EPL Referee Assignments & Discussion [Rs]

Ha. It's interesting that you guys mention this. I've been watching the Premier League forever and it's just so normal to me now that I don't even notice it any more..

 

Was it that long ago that we used the ref flag and the yellow flag here? I still have a set. I don't recall when these new checkered flag options emerged.

 

It has been like this for most of the past 15 years or so. Only when OSUK got the contract did they supply the PGMO with the Ervocoms did they move to the diamond flags, and even then, they supplied a diamond and a yellow flag, though certain officials prefered both to have diamonds.

Touchline have had the contract to supply the flags to the PGMO for most of the PL's history, and with the liquidation of OSUK, they've now taken over the contract again, having developed new buzzer flags, and thus re-introducing the checkered/yellow flags again after about 4 years.

When Poll and Riley went to Euros/WCs, they would always use the Touchline flags rather than the Ervocom flags. You could always tell if they were officiating a match!

The red/yellow flag is always the senior AR. It used to be that the first named AR had the red/yellow flag (done alphabetically), but this was stopped a few years ago and now the senior AR has it.

 

I started officiating back in 2003 (I know, relatively young here...) but I don't think I have ever used the red/yellow flags. I was given an old set of the wooden pink/yellow four square flags and have worked my way up from there. That said, I have seen referees who have used the two different colors, but not in the last 6 or so years.

Englishref, thanks for the clarification. I never used to pay that much attention to the referees in the EPL until a couple of years ago so I was not aware of the dual colored flags.

 

I was given the standard orange/yellow wooden as basic when I took my class last year and I still use them, unless the center gives me other type. we call them cheapo flags.

 

This has been, in my opinion, a helluva good match and Webb's done well to insert himself when needed.

I gotta find some video for this but Swansea's attempted 3rd goal was waved off for a foul against Norwich's keeper, and I wasn't quite sure about it. 50/50 ball, the Swansea player didn't move forward to challenge, the keeper came out. I guess the Norwich GK had possession but it seemed generous in my opinion.

That said, at game speed I'd call the same thing, I'm re-examining after the 65th replay.

 

League Cup QF

Tuesday 11th December 2012
Bradford City v Arsenal
MICHAEL DEAN
Jake Collin and John Brooks
Fourth Official Kevin Friend

Norwich City v Aston Villa
MICHAEL OLIVER
Richard West and Peter Bankes
Fourth Official Stuart Attwell


Wednesday 12th December 2012

Swansea City v Middlesbrough

LEE PROBERT
John Flynn and Ronald Ganfield
Fourth Official Philip Dowd


Wednesday 19th December 2012

Leeds United v Chelsea
ANDRE MARRINER
Michael Mullarkey and Darren Cann
Fourth Official Michael Jones

 

I just finished watching a really poor performance from Mark Halsey and his entire team on the Stoke v. Everton match. Halsey was out of sync with Ar 1 in the first half, missing corners and direction. He decided against a clear Everton penalty, caused much complaining by both sides, was totally indecisive, left the cards in his pocket, let the game get totally out of control twice, got in the SHOOTING lane once ( whacked really hard), and then botched a series of corners were much rugby style tackling occured, and then totally missed an Everton player's retaliation for constantly being held. Felliani head butted Shawcross on one occassion, and punched him another time. If this was an upgrade assessment going for a 7, it would have been an absolute failure. I know all about his history, but this is the big time and that was about as bad as it gets.

 

Yup, pretty atrocious on Halsey's part. Unconscionable, really, especially the VC. I wonder what all the "experts" would be saying if we saw an MLS performance like this one?

Btw, did anyone check out the WBA-West Ham match?

Some fitness issues for Dowd, perhaps?

 

Being a WHU fan, I was obviously watching the game on Fox. Seemed like Phil was a little slow to the play. I like Phil and I thought he did a good game despite his perceived lack of fitness.

 

The reason I mentioned it is not so much because he was slow to the play, but in this (USA) country of body beautiful refs, Dowd would not stand a chance. For the record, I didn't have any problems with his performance and generally speaking I think he's a very competent ref.

 

I would rather have Dowd than Halsey. Even before he got sick, hewasnt that great. Dowd will be 50 in a few weeks. This could be his last year.

 

Gardner weighs in on Halsey and Dean last weekend. "On a regular EPL weekend Halsey’s failure to call Fellaini’s blatant fouls would no doubt have stood out as quite the worst decisions on offer. Halsey got lucky. This was not a regular weekend. For Halsey’s errors shrink away to nothingness when set along side that of referee Mike Dean, who had charge of the Tottenham-Swansea game.

http://www.socceramerica.com/article/49686/more-curious-tales-from-the-world-of-english-refer.html

 

This true only if Dowd was being considered or was fairly new. He has been in the EPL for
several years, and his experience can make up for his fitness situation. I am sure he passes the fitness tests, which they do frequently during the season, and to be refereeing
at that level at his age is pretty good IMO. Remember, he had the FA Cup Final
back in May. I think he would still be used here under the same circumstances.
I had heard that both he and Halsey were supposed to be retiring after last season.
There must be a good reason why they are still out there.

PH

 

II've always liked dowd, and I had no problem with his work in the match in question, but he looked a hell of a lot more like me than let's say a Grajeda or Salazar out there....that's all I'm saying. I don't think you're going to find many refs in the MLS with a noticeable paunch, like Dowd....

 

I'm not Dowd's biggest fan, but he always reportedly one of the players and coaches' favourite referees because he constantly talks to the players and talks to them on their level. He's renowned as the one referee you don't argue with as you'll get it back as good as you give it, which the players seem to respect with him.

He did fail the first fitness test in the summer, but then passed it at the second time of asking just before the season started. I suspect it'll be his last season on the list.

 

Just finished watching Wigan-Arsenal. Thought Moss had a bad game. Couple of things to point out.

1. Wilshere's yellow - for this. http://i50.tinypic.com/28txkx0.jpg This is not a foul IMO. Maybe he had a different angle and you needed a replay to see that it was a fair challenge. I'm interested in seeing other people's thoughts on this, but to me this is a good challenge. He probably reacted to the crowd, difficult to see, so nothing major, just thought it was a bad call.

2. Retaliation foul by Maloney - never getting booked, even though it's more erratic. Maloney's officially 6th foul goes punished finally in the 85th minute, when he deserved it earlier. So he was inconsistent with booking after giving out the first one.

But the biggest and weirdest thing of all was Di Santo's 'sin-bin'. :O No idea what that was about. It seems that he spotted an earring (apparently?) and told him to go off. Nobody's quite sure what's going on, but if it was an earring, why did it take them till 65th minute to spot it. Nobody was even quite sure what it was all about, but on top of it all, he waited about 3 minutes to let him come back on - he waited until the stoppage in play. No idea why. Any thoughts?

 

If he was held off until the next stoppage, then it was almost definitely an equipment problem of some sort. Earring, missing shin pad, sock tape - whatever it may be - if you order someone from the field to correct an equipment problem it is written in the LOTG that they cannot return until the next stoppage in play. As for why did it take so long to notice, a) small stuff can be very easy to miss b) if it wasn't jewelry, then it could have been a problem from halftime.