives a yellow when the ball is out of play, good work this time	2
14	OTHER	Oshea	Ba	NC	Push in the back not given	1
15	OTHER	Simpson	McClean	C	Kick from behind	1
15	YELLOW	Simpson		NC	Ref mumbles a few words against Simpson for this late kick, by now you should know that the only way to deal with this is by giving yellow cards ref	2
16	OTHER	Tiote	Sessegnon	C	Trip	1
17	OTHER	Tiote	Cattermole	C	first the man and then the ball is a foul, correct from the ref, again only words from the ref	1
18	OTHER	McClean	Simpson	C	McClean comes to take revenge for the earlier tackle and comes in late	1
18	YELLOW	McClean		C	a result of the ref not doing something earlier, but correct card	2
18	YELLOW	Simpson		C	Giving is one thing but being on the end of a dangerous tackle is something Simpson doesn’t like and he confronts McClean and receives a well deserved yellow card	2
21	OTHER	Tiote	McClean	NC	wins the ball but this is a frontal tackle ref	1
22	YELLOW	Richardson		NC	refuses to walk some 10 yards to collect the ball that is lying 1 yard outside the playing field and the ref?does nothing oh and he steals another 15 yards and wins some 25 seconds	2
23	OTHER	Ba	Gardner	C	Late tackle from behind	1
23	YELLOW	Ba		C	a good decision	2
24	PENALTY	Williamson	Turner	C	pulled his shirt clearly. A correct decision	3
24	YELLOW	Williamson		C	Compared to other fouls this was rather soft but it was a blatant foul in the penalty area	2
24	GOAL	Sunderland		C	Bendtner scores from the spot	3
27	OTHER	Bendtner	Williamson	C	pull	1
30	OTHER	Bardsley	Gutiriez	NC	Pull and ran in to him nothing given. Even Sunderland play the ball out	1
31	OTHER	Gutierez	larson	C	Advantage given	1
31	OTHER	Bendtner	?	NC	Karate kid in action but nobody really close but this is a signal that there are not many laws on the field	1
32	OTHER	Tiote	Sessegnon	C	Trip	1
40	OTHER	Larson	cabbay	NC	High foot not given	1
42	OFFSIDE	Sunderland		C	assumed correct	1
43	OFFSIDE	Sunderland		C	assumed correct	1
47	PENALTY	Oshea	BA	NC	clear push with both hands inthe back not given	3
47	OTHER	Sun?	Tiote	NC	Clearly stopped him with his outstrechted leg, not given	1
47	OTHER	Bendtner	Santon	C	Three fouls for the price of one,,,	1
Period 2
Min	Type	Foul from	On	C/NC	Comment	Weight
50	OTHER	Larsson	Taylor	C	Push	1
50	OFFSIDE	Newcastle		C	Assumed correct	1
51	OTHER	Tiote	Gardner	NC	Goes in leading with the arm to win a header, not given	1
51	YELLOW	Tiote		NC	coming in with the arm to the face, always a yellow	2
51	OTHER	Gardner		C	rash frontal challenge	1
51	YELLOW	Gardner		C	Correct to give the card but I think Gardner is still angry for the not given foul on him seconds earlier.	2
53	OTHER	Ben Arfa	Mignolet	NC	Ben Arfa goes in to block the keeper, Dean back to his usual not knowing the rules?	1
54	OTHER	Tiote	Bendtner	NC	High foot, not given	1
56	OTHER	Turner	Ba	C	trip	1
57	OTHER	Tiote	Sun?	NC	Tiote swings an arm in the direction of the face of a Sunderland player, under the nose of the ref who sees nothing	1
57	OTHER	Tiote	Sessesgon	NC	Tiote is all over Sessegnon and giving little kicks against his heel, not given	1
57	RED	Tiote		NC	Swinging your arm in the direction of an opponent and this is his second time that went unpunished. Tiote should be off now	3
58	RED	Sessegnon		C	Swinging your arm in the direction of an opponent is a red card. But why the inconsistency Mr. Dean?	3
58	YELLOW	Tiote		C	He should get an oscar for his theatrics and by the absense of that a yellow card.	2
63	OTHER	Coloccini	Richardson	C	Assumed correct	1
64	OTHER	Bendtner	Williamson	NC	Made himself wide a bit but not much wrong	1
66	OTHER	Gardner	Cabaye	C	use of the arm, correct seen this time by the ref	1
67	OTHER	Tiote	Cattermole	C	trip	1
67	YELLOW	Tiote		C	too little, too late, should have been off a long time by now. But well we can be happy that the ref finally produces his card for Tiote	2
78	YELLOW	Mignolet		C	Should have been booked for time wasting by now	2
80	OTHER	Campbell	Coloccini	C	trip	1
80	YELLOW	Campbell		NC	He kicks the ball away just when Newcastle tries to take it, should have been booked	2
81	OTHER	Gardner		C	handball	1
82	PENALTY	Campbell	Ameobi	C	clear trip	3
84	OTHER	Gutierez	Campbell	C	trip	1
89	OTHER	Tiote	Mcclean	C	His foot went over the ball and landed on the ankle of McClean	1
89	YELLOW	Tiote		NC	oh well? he has a soft spot for Tiote somewhere I guess	2
90	GOAL	Newcastle		C	when the Newcastle player headed the ball Ameobi was level with the defender	3
94	OTHER	Gardner	Gutierez	C	obstructions	1
95	OTHER	Ameobi	Campbell	C	Assumed correct	1

When you go to a game that is known for its violence in the past it is important to do something about it. You could call in the captains before the game and tell them that you would be strict and that if they start kicking around you will send them off the field.  After all you came to ref a game of football and not a game of kick boxing.

Did Dean do this? If no, he acted irresponsible in my opinion. If yes… then he made a complete fool of himself within the first minute. The tackle from Cattermole in that position of the field, on that moment in the game was totally out of proportion. This was a tackle with the intention to possible cripple an influential player from the other team. So if Dean had done the second thing he should have shown Cattermole who is their captain the red card. Also if he hadn’t done it he should have shown the red card in fact. But he wouldn’t have made a fool of himself.

Now we got a game of… well cannot call it football in fact. My match commentator was begging the players in the first half to finally start playing for the ball.  This sums it up rather nicely I think.

A few really amazing things in this game. Dean showing that he knows the rule that you cannot try to stop the keeper when a corner is taken. Well he showed it once. But then on a few other occasions just ignored it. I did the same in his report to be honest as there were so many incidents it only would have been even longer.

The Sunderland penalty. It was correct but was amazed to see it given by Dean. A rather brave decision maybe but a correct one.

He was less brave when it came to Cattermole and Tiote. They came away with way to many things on the day. Both should have been red carded at some point in the game. Cattermole with a straight red and Tiote with 7 yellow cards. Could be 6 though.

The only sending off was again a master piece of Deans’ bad performance. Tiote made a number of little niggling fouls on Sessegnon without Dean calling them. Finally Sessegnon had enough and threw an arm against Tiote his chest. Tiote went down as if being punched in the face and Dean was right in sending Sessegnon off.

The bad thing is that Tiote by then had been throwing arms around in a few incidents and Dean not even calling them as fouls.  Really bad from the ref.

The Newcastle penalty was a clear one. Newcastle had a few other shouts one in the first half when Oshea pushed Ba in the back with both hands and a few others that were not that clear so I went with the ref on those.

The Newcastle equaliser was correct as Ba was onside when the ball was touched by Williamson. In the end maybe a fair result of the game but a bad performance of ref Dean.

I know this is a difficult game to do but then you have to make sure as a ref that you are there from the first second and do what you have to do.

COMPETENCY SUMMARY – Mike Dean (2012-03-04)
Period 1	Called	Total	Correct %
GOAL	1	1	100.00
OFFSIDE	2	2	100.00
OTHER	13	23	56.52
PENALTY	1	2	50.00
RED	0	1	0.00
YELLOW	6	8	75.00
TOTAL	23	37	62.16
WEIGHTED	33	53	62.26
Period 2	Called	Total	Correct %
GOAL	1	1	100.00
OFFSIDE	1	1	100.00
OTHER	12	18	66.67
PENALTY	1	1	100.00
RED	1	2	50.00
YELLOW	4	7	57.14
TOTAL	20	30	66.67
WEIGHTED	30	45	66.67
Totals	Called	Total	Correct %
GOAL	2	2	100.00
OFFSIDE	3	3	100.00
OTHER	25	41	60.98
PENALTY	2	3	66.67
RED	1	3	33.33
YELLOW	10	15	66.67
TOTAL	43	67	64.18
WEIGHTED	63	98	64.29

So a low score in points in every way you look at the game.

BIAS SUMMARY – Mike Dean (2012-03-04)
Period 1	Newcastle United	%	Sunderland	%	Total
Correct For	8	34.78	15	65.22	23
Correct For Weighted	10	30.30	23	69.70	33
Incorrect Against	10	71.43	4	28.57	14
Incorrect Against Weighted	15	75.00	5	25.00	20
Fouls Commited	13	48.15	14	51.85	27
Fouls Penalised	10	76.92	6	42.86	16
Period 2	Newcastle United	%	Sunderland	%	Total
Correct For	11	64.71	6	35.29	17
Correct For Weighted	18	72.00	7	28.00	25
Incorrect Against	3	23.08	10	76.92	13
Incorrect Against Weighted	5	25.00	15	75.00	20
Fouls Commited	11	47.83	12	52.17	23
Fouls Penalised	6	54.55	10	83.33	16
Totals	Newcastle United	%	Sunderland	%	Total
Correct For	19	47.50	21	52.50	40
Correct For Weighted	28	48.28	30	51.72	58
Incorrect Against	13	48.15	14	51.85	27
Incorrect Against Weighted	20	50.00	20	50.00	40
Fouls Commited	24	48.00	26	52.00	50
Fouls Penalised	16	66.67	16	61.54	32

 

But the good thing is that in the bias score he actually managed to be as bad for both teams.  27 wrong calls that really is bad for a ref.  But even divided between both teams. And that is good. It showed no real intent of bias, just complete incompetence to do such a game I think.