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Vs Portsmouth Referee Watch: Mark Halsey
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 Friday
3rd February 2005
By Paul
Mosley
Paul Mosley a Toon supporter and one of Newcastle-Online.com's
resident qualified referees, takes a look at Mark Halsey, the man
who will be officiating the Newcastle United Vs Portsmouth match at
St. James' Park. Here Paul will go through Halsey's history of refereeing
Toon matches and providing a statistical breakdown of the ref's handling
of United over the years.
Mark
Halsey, originally from Welwyn Garden City in Hertfordshire, but now
based in Bolton in Lancashire, is 44 years old. He is taking charge
of his 4th Newcastle match of the season, and the 3rd in the Premiership,
having been in the middle at Stamford Bridge and Anfield, and for
our Carling Cup tie at Grimsby, although this is his 1st trip to St
James’ Park this campaign.
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Mark Halsey Background |
Mark has been a fixture on the Football League since the mid-90’s,
and his big step up to the Premier League came in 1999 after he refereed
a very contentious Play-Off Final between Gillingham and Manchester
City. Gillingham were 2-0 ahead in the closing minutes, but Halsey
allowed 5 minutes of injury time and ity pulled level at 2-2, and
then won on penalties. Halsey was then seen drinking with City fans
in the aftermath of the game, which saw Gillingham complain and demand
the game be replayed. Halsey defiantly responded “As far as I am concerned
the Gillingham fans are clutching at straws. For the record, I'm a
QPR fan."
The following season Mark was promoted to the Premier League, and
became a FIFA referee in January 2000. You may also remember the famous
incident last season when he awarded Fulham a penalty against Arsenal,
then changed his mind, subsequently saying player reaction had made
him think he’d made a mistake, which could have opened up a can of
worms. He did eventually make the right decision (no penalty), but
he had created a huge fuss in making it.
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Mark Halsey Recent Form |
This season Mark seems to have dropped out of favour rather, He has
though done 11 Premiership games, and has shown 4 red cards, amazingly
3 for players against Liverpool. The first was on the opening day
of the season when he visited Smogside to take in Middlesbrough vs
Liverpool and dismissed Ugo Ehiogu for Denying an Obvious Goalscoring
Opportunity with a foul. The second was to Zurab Khizanishvili of
Blackburn against Liverpool at Anfield for the same offence, although
Halsey made a complete mess of the situation, and this one was later
rescinded. The final offence was to another Blackburn player, Andy
Todd, at Ewood Park against Everton, this time for Denying a Goalscoring
Opportunity by handball, which prompted furious Blackburn manager
Mark Hughes to say this:
"That's twice we have been involved in contentious decisions involving
Mark Halsey. We suffered with a sending off at Liverpool and again
with Andy Todd here.
"If there was contact with his
hand it was minimal and I don't think it was deliberate. James Beattie
has flicked the ball and Andy has just re-adjusted to the flight of
the ball.
"The sending off hurt us greatly. Mr Halsey is not the most popular
man around these parts. I think it was laughable for the guy to be
sent off for that."
The decision though, given on advice from his assistant Mark Warren,
was widely acknowledged to be correct. The 4th Red was to Lee Bowyer
when we visited Anfield, about which more later. In those Premiership
games he has awarded just 1 penalty, and it was against Portsmouth
at the Stadium of Light. His 11 games have resulted in 6 home wins,
4 away wins and a draw. On top of those 11, he has refereed 9 lower
league games and dished out 1 red card to an away team and 1 penalty,
also to an away team. On top he has done an FA Cup tie and 2 League
Cup ties, and has had 3 European or International appointments, where
he showed a further Red Card to Patrick Müller of Basel.
His overall record this season is: Games 26 - Home Wins 10 - Away
Wins – 13 – Draws 3 - Home Goals 29 - Away Goals 33 Yellow Cards –
Home 15 Away 25 – Red Cards – Home 3 Away 3 – Penalties – Home 1 Away
1
He has seemed to be a little off the pace this season, lacking fitness
and energy, and his performances have not been as good as in the past,
and he had to be substituted at half time in the Championship game
between Stoke and Leeds just after Christmas with an Achilles tendon
injury, causing him to miss a month.
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Mark Halsey & Newcastle |
Mark has refereed 17 Newcastle games over the years, resulting in
6 wins, 7 losses and 4 draws (35% win rate). Of those 17, 10 were
home matches (resulting in 4 wins, 4 draws and 2 defeats, 40% win
rate), 13 were Premiership matches (resulting in 3 wins, 7 defeats
and 3 draws, 23% win rate), and 7 were home Premiership matches (leading
to 2 wins, 3 draws and 2 defeats, 29% win rate). He has shown 3 red
cards in Newcastle games, 2 of those being to the opposition in games
at St James’ Park, and 1 to us away from home.
He has never awarded a penalty in a Newcastle game, and he averages
exactly 1 yellow card per game to Newcastle players, and 1.2 to the
opposition. Our best win with him in charge was a 3-0 home victory
over Middlesbrough on Boxing Day 2001, and a 4-1 FA Cup win over Sheffield
United in January 2000, while our worst defeat was a 0-3 loss at Liverpool
in 2001, and also by the same scoreline at Chelsea this season. The
highest scoring game of ours has been involved in was that 4-1 win
over Sheffield United, while the lowest scoring was a 0-0 bore draw
with Middlesbrough last season.
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Mark Halsey & Controversy |
You have to fast forward to Mark’s 7th Newcastle game for any real
controversy, and Everton’s visit to Gallowgate in December 2002. With
Everton 1-0 up thanks to an early Kevin Campbell goal, Craig Bellamy
attempted to break through on goal but was fouled by Joseph Yobo,
who was dismissed for Denying an Obvious Goalscoring Opportunity,
much to David Moyes’ evident disgust: "I think we are all fed up with
the decisions referees are making. You change when you get red cards.
I don't think he pulled him down, I think he ran over the top of him.
I think we are all getting fed up with referees' interpretations of
it." The decision was spot on though. Newcastle battered at the Everton
door and eventually won by 2 goals to one. It was a whole year before
he returned, this time as we took on Blackburn Rovers on Tyneside.
Michael Chopra had a goal rightly ruled out for offside in the 1st
half, and Blackburn nicked a late winner through Paul Gallagher, and
although TV showed the ball had been bundled in by Gallagher’s hand,
it was not spotted by the officials, and Blackburn won 1-0. Controversy
reigned as Chelsea came to Tyneside for the Tie of the FA Cup 5th
Round last season. Heavy snowfall had put the game in serious doubt,
although Halsey called it absolutely right and the game went ahead
on his say so. In the game itself we took an early lead through Kluivert
and held it all the way until Carlo Cudicini was sent off in added
time for Denying an Obvious Goalscoring Opportunity yet again, and
we were safely through.
This season Mark has already had a trio of controversial games involving
us. Our televised Carling Cup tie at Grimsby had all the makings of
an upset, even more so when Halsey somehow failed to spot a clear
elbow right in front of him by Grimsby defender Justin Whittle on
Alan Shearer. Shearer was furious, but had the last laugh with a late
winner to send us through. The second game was at Chelsea, where at
0-0 in the 1st half we had a couple of good looking penalty appeals
turned down, and went on to lose 3-0. Finally we had our trip to Anfield
on Boxing Day this season, with goals by Gerrard and a Given OG (a
dubious decision from the Dubious Goals Committee) leaving us already
2-0 down. Halsey had been poor in the 1st half, missing a number of
fouls and key decisions, and continued down this road in the 2nd half
until a major incident in the 65th minute began with Xabi Alonso fouling
Celestine Babayaro, with Bowyer then going in hard on Alonso and all
hell breaking loose.
Crouch pushed Bowyer in the chest, and Gerrard, Carragher and Shearer
needlessly got involved. After consultation with his fellow officials,
the decision from Halsey was a harsh red for Bowyer (which remained
after an appeal failed), a yellow for Crouch (correct because the
push was in the chest) yet nothing for Alonso’s original nasty challenge,
or the 3 dissenters who probably deserved cards themselves, and Gerrard
himself was lucky to escape dismissal for some disgraceful behaviour
in the melee. On top of that, Liverpool probably should have had a
penalty and Solano sent off for a deliberate handball on the goal
line.
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Mark Halsey & Portsmouth |
I can find 15 Portsmouth games Mark has refereed, of which they have
won 6, drawn 3 and lost 6 (40% win rate), in which they have scored
21 goals and conceded 18. Just 1 of those wins came away from Fratton
Park, while they have also drawn a further 1 and lost 4 games out
of 6 (17% win rate). In the Premiership, they have won 4 and lost
2 of 6 games (67% win rate), with their Premiership record away from
home being 1 win and 2 defeats (33% win rate).
He has shown 1 red cards in a Portsmouth match, to Sheffield United
at Fratton Park way back when they were in Division 1. He has given
2 penalties to Portsmouth, both at Fratton Park and one in the Premiership,
and one against them, to Sunderland this season in the League at the
Stadium of Light. He averages 1.3 yellows per game to Portsmouth,
and 1.1 per game to opposition players. Portsmouth have won both games
he has refereed this season, 4-1 at Sunderland and 1-0 at home to
West Bromwich Albion.
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Mark Halsey Conclusions |
Mark Halsey is a solid performer, although he isn’t having a good
season. He lets players get on with the game, tries his best to let
it flow (sometimes too much), but doesn’t always get the big decisions
right. He also tends to make a huge fuss of big decisions, getting
very flappy when he has to make one. He does an awful lot of talking
though, so much so that if you sit near the front you could probably
have a conversation with him during the game.
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Newcastle United Vs Portsmouth History |
04/05 – Lee Bowyer gave us an early lead with a superb
strike, but Portsmouth, led by Caretaker boss Joe Jordan fought back
and Steve Stone’s deflected shot ensured we only picked up a point,
and were booed off.
Newcastle 1-1 Portsmouth. Ref: Mike Riley (W. Yorks). Yellow Cards:
NUFC 1 PFC 2. Red Cards: None. Penalties: None.
03/04 – A good move involving Laurent Robert and
Shola Ameobi saw Gary Speed fire home to give us an early lead, which
Alan Shearer doubled from the spot after a handball was spotted by
the now retired and much missed Paul Durkin. Ameobi added a goal of
his own in the second half to give us a comfortable win.
Newcastle 3-0 Portsmouth. Ref: Paul Durkin (Dorset). Yellow Cards:
NUFC 0 PFC 1. Red Cards: None. Penalties: NUFC 1 PFC 0.
© Paul Mosley
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