by Walter Broeckx
Next in our series as we cover each and every Premier League team we have Wigan which if you don’t mind will from now on call just Wigan. I hope you forgive me a little joke as we are now at the end of this part of looking at the refs in the PL. But don’t worry there is more to come.
Now before any Wigan supporters comes on here and suggest that it is not the averages but the actual decisions that count (as some fans of other clubs have done) may we suggest you take a look at both the introductory articles which you can find here and here. You may also enjoy our other site: Referee Decisions.
And if you did, you can come back and have a look at the statistical pointers we have found when we compare the overall results of Wigan with the results of each ref when he does Wigan games.
Of course you might have bad experiences with some refs in some games but who, after seeing the statistics, you find are not really that bad in general. You can share your experiences of course. But this article is not really about those games in particular. It is more about the total picture of the referee and this team.
Under the table I will try to give a short explanation on what you see.
|
Total |
won |
draw |
lost |
won |
draw |
lost |
% games |
|
|
Wigan |
291 |
81 |
73 |
137 |
27,84% |
25,09% |
47,08% |
|
| Atkinson |
21 |
7 |
4 |
10 |
33,33% |
19,05% |
47,62% |
9,42% |
| Clattenburg |
27 |
9 |
4 |
14 |
33,33% |
14,81% |
51,85% |
12,11% |
| Dean |
24 |
12 |
4 |
8 |
50,00% |
16,67% |
33,33% |
10,76% |
| Dowd |
23 |
8 |
9 |
6 |
34,78% |
39,13% |
26,09% |
10,31% |
| Foy | No games | |||||||
| Friend |
12 |
4 |
4 |
4 |
33,33% |
33,33% |
33,33% |
5,38% |
| Jones |
16 |
4 |
4 |
8 |
25,00% |
25,00% |
50,00% |
7,17% |
| Halsey |
5 |
0 |
2 |
3 |
0,00% |
40,00% |
60,00% |
2,24% |
| Marriner |
22 |
8 |
10 |
4 |
36,36% |
45,45% |
18,18% |
9,87% |
| Mason |
10 |
4 |
1 |
5 |
40,00% |
10,00% |
50,00% |
4,48% |
| Moss |
7 |
3 |
0 |
4 |
42,86% |
0,00% |
57,14% |
3,14% |
| Oliver |
10 |
3 |
4 |
3 |
30,00% |
40,00% |
30,00% |
4,48% |
| Probert |
17 |
2 |
3 |
12 |
11,76% |
17,65% |
70,59% |
7,62% |
| Swarbrick |
2 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
0,00% |
0,00% |
100,00% |
0,90% |
| Taylor |
6 |
2 |
2 |
2 |
33,33% |
33,33% |
33,33% |
2,69% |
| Webb |
21 |
6 |
4 |
11 |
28,57% |
19,05% |
52,38% |
9,42% |
In their PL history Wigan is one of those teams who always seems certain of relegation at some part of the season but then manage to avoid it at the end. This leads to an overall win % of just under 28% of their games. The number we will use in our survey as to measure the refs.
If we look at how many refs are available we see that the only ref with no Wigan games is Foy. Foy is from Liverpool and is an Everton supporter and so doesn’t do games from teams from the Liverpool area. And as far as my geography is a bit correct I have found out that Wigan is part of what one could call the Liverpool area.
And then we see a very strange thing. Because as far as I know Wirral is also part of what one could call the Liverpool area. Only a measly Mersey river away from Liverpool. And Wigan is not that far from Liverpool. And then we have ref Dean who doesn’t do Liverpool or Everton as being from Wirral. But he is doing games from not that far from Liverpool away Wigan. And just look at the win percentage Wigan have when Dean is around town! The win percentage of Wigan under Dean is almost the double of their usual win %.
Now if I were to be head of the PGMOL that would be a number that would sound some alarm bells. But there are more numbers when Dean is around that should make alarm bells sound. Ah well we guess it is all part of wonder Mike Riley perfect Deans world.
Another ref we don’t count in this is Swarbrick who only has done two Wigan games so far and that is not enough to draw any conclusions. So we have 14 refs that we do take in account.
Who are the “good” referees for Wigan? First let me say that by saying “good” referees I don’t refer to their decisions on the field. I only look at the win percentage of Wigan under those referees. A high win percentage is good for the team but says nothing about the decisions on the field.
Well I gave one away already of course. Mike Dean. Mason and Moss are two other refs under whom Wigan in general perform better than can be expected when looking at their average win percentage. That is 3 good refs on a total of 14.
So who are the average refs when doing Wigan games. Atkinson, Clattenburg, Dowd, Friend, Jones, Marriner, Oliver, Taylor and Webb. That is nine refs under whom Wigan perform as can be expected in general.
That leaves us with two bad boys for Wigan. Who are they? Well they are Halsey and Probert. With an even for Wigan very low win percentage in general. Two bad refs isn’t that bad but now let us see if they have a big influence on the points total for Wigan.
And the good news for Wigan is that the influence of Halsey and Probert is rather small. Probert having an influence of around 6 to 9 points in a season and Halsey having an interest of only three points a season. So the two of them together having an influence of maximum 12 points. That is rather acceptable I would say.
If we look at the other refs who have an influence above and around 10% we see that most of them are in the category average. So that could be called as rather fair. Of course it isn’t completely fair as we have said it before that the influence of each ref should be a maximum of 6 points in a season.
But when we go back to Dean, the best ref for Wigan we see that he gets them rather a lot. His influence is around 12 points. And that is always very handy when you have such a ref when you are fighting for survival.
If I would bring in Arsenal in this article I would suggest that if you ever see Dean appointed to do Arsenal-Wigan (or the other way round) run to the bookmaker and put your money on Arsenal losing. But this is something that we will cover in the follow up of this series. Where you will be able to see each ref and his results with each team in one table.
By the way: any bets on Dean doing Arsenal – Wigan on the second last day of the season?
Recent posts…
- Financial Fair Play faces its first big test.
- Others see it, so why can’t all Arsenal supporters see it?
- It’s now in our hands. Shame about the attack. And defence.
The referee analysis
The full index of articles in order of publication is now available here.
The latest reviews: Case study 16: West Ham Case study 17: Wigan
The books…
- Woolwich Arsenal: The club that changed football – Arsenal’s early years
- Making the Arsenal – how the modern Arsenal was born in 1910
- The Crowd at Woolwich Arsenal FC: crowd behaviour at the early matches
- Royal Arsenal: from the Common to the Manor. Coming next.
The sites from the same team…
- Referee Decisions – just what are the refs up to this season?
- The Arsenal History Blog from the AISA Arsenal History Society
Wigan is roughly half-way between Liverpool, and not very close to The Wirral at all. A very unscientific study.
Dean again. Surprise surprise (in a Dean accent).
Dean is without doubt a cunt. I live in Cheshire now and I would love to see that son of a bitch in a bar. I would either dupe him by claiming to support a London club that hates Arsenal. (Anyone but the spuds, couldn’t bring myself to do it).
Or simply knock him out.
Both sound like fun.
Sorry, meant to read “half-way between Liverpool and Manchester”!
Walter, didn’t Wigan record a win very recently with Halsey?
What a shock to the system again. Surprise surprise sunrise (also in a Dean accent).
I live in no fear when I put that cunt Dean on a pedestal and throw my half time steak and mushroom pie at his great big nodder. I wouldn’t go as far as to knock him the fuck out. (However one could say I’d burn that Cunt and projectile vomit on his corpse)
Fun hey.
The reason that Foy never does Wigan is that he trains at their training ground. All refs do this with one club. It has nothing to do with geography.
Yet more questions to an already full of questions without answers case of Mike Dean. This strengthens my belief that Dean is being groomed to take over from Riley because there is no other away i can explain how such a dodgy ref like him is still in work. Utterly ridiculous..
People need to remember that the best side in the country has an average win percentage of around the 60% mark, and that team is Manchester united.
So when a team that is not considered a top four side has a win percentage in that area questions should be asked.
You transfer Deans stats in to points and we are looking at 40 points after 24 games. Had that all been in one season, this season Wigan after 24 games would have been above Arsenal in 6th place. That’s the difference for Wigan under Dean, they should be pushing for a European qualification spot.
And at the other end we have Probert, who would see Wigan a non league side.
Sorry forgot to mention that Wigan after 24 games this season had 20 points, so that double figure that Walter mentioned is relative.
Some food for thought within these stats, and how a referee can be of influence or hindrance.
@Adam surprisingly though when these teams have their bogey refs against us they dont feel the effects at all..Take Probert and Wigan for example i remember how utter shit Probert was for us in that match vs them.He gave them a penalty from a disgusting dive and denied us clear ones. Dean and QPR is another one
Indeed Mahdain you are correct. After that game in Wigan I called hem Poorbert for his poor and bias officiating. He gave all the calls to Wigan apart from a red card for a punch on Wilshere and even that was something he couldn’t let go.
Dean also one win in total and yes it was QPR-Arsenal where QPR players kicked the shit out of Walcott in the first 3 minutes with fouls from behind and not given by the ref at all.
This is where we are generalising, and the specifics are more intricate. But this is a great gauge for how teams fare under certain refs.
Another thing I noticed is how many select group refs drop in to the championship to do their games and certain teams get select refs more often than others. I wonder why this is so?
Does this mean we wont be seeing Dean for our match v united? Im sure Fergie might want to give him a break
Yeah just watched that match as well.
We all know Dean was given two weeks off as he will be busy with all of Arsenal’s remaining fixtures.
Getting your excuses in early?
The keeper was blocked my ass. How many times have we seen this! Manure to win it at the Emirates ??The pundits love to dream hopefully it comes back to kick their butts.
Why do I keep seeing Riley and some of his refs looking like worms wriggling on the end of your fishing rod, Walter? Great stuff!
Doanythingformoney,
today I will be looking at the leader of the worms then ;)And the influence this man has 🙁
Lee Mason is from Bolton, and was in the same class at school at Wigan goalkeeper Mike Pollitt.
Northern boys together!
You actually spend time analysing and debating all this?! You need to get out more.