Untold ref review: Newcastle United 2 – 2 Wolverhampton

This article is part of a series 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 Peter Walton -

MATCH REVIEW DETAILS – Peter Walton (2012-02-25)
Period 1
Min	Type	Foul from	On	C/NC	Comment	Weight
2	OTHER	Tiote	Henry	C	Trip	1
3	OTHER	Williamson	Doye	C	Trip	1
4	OTHER	Wolves?	Ba	NC	Push in the back, not given	1
4	OTHER	O’Hara	Tiote	C	a few fouls in some split seconds finally the ref gives the foul after pointin in the wrong direction first	1
6	GOAL	Newcastle		C	correct goal	3
12	OFFSIDE	Jonas		C	correct decision	1
13	OTHER	Cisse	Stearman	C	Jumped in the back	1
14	OTHER	Simpson	Jarvis	C	Held him	1
18	GOAL	Newcastle		C	great strik for a correct goal	3
22	OTHER	Ba	Zubar	NC	Trip not given	1
28	OFFSIDE	Newcastle		C	Correct	1
30	OTHER	Williamson	O’Hara	C	Pulled him back	1
30	YELLOW	Williamson		NC	Stopped a promising attack, no chance of playing the ball	2
31	OTHER			NC	Wrong way to signal oa throw, ref	0
32	OTHER	Doyle	Krul	NC	held his arm on the shoulder of the keeper who came for a cross, not given	1
33	OTHER	Coloccini	O’Hara	C	trip	1
34	OFFSIDE	Wolves		C	correct	1
37	OTHER	Berra	Ba	C	Trip	1
39	OTHER	Zubar	Ba	NC	Pulled him down advantage given which is quickly lost	1
40	OTHER	R. Taylor	Ward	NC	Came late when Ward cleared the ball and caugth him on the ankle, not given	1
40	YELLOW	R. Taylor		NC	Should have been a yellow card	2
45	OTHER	Coloccini	Doye	NC	Brought him down, not given	1
45	OTHER	Tiote	Zubar	NC	Tiote swung his hand in the face of the Wolves defender when he went for a header	1
45	RED	Tiote		NC	Tiote had taken a look just before he went in to this duel so he knew the Wolves player was coming and if you have looked and then swing the arm in to the face it is delibarate and should be a red card	3
Period 2
Min	Type	Foul from	On	C/NC	Comment	Weight
50	GOAL	Wolverhampton		C	Correct goal	3
56	OFFSIDE	Newcastle		NC	Not correct, was not even level	1
56	OTHER	Doyle	Williamson	C	little shove on the defender	1
62	OFFSIDE	Wolverhampton		C	assumed correct	1
65	OTHER	Tiote	Zubar	C	Push	1
66	GOAL	Wolverhampton		C	Correct goal	3
70	OTHER	Doyle	Santon	C	Came in a bit wild	1
72	OTHER	Cabaye	Foley	NC	Frontal tackle not given	1
76	OTHER	Kightly	Guthrie	C	Push	1
77	OTHER	Doyle	Ben Arfa	C	tackle from behind got the ball but also first touched the leg of Ben Arfa	1
78	OFFSIDE	Newcastle		C	just	1
78	OTHER	Berra	Ba	C	bumped in the back	1
82	OTHER	Ameobi	Wolves?	NC	Ameobi all over the defender who cannot jump for the ball, not given	1
89	OTHER	Ameobi	Hennesey	C	Frontal tackle on the keeper	1
89	YELLOW	Ameobi		C	came in showing studs, could not see an outstretched leg so go with the ref	2
92	OTHER	Berra	Krul	C	Attacks the keeper who want to bring the ball in play quickly	1
92	YELLOW	Berra		C	Is a yellow card, correct decision	2

If you look at this ref, one can only wonder how on earth he has managed to stay in the EPL for such a long time.

And one can also feel sorry for the refs in the USA. This is supposed to be the person who should help in raising the standards of the refs in the MLS. And for the umpteenth time, when we review him, he has serious problems and mistakes.

Missing important fouls, missing dangerous tackles, missing yellow cards, missing red cards. This was one of the worst first halves I have seen since I started reviewing for Untold. And I have seen bad refs.

Tiote escaped a red card when he threw his arm in the face of the Wolves defender when he went to head a ball at the side line. You could see him looking at the Wolverhampton player and then sticking out his arm. This surely was not a natural movement of the arm to jump. Ref Walton didn’t see even a foul. Poor, poor, poor.

Minutes before, he also missed a dangerous tackle on a Wolves defender when R. Taylor ended on the ankle of the defender. Again the ref saw nothing wrong. Even R. Taylor immediately came back to the Wolves player because he knew he had hurt him.

But to be fair to him, his second half was of an amazing high standard for Walton. Getting all the important calls correct. Was this another ref in disguise?

COMPETENCY SUMMARY – Peter Walton (2012-02-25)
Period 1	Called	Total	Correct %
GOAL	2	2	100.00
OFFSIDE	3	3	100.00
OTHER	8	16	50.00
RED	0	1	0.00
YELLOW	0	2	0.00
TOTAL	13	24	54.17
WEIGHTED	17	32	53.13
Period 2	Called	Total	Correct %
GOAL	2	2	100.00
OFFSIDE	2	3	66.67
OTHER	8	10	80.00
YELLOW	2	2	100.00
TOTAL	14	17	82.35
WEIGHTED	20	23	86.96
Totals	Called	Total	Correct %
GOAL	4	4	100.00
OFFSIDE	5	6	83.33
OTHER	16	26	61.54
RED	0	1	0.00
YELLOW	2	4	50.00
TOTAL	27	41	65.85
WEIGHTED	37	55	67.27

So he saved his final score a bit with the second half.

BIAS SUMMARY – Peter Walton (2012-02-25)
Period 1	Newcastle United	%	Wolverhampton	%	Total
Correct For	5	38.46	8	61.54	13
Correct For Weighted	9	52.94	8	47.06	17
Incorrect Against	3	30.00	7	70.00	10
Incorrect Against Weighted	3	21.43	11	78.57	14
Fouls Commited	12	66.67	6	33.33	18
Fouls Penalised	8	66.67	3	50.00	11
Period 2	Newcastle United	%	Wolverhampton	%	Total
Correct For	8	57.14	6	42.86	14
Correct For Weighted	9	45.00	11	55.00	20
Incorrect Against	1	33.33	2	66.67	3
Incorrect Against Weighted	1	33.33	2	66.67	3
Fouls Commited	5	41.67	7	58.33	12
Fouls Penalised	3	60.00	7	100.00	10
Totals	Newcastle United	%	Wolverhampton	%	Total
Correct For	13	48.15	14	51.85	27
Correct For Weighted	18	48.65	19	51.35	37
Incorrect Against	4	30.77	9	69.23	13
Incorrect Against Weighted	4	23.53	13	76.47	17
Fouls Commited	17	56.67	13	43.33	30
Fouls Penalised	11	64.71	10	76.92	21

The bias table is the one of a home ref.

Since this game, Walton has gone to the USA to help and develop their refs. I really hope he doesn’t bring the refs down to his own standard, because then things look bad for the people who love football in the USA.

On the other hand: their loss is our gain because he looked one of the worst refs in the EPL in the last few years.