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City Vs NUFC Referee Watch: Chris Foy
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 Tuesday
31 January 2006
By Paul
Mosley
Paul Mosley a Toon supporter and one of Newcastle-Online.com's
resident qualified referees, takes a look at Chris Foy, the man who
will be officiating the Manchester City Vs Newcastle United match
at the COMS. Here Paul will go through Chris' history of refereeing
Toon matches and providing a statistical breakdown of the ref's handling
of United over the years.
Chris
Foy is from St Helens in Merseyside and is 43 years old. He is taking
charge of a Newcastle United match for the first time this season
as we make the trip to Moss Side and the City of Manchester Stadium
to play Manchester City on Wednesday the 1st of February 2006.
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Chris Foy Background |
Chris began refereeing in Merseyside in 1983 and made the Football
League Assistant Referees’ list 11 years later before joining the
Referees’ list in 1996. 5 years later he was promoted to the Premier
League referees’ list but for whatever reason has only refereed a
handful of games per season. He is gradually gaining favour as his
performances improve, however, and is getting better and more frequent
appointments this campaign.
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Chris Foy Recent Form |
Chris is one of our less prominent officials, having taken charge
of only 9 Premiership matches this season. He has done 2 FA Cup games
and a Carling Cup game, but has done a massive 12 lower league games,
meaning a total of 24 matches this campaign. In these 24 matches he
has awarded 5 penalties, 3 to the home team and 2 to the away side,
with 4 of these in the Premiership of which one was to the away team.
He has shown SIX red cards in those 24 games, with 2 to home sides
and 4 to the away teams. 2 of them were in the Premiership, and both
to away teams. Kenny Cunningham was dismissed for Birmingham at Highbury
against Arsenal for Denying an Obvious Goalscoring Opportunity, and
just a couple of weeks ago he controversially dismissed Arjen Robben
of Chelsea against Sunderland for 2 cautions, the 2nd of which was
for him vaulting the advertising hoarding and going to the crowd.
His tally of 56 yellow cards in 24 games is low by comparison, and
he is one of our fairest officials with 27 cautions to home teams,
and just 2 more to away sides, an average of 2.3 per game, with 1.1
to homes and 1.2 to aways. His 24 matches have resulted in 8 home
wins, 7 draws and 9 away wins, with 31 home goals and 26 away goals,
mainly thanks to him refereeing Birmingham’s 5-0 drubbing of Portsmouth
on the Saturday before last, and a few 3-0 home wins as well. Of his
draws, 3 were goalless.
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Chris Foy & Newcastle |
Chris has refereed us just 4 times, but our record with him is very
good. In those 4 games we have won 3 and drawn 1, meaning we’re unbeaten
and have a 75% win rate when he’s in charge, having scored 6 goals
and conceded 3. One of those wins was in the League Cup away to Barnsley
in 2001, with our Premiership record being 2 wins and a draw (67%
win rate) scoring 5 goals and conceding 3, with the same figures for
our overall record on our travels, where we have scored 4 goals and
conceded 2. Our Premiership record on our travels with Chris in charge
is a win and a draw (50% win rate), scoring 3 goals and conceding
2.
In those fixtures he has not shown a single red card or awarded a
penalty. He has shown 6 yellow cards to our players (1.5 per game)
and 3 to opposition players (0.75 per game). Our best win with him
in charge has been a pair of 2-1 victories, over West Bromwich Albion
in October 2002, and at Southampton in September 2004, and a 1-0 win
at Barnsley in the Worthington Cup in October 2001. We have never
lost with him in charge, nor has he done any of our previous games
this season.
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Chris Foy & Controversy |
Almost nothing to say this week, for Chris is not a referee who courts
or encounters controversy regularly. After am easy run out at Barnsley
in the Worthington Cup in 2001, when Bellamy’s late winner won us
a 4th Round place, the only real controversy arrived in his one game
on Tyneside, our 2-1 win over West Bromwich Albion on 5th October
2002. The Baggies took an early lead through Igor Balis, but were
left incensed when Chris failed to give even a free kick when Andy
O’Brien fouled Jason Roberts, who would have been left with an Obvious
Goalscoring Opportunity.
They became yet more incensed when a Solano cross was played back
to his goalkeeper Murphy by Gregan, and Chris awarded an indirect
free kick for the keeper handling a deliberate backpass. Shearer buried
the free kick and added a second to win us the game, but nobody was
very impressed with Chris’ performance on the day. Since then he’s
had quiet run outs at Leicester City on Boxing Day 2003, when Darren
Ambrose grabbed a last minute goal to equalise Paul Dickov’s earlier
goal for the Foxes, and at Southampton last season as we ended our
drought on the South Coast with an Own Goal and a long range Carr
strike sandwiching a Svensson equaliser.
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Chris Foy & Manchester City |
Chris has refereed 5 Manchester City games, with City winning 2 and
drawing 3 of them (40% win rate), meaning they are also unbeaten with
Chris in charge. He has yet to show a red card in a City game, but
he has awarded a penalty, to Southampton at the City of Manchester
Stadium last season. Their record with him in 4 Premiership games
is 1 win and 3 draws, 2 of which were 0-0, scoring 3 goals and conceding
2. He has shown 4 yellows to City (0.8 per game) and 6 to their opponents
(1.2 per game)
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Chris Foy Conclusions |
Chris Foy referees games in a low key manner, and as such tends to
have very little controversy to deal with. He is an ever-improving
referee and his appointments this season show that.
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Manchester City Vs Newcastle United History |
04/05 – Alan Shearer buried his 250th Premiership
goal with a fantastic strike after 9 minutes but City levelled in
a dreadful game when Andy D’Urso, replacing Alan Wiley, ruled that
Titus Bramble had fouled Shaun Wright-Phillips in the area and awarded
a penalty which Robbie Fowler despatched.
Man City 1-1 Newcastle. Ref: Andy D’Urso (Essex). Yellow Cards:
MCFC 2 NUFC 3. Red Cards: None. Penalties: MCFC 1 NUFC 0.
03/04 – In a game we had to win to keep realistic
hopes of Champions League football, we were overrun by relegation
threatened City, who won it with a bullet header from Paolo Wanchope
in the 2nd half.
Man City 1-0 Newcastle. Ref: Mark Halsey (Lancs). Yellow Cards:
MCFC 1 NUFC 1. Red Cards: None. Penalties: None.
02/03 – In Manchester City’s 1st home game back in
the Premiership, they took a controversial 1st half lead as Darren
Huckerby, twice in offside positions in the build-up to the goal,
bundled over the line to give them a lead which they held, despite
Dyer missing an open goal and massive pressure from United in the
2nd half.
Man City 1-0 Newcastle. Ref: Uriah Rennie (S. Yorks). Yellow Cards:
MCFC 1 NUFC 1. Red Cards: None. Penalties: None.
01/02 – No game.
00/01 – In Manchester City’s one season back in the
Premiership before a swift return to the Nationwide League, we went
to Maine Road and won for the 1st time since 1984 when Alan Shearer
popped up at the far post to nod in a cross from Solano to keep us
3rd in the table.
Man City 0-1 Newcastle. Ref: Paul Taylor (Herts). Yellow Cards:
MCFC 0 NUFC 1. Red Cards: None. Penalties: None.
© Paul Mosley
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