The season started with a bang last Saturday, literally in the case of this correspondent, who was hospitalised and unable to bring you the lowdown on Chris Foy, who took charge of our 3-1 victory at Bolton. Therefore, kicking off this season’s profiles of the men in black (or yellow, or green) is Howard Webb.

Webb, from Rotherham in South Yorkshire, is 36 years old, and takes charge of his 1st Newcastle match of the 2007/08 season as Aston Villa travel to St James’ Park tomorrow for our first home game of the season, and Sam Allardyce’s 1st competitive fixture on Tyneside as our boss.

Form Guide

Webb is taking charge of his 1st Premiership match of the season after a busy summer saw him travel to Canada for the FIFA Under 20 World Cup, where he refereed the opening match of the tournament as Poland beat Brazil 1-0. He then refereed the group matches between Mexico vs Portugal and Canada vs Congo, before taking charge of the quarter final between Chile and Nigeria (with the Nigerian coach ludicrously claiming Webb was “racist” after the game, a claim later retracted), and then the semi final between Austria and the Czech Republic. His competitive season got underway when he refereed a Champions League qualifier between Fenerbahce and Anderlecht on Wednesday.

Background

Howard started refereeing in 1989 after moving through the Northern Counties East league. After progressing through the lower leagues, he became a Football League Assistant Referee in 1996, and a Premier League Assistant in 1998. He became Football League Referee in 2000, refereeing the Division 2 (now League 1) Play-Off Final. He then joined the Select Group in 2003, refereeing his first Premiership match in October 2003, as Fulham and Wolves drew 0-0. Amazingly it was the 1st of 5 goalless draws which kicked off his Premiership career, a “drought” ended only when Paul Ince scored in the 20th minute of his 6th game, as Wolves beat Everton 2-1.

His impressive performances upon joining the Select Group saw him elevated to FIFA international status in January 2005, and 7 months later he refereed the FA Community Shield in Cardiff between Chelsea and Arsenal. In November of that year he refereed his first international, a friendly between Northern Ireland and Portugal in Belfast, and he closed out the 2005/06 season by refereeing the FA Trophy Final, before being whisked off to Portugal for the UEFA Under 21 Championships, where he took charge of 2 group games and a semi final.

Last season was yet another success story for the Yorkshireman, as he refereed his 1st Champions League match in September, as Lyon defeated Steaua Bucharest 3-0 in the Romanian capital, and he was then appointed to the Carling Cup Final in February, which was ironically between the same 2 sides as his previous appearance at Cardiff, with the same result, a 2-1 victory for Chelsea. As previously mentioned he was selected this summer for the Under 20 World Cup, and is hotly tipped to feature at the European Championships in Austria and Switzerland next summer.

Webb and Newcastle

Webb has refereed 16 Newcastle games, of which we have won 5, drawn 3 and lost 8. Of those, 8 have been home matches, resulting in 3 wins, 2 draws and 3 defeats. 15 of the 16 were in the Premiership, with the extra game being our FA Cup tie against Yeading in 2005 on neutral ground.

He has yet to show a red card in a Newcastle game, but has awarded 3 penalties, 1 of those to us, and all 3 occuring on Tyneside (although as we’ll see there could and probably should have been more!). He averages 1.6 yellow cards per game to both our players and those of the opposition.

Our best wins with Howard in charge was a brace of 3-0 victories against West Bromwich Albion in the 2005/06 season, and our worst defeat was a 1-4 defeat at home to Fulham in November 2004.

Last season he oversaw both our fixtures against Aston Villa, our visit to Bolton, and Arsenal’s trip to St James’ Park.

Controversy

His 1st Newcastle game was a 0-1 defeat at Spurs. In the 1st half, with the score at 0-0, Aaron Hughes was clearly fouled in the penalty area, yet Webb saw nothing. We went on to gift Spurs a late victory and our Champions’ League hopes diminished yet further.

Next time out we played Birmingham at St Andrew’s, and with the score at 2-2 in the 2nd half, Craig Bellamy appeared to be fouled in the area, but again Webb and his assistants saw nothing amiss, and it was 2 points dropped for United.

The next game was one of the most controversial, the aforementioned 1-4 home defeat by Fulham. With the score at 0-0, Alan Shearer appeared to be fouled by Zat Knight, yet nothing was given. The ball went down the other end, and Collins John put Fulham 1-0 up. An already incensed Graeme Souness was then driven over the edge as Shearer was again seemingly fouled in the penalty area, yet Webb awarded nothing. Souness’ protests saw him dismissed from the dugout and eventually earned him a 1 match touchline ban. In the second half Fulham, now leading 2-0, were awarded a penalty of their own when Robbie Elliott fouled Tomas Radzinski, and eventually won the game 4-1.

After a few controversy-free run-outs, Webb then contrived to issue 8 yellow cards and award Chelsea a penalty in a meaningless meeting on the final day of the 2004/05 season.

After a fantastic display in our 3-0 win at West Brom in October of 2005, he turned pantomime villain for the day as we went to Goodison Park to face Everton, although things could have been worse. At 0-0 in the 1st half, James McFadden handled a shot from Shola Ameobi, and with Webb looking through a crowded area it was left to his assistant to see it, but he didn’t, so there was no penalty and no red card. There was then a scuffle between Babayaro and Cahill which should have seen both players sent off, and elbows from Shearer and Solano could also have seen them dismissed. Webb somehow ended the day with no red cards, but 5 yellows to us and just 1 to Everton, and of course we lost 0-1.

There was no real controversy in our defeat to Spurs on New Year’s Eve 2005, but when Blackburn defeated us 1-0 at St James’ the next month, Morten Gamst Pedersen punched the ball into the net for Blackburn’s winner, which was not spotted by the officials (or many other people until about the third slow motion replay). Then, after having several opportunities to give us what seemed clear-cut penalties, Webb (or rather, his assistant Dave Bryan) finally gave us one for an offence which actually occurred just outside the area in our 3-0 win over West Bromwich Albion in April.

Webb did us a favour when we visited Aston Villa last August, for he could easily have dismissed Emre who lost his head when wound up by Gavin McCann. Webb managed to limit the punishment to a yellow card for the fiery Turk. Then it was on to the Reebok on Boxing Day where, with us leading 1-0, Peter Ramage headed the ball beyond Pavel Srnicek into his own net to give Bolton an equaliser. Glenn Roeder complained afterwards about a push but in my view, there was very minimal contact, which was shown up by the fact not one player remotely complained to Webb at the time.

He then returned the compliment when we beat Villa 3-1 in January of this year, when he gave a free kick in our favour for a 50/50 tussle between Antoine Sibierski and John Carew as the Norwegian headed what would have been the equaliser at the time (from a corner which should have been a free kick, one might add!), with Sibierski making the game safe for us in added time. He then stopped by on Easter Monday for our thrilling 0-0 draw with Arsenal, when he could well have given us a spot kick right at the end, when Abou Diaby held back Oguchi Onyewu.

Special Fact
This will be the third fixture between the two sides in a row that Webb has taken charge of.

Conclusions

Howard Webb has fast become one of the top referees on the list. Respected by players and managers, he looks to have a very big future in the game. He has shown he can control explosive fixtures just as well as dire encounters. Let’s hope he handles it well this weekend.