Untold Ref Review: Wolverhampton Wanderers 0 – 2 Manchester City. Not his finest hour.

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 …

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Today’s referee is Lee Probert –

MATCH REVIEW DETAILS – Lee Probert (2012-04-22)
Period 1
Min	Type	Foul from	On	C/NC	Comment	Weight
4	OTHER	Silva	Edwards	C	Trip	1
6	OTHER	Yaya	Henry	NC	Advantage given after a trip, lost the ball immediatly	1
17	OTHER	Henry	Tevez	NC	Not given push to win the ball	1
19	OTHER	MC	Wolves	NC	Not given trip when the ball was gone	1
21	OTHER	Clichy	Edwards	C	little push	1
27	GOAL	MC		C	correct goal	3
29	OFFSIDE	MC		C	assumed correct	1
29	OTHER	Zabaleta	Jarvis	NC	just goes down under no real challenge	1
31	OFFSIDE	MC		C	assumed correct	1
32	OTHER	Kightly	Clichy	C	tackle from behind	1
32	YELLOW	Kightly		NC	late and from behind, should have been a card	2
34	OTHER	Kompany	Fletcher	C	Trip	1
42	OTHER	Davis	Yaya	NC	obstruction not given	1
42	RED	Yaya		NC	Yaya Toure reacts and swings his arm out and hits the face of Davis, swinging an arm in the direction of another player his face is always red	3
43	OTHER	Clichy	Fletcher	NC	Jumps in the back before heading the ball	1
44	OFFSIDE	MC		C	assumed correct	1
46	OTHER	Barry	Davis	C	held him down	1
Period 2
Min	Type	Foul from	On	C/NC	Comment	Weight
48	OTHER	Tevez	Edwards	C	Trip	1
50	OTHER	Jarvis	Zabaleta	NC	Attempted trip on a defender almost in his own penalty box, ref gives advantage?	1
54	OTHER	Henry	Silva	NC	Just pushed him off the ball not given	1
55	OTHER	Bassong	Aguero	NC	He just pulls him to the ground and again the ref givens nothing	1
56	OTHER	Yaya	Kightly	C	Trip	1
56	YELLOW	Yaya		C	Came late	2
58	OTHER	Davis	Yaya	C	Trip	1
59	OFFSIDE	Wolves		C	assumed correct	1
60	OTHER	Bassong	Tevez	C	pushing and shoving finally foul given	1
66	OFFSIDE	MC		C	assumed correct	1
66	OTHER	Clichy	Kightly	C	Trip	1
67	OFFSIDE	Wolves		NC	Bassong offside, not given	1
70	OTHER	Doyle	Barry	C	Trip	1
72	OTHER	De Jongh	Kightly	C	Trip	1
73	OTHER	Davis	Tevez	C	Holding, trip, pulling and finally the ref gives the foul	1
74	GOAL	MC		C	correct goal	3
78	OTHER	Lescot	Doyle	NC	pull not given	1
79	OTHER	Zabelata		C	handball assumed correct	1
82	OTHER	De Jongh		C	handball assumed correct	1
87	OTHER	Kightly	Clichy	C	assumed correct	1
92	OTHER	De Jongh	Blake	C	Trip	1

Talk about a poor first half, he did it again.  Missing a lot of fouls, being inconsistent once again.  Not punishing blatant fouls that even a blind man should be able to see.

Kightly should have got a yellow for a late tackle from behind. And then we come back to Yaya Toure.  A foul was made on him and the ref missed it. But then Yaya Toure swung out his arm towards the Wolves player and even caught him on the jaw.  Swinging an arm towards the face of another player can only be punished with one thing: a red card. But this ref saw nothing. This is now the 3rd time we have seen Yaya Toure making a red card offence in a game without the ref doing something about it. And once again without the FA doing something about it later on. One have to wonder if the refs or the Fa are afraid of Yaya Toure for some reason?

Back to ref Probert. He got a bit better in the second half. But at a certain moment I thought he had forgotten his whistle in the second half or had lost it. In the first 10 minutes he allowed the Wolverhampton players almost anything and didn’t blow a foul. Some rugby like fouls dragging a player down and he just waved it away. It started to become a real joke at times. But when Yaya Toure made a foul he found his whistle again. And then he tried to do what he is paid for: be a ref. From then on he looked to be awake and managed to get a decent score in the second half.

COMPETENCY SUMMARY – Lee Probert (2012-04-22)
Period 1	Called	Total	Correct %
GOAL	1	1	100.00
OFFSIDE	3	3	100.00
OTHER	5	11	45.45
RED	0	1	0.00
YELLOW	0	1	0.00
TOTAL	9	17	52.94
WEIGHTED	11	22	50.00
Period 2	Called	Total	Correct %
GOAL	1	1	100.00
OFFSIDE	2	3	66.67
OTHER	12	16	75.00
YELLOW	1	1	100.00
TOTAL	16	21	76.19
WEIGHTED	19	24	79.17
Totals	Called	Total	Correct %
GOAL	2	2	100.00
OFFSIDE	5	6	83.33
OTHER	17	27	62.96
RED	0	1	0.00
YELLOW	1	2	50.00
TOTAL	25	38	65.79
WEIGHTED	30	46	65.22

But it couldn’t save him for the overall score over the whole 90 minutes. Another insufficient score from the ref.

BIAS SUMMARY – Lee Probert (2012-04-22)
Period 1	Wolverhampton Wanderers	%	Manchester City	%	Total
Correct For	7	77.78	2	22.22	9
Correct For Weighted	7	63.64	4	36.36	11
Incorrect Against	5	62.50	3	37.50	8
Incorrect Against Weighted	7	63.64	4	36.36	11
Fouls Commited	3	21.43	11	78.57	14
Fouls Penalised	1	33.33	7	63.64	8
Period 2	Wolverhampton Wanderers	%	Manchester City	%	Total
Correct For	9	56.25	7	43.75	16
Correct For Weighted	10	52.63	9	47.37	19
Incorrect Against	1	20.00	4	80.00	5
Incorrect Against Weighted	1	20.00	4	80.00	5
Fouls Commited	10	52.63	9	47.37	19
Fouls Penalised	6	60.00	8	88.89	14
Totals	Wolverhampton Wanderers	%	Manchester City	%	Total
Correct For	16	64.00	9	36.00	25
Correct For Weighted	17	56.67	13	43.33	30
Incorrect Against	6	46.15	7	53.85	13
Incorrect Against Weighted	8	50.00	8	50.00	16
Fouls Commited	13	39.39	20	60.61	33
Fouls Penalised	7	53.85	15	75.00	22

The bias index wasn’t that bad at the end of the day with a slight advantage for the home team. But all in all a performance that will not get a mention in the referee courses on how to do a PL game. Well I hope it doesn’t….