Untold Ref Review: Manchester United 4 – 0 Aston Villa.

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.

Today’s referee is Mark Halsey -

MATCH REVIEW DETAILS – Mark Halsey (2012-04-15)
Period 1
Min	Type	Foul from	On	C/NC	Comment	Weight
1	OTHER	Evans	Agbonlahor	N/C	Push in back	1
6	PENALTY	Clark	Young	N/C	Young contrives the contact and swallow dives, Villa defender withdraws his foot and it is planted on ground	3
6	YELLOW	Young		N/C	Should have been the easiest yellow of his career	2
7	GOAL	Rooney		N/C	Wayne does not celebrate the goal, wonder why	3
8	OTHER	Carrick	Gardner	C		1
8	YELLOW	Carrick		C	Went to ground got none of the ball	4
12	OTHER	Valencia	Lichaj	C		1
14	OTHER	Evans	Agbonlahor	C	Same push as in 1st minute but this time spotted	1
16	OTHER	Ireland	Young	C		1
19	OTHER	Rooney	Hutton	C		1
29	OTHER			N/C	Halsey tells Villa to kick the ball out because Paul Scholes is injured, it is not a head injury, and Scholes does get up and carry on playing, Villa were denied a good situation, but hey it was Paul Scholes.	1
36	OTHER	Bannon	Young	C		1
37	OTHER			C	Good advantage played after a foul by Gardner on Scholes	1
37	YELLOW	Gardner		C	First stop in play Ref issues the Yellow	2
40	OTHER	Rafael	Ireland	C		1
43	GOAL	Wellbeck		C	Woeful defending	3
44	OTHER	Agbonlahor		N/C	Controls ball with his arm, nothing given	1
45	OTHER	Agbonlahor	Evans	C		1
Period 2
Min	Type	Foul from	On	C/NC	Comment	Weight
48	OTHER	Scholes	Agbonlahor	C		1
48	YELLOW	Scholes		C	An easy yellow	2
51	OTHER	Hutton	Young	C		1
51	YELLOW	Hutton		C	This could have been a red, he was so late the stadium was almost empty	2
55	OTHER			N/C	A bizarre moment, Evra goes down with a head injury, but Rooney is attacking the Villa goal so the Ref allows play on, the attack comes to nothing, so the Ref calls it back. Realises the serious injury is to a Villa player who was behind him, and restarts with a drop ball.	1
64	PENALTY	Baker		C	big shout for a pen against Baker but his hand was close to his body in a vertical position, and moving away from the ball, so not deliberate	3
64	OFFSIDE	Valencia		C		1
66	OTHER			N/C	Handball against Villa when ball clearly came of head, Villa deprived a good situation	1
70	OTHER	Baker	Rooney	C		1
71	OTHER	Lichaj	Valencia	N/C	Push in back missed	1
73	GOAL	Rooney		C		3
75	OTHER	Carrick	Curruthers	C		1
82	OTHER	Evans	Heskey	N/C	Evans comes through the back leading with the arm into Heskey	1
82	OTHER			C	Again having missed the foul he stops play when he sees how badly the big man is injured, and it is to the head	1
87	OTHER	Baker	Berbatov	C		1
90	OTHER	Bannon	Carrick	C		1
91	OTHER	Nani	Hutton	C		1
91	YELLOW	Nani		C	Replay was from bad angle so I am going with Ref	2
92	GOAL	Nani		C		3

Alan Smith is a Gooner Legend. I was there in Copenhagen for his left foot volley, and also there for the FA cup 3^rd round vs Man Utd when Brian McClair missed his penalty and Smith scored a great header. I never made Anfield but the goal has been replayed millions of times on TV and millions more in my head. So the following quote from him as a Sky TV Pundit saddened me hugely. Referring to Ashley Young

“Whatever you say about the penalty, he is playing an important part for Man Utd including his penalty vs QPR”

Smudge, you really have sold your soul to the devil and become an apologist for cheating. That is not how you played the game, and not how the game should be played, and you know that. If you too jump on the bandwagon what chance have we got!

Mark Haley got the big decision wrong and he knew it. In the 6th minute Ashley Young cut inside Clark, the Villa defender, at some pace. He dived to the ground as one would into a swimming pool. He moved not one but both his feet into Clark, who was simply helpless. The crowd roared, the whistle blew, job done by Young. The apologists for English diving came flooding out of the woodwork. Apparently there was some contact and apparently that makes it a foul. Utter tosh, this was such a blatant dive I was waiting for a splash. Halsey reffed the game from there on knowing he had to show no bias. And he did just that. However there were two moments of poor judgement that also favoured Man Utd. In the 29^th minute, Paul Scholes received a dead leg. Scholes did this whilst making a tackle. Scholes went down injured, but play was waived on leaving Villa in a good position. The crowd roared, so the Ref decided to stop play with Villa on the attack. It was weak reffing as Scholes did not have a head injury, and he got up and carried on playing. The drop ball was kicked back to Given in the Villa goal. Villa nullified.

Then in the 55^th minute, Evra and Gardner challenged for a ball in the air. Evra came out with the ball but the Ref had his back to the fact that Gardner was badly injured, it was a head injury and Halsey was oblivious. He allowed play on even as Evra fell to the ground with a head injury. Rooney was running at the Villa back 3. Then Rooney lost the ball, so the Ref stopped play for Evra. Only then did he realise that the Villa player was almost unconscious. Halsey got away with that one. It was again poor reffing and showed that Halsey was not aware of what had happened in the challenge. Had Rooney gone on to score, and Halsey did invite that scenario, it would have been an outrage, especially considering the Scholes incident earlier.

COMPETENCY SUMMARY – Mark Halsey (2012-04-15)
Period 1	Called	Total	Correct %
GOAL	1	2	50.00
OTHER	9	12	75.00
PENALTY	0	1	0.00
YELLOW	2	3	66.67
TOTAL	12	18	66.67
WEIGHTED	16	26	61.54
Period 2	Called	Total	Correct %
GOAL	2	2	100.00
OFFSIDE	1	1	100.00
OTHER	8	12	66.67
PENALTY	1	1	100.00
YELLOW	3	3	100.00
TOTAL	15	19	78.95
WEIGHTED	24	28	85.71
Totals	Called	Total	Correct %
GOAL	3	4	75.00
OFFSIDE	1	1	100.00
OTHER	17	24	70.83
PENALTY	1	2	50.00
YELLOW	5	6	83.33
TOTAL	27	37	72.97
WEIGHTED	40	54	74.07

Apart from the above it was a half decent performance from the ref, heavily tainted by Ashley “Splish Splash” Young.

BIAS SUMMARY – Mark Halsey (2012-04-15)
Period 1	Manchester United	%	Aston Villa	%	Total
Correct For	6	50.00	6	50.00	12
Correct For Weighted	9	56.25	7	43.75	16
Incorrect Against	2	28.57	5	71.43	7
Incorrect Against Weighted	3	23.08	10	76.92	13
Fouls Commited	6	60.00	4	40.00	10
Fouls Penalised	5	83.33	4	100.00	9
Period 2	Manchester United	%	Aston Villa	%	Total
Correct For	7	46.67	8	53.33	15
Correct For Weighted	12	50.00	12	50.00	24
Incorrect Against	1	25.00	3	75.00	4
Incorrect Against Weighted	1	25.00	3	75.00	4
Fouls Commited	4	44.44	5	55.56	9
Fouls Penalised	3	75.00	4	80.00	7
Totals	Manchester United	%	Aston Villa	%	Total
Correct For	13	48.15	14	51.85	27
Correct For Weighted	21	52.50	19	47.50	40
Incorrect Against	3	27.27	8	72.73	11
Incorrect Against Weighted	4	23.53	13	76.47	17
Fouls Commited	10	52.63	9	47.37	19
Fouls Penalised	8	80.00	8	88.89	16

The bias index shows the usual Old Trafford treatment of visiting teams.