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Vs Charlton Referee Watch: Uriah Rennie
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 Wednesday
22 February 2006
By Paul
Mosley
Paul Mosley a Toon supporter and one of Newcastle-Online.com's
resident qualified referees, takes a look at Uriah Rennie, the man
who will be officiating the Newcastle United Vs Charlton Athletic
match at St. James' Park. Here Paul will go through Uriah's history
of refereeing Toon matches and providing a statistical breakdown of
the ref's handling of United over the years.
Uriah
Rennie is from Sheffield in South Yorkshire and is 46 years old. He
is taking charge of Newcastle for the 1st time this season as we welcome
to St James’ Park for the rearranged Barclays Premiership fixture
on February 22.
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Uriah Rennie Background |
Rennie was born on October 23rd 1959, and began refereeing 20 years
later in local leagues, before progressing to the Football League
in 1994, and the Premier League in 1997. He was promoted to the FIFA
list in January 2000 but at the end of that season lost his place
on the Premier League list due to poor performance. He regained his
place in time for the 2001/02 season and is still there to date. His
term on the FIFA list was ended in January 2005 due to him reaching
the retirement age of 45.
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Uriah Rennie Recent Form |
Rennie started the season bang out of favour, but seems to have worked
his way back in with a string of impressive performances. He has done
16 Premiership games, and shown just 1 red card, to Birmingham’s Damien
Johnson for Serious Foul Play in their 1-1 draw at Anfield. His only
Premiership penalty was awarded to Spurs in their 3-1 home win over
Portsmouth. Those 16 games have resulted in 8 home wins, 4 away wins
and 4 draws. On top of that, he has refereed 2 FA Cup games, 1 League
Cup game and 11 Lower League games, showing 3 red cards to home teams
and awarding 1 penalty to an away team.
Games 30 - Home Wins 11 – Away Wins – 14 – Draws 5 – Home Goals
34 - Away Goals 38 Yellow Cards – Home 25 Away 27 – Red Cards – Home
3 Away 1 – Penalties – Home 1 Away 1
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Uriah Rennie & Newcastle |
Rennie’s name is one which strikes terror into any Newcastle fan,
just like his fellow South Yorkshireman Trelford Mills did in the
1980’s. Our record with him is appalling, for of 16 games we have
lost 9 and won just 3, drawing the other 4, scoring just 16 goals
and conceding 26. 14 of those games were in the Premiership, giving
us 3 wins, 4 draws and 7 defeats, and 6 of those were at home, resulting
in 2 wins and 4 defeats. He has shown 3 red cards in Newcastle games,
2 of them to us, 1 of those being at St James Park, and 1 to the opposition
away from St James. He has awarded 3 penalties in our matches, 2 of
them to us, 1 of which was at St James’ Park, and 1 to the opposition
away from Tyneside. He averages 1.7 yellow cards per game to us, and
1.4 per game to our opponents. Our best win with him in charge was
3-1 over Wimbledon at St James in November 1998, while our worst defeat
was a 3-0 reverse at Arsenal in an FA Cup Quarter Final Replay in
March 2002. The highest scoring game of ours he has been involved
in was a 4-3 loss at Bolton in December 2002, with the lowest being
a quartet of 1-0’s, only 1 of which we won.
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Uriah Rennie & Controversy |
The controversy began in April 1998 when Rennie was appointed to our
game with Manchester United at Old Trafford. We took the lead through
Andreas Andersson but were pegged back by David Beckham. We looked
set to steal the victory in the final minutes as Rob Lee broke clear
and looked set to be one-on-one with Raimond Van Der Gouw but was
cynically chopped down by Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, who was inevitably
sent off, but the chance had gone and we had to settle for a point
which could so nearly have been 3.
The next major controversy was when Aston Villa came north for the
opening game of the 1999/2000 season. Rennie proceeded to produce
one of the most unbelievable displays ever seen at St James Park,
which included the still baffling sending-off of Alan Shearer for
having the temerity to jump with Ian Taylor, the Villa man himself
looking completely bemused as the card was brandished. Julian Joachim’s
late goal won it for Villa.
Just 2 months later Rennie was amazingly appointed to another game,
and given quite a reception by the Newcastle fans as we travelled
to Birmingham in the League Cup. He awarded us an early penalty after
Silvio Maric was fouled, but Shearer managed to have his spot kick
saved by ex-Newcastle man Ian Bennett. Birmingham were then awarded
a penalty of their own when Harper scythed down Johnson, with the
result being an inevitable red card for our keeper. O’Connor scored
the penalty, and Darren Purse added a second in the 2nd half to complete
the embarrassing defeat.
Next real controversy was at Maine Road in Manchester City’s 1st game
back in the Premiership. After 37 goalless minutes, Darren Huckerby
eventually scrambled the ball in after pinball in our 18-yard box,
although TV replays showed he had been offside twice in the build-up.
Not really Rennie’s fault, but he was refereeing so we’ll blame him
anyway. We lost 1-0.
That was nothing compared to our trip to Bolton in December 2002 where
he completely lost the plot. With 12 minutes to go we had pulled it
back to 4-3 after being 4-1 down, but Rennie seemed intent we’d get
no further by allowing Bolton to get away with ludicrous timewasting,
giving free kicks for invisible offences
He was (again) the villain on a disastrous Boxing Day at the Reebok
in 2002. Jay Jay Okocha scored first, before an Alan Shearer equaliser.
Ricardo Gardner then made it 2-1, all within the first nine minutes,
before a brace from now-Leeds player Michael Rickets seemingly put
the result beyond doubt. However, Newcastle made a brave fightback,
with goals from Ameobi and Alan Shearer, but Bolton clung on for the
three points after Rennie condoned some disgraceful timewasting and
booked Lomana LuaLua for diving despite Mike Whitlow admitting he
had fouled the Congolese forward. Rennie carded Shearer too for dissent
in the same incident, which saw him suspended for our visit to West
Ham 2 weeks later.
The following season he was in charge for our 1st home game against
Manchester United, and incensed Sir Alex Ferguson by failing to spot
Andy O’Brien foul Ryan Giggs, which would have meant a certain Red
Card, yet Rennie didn’t even award a free kick. To add insult to injury,
Ferguson was then sent off for his reaction. Man Utd still won 2-1,
however.
Rennie wasn’t back at St James until January 2005, when he refereed
our game with Southampton. In the opening minutes Calum Davenport
tugged Ameobi back and Rennie rightly awarded the spot kick, which
Shearer converted after a delay. We went on to win 2-1, despite both
teams being denied further clear penalty appeals.
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Uriah Rennie & Charlton |
I can find 8 Charlton games Rennie has refereed, of which they have
won 4 and lost 3, drawing the other. In those games they have scored
13 goals and conceded 12, and received an amazing 15 yellow cards
to the opposition’s 6. The opposition have also been awarded 1 penalty,
although they have had 2 men red carded, with 1 of the reds being
away from the Valley. His 1 Charlton game this season was their 3-1
defeat at Goodison Park on January 2.
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Uriah Rennie Conclusions |
Uriah Rennie is certainly not my favourite referee, and is probably
most fans’ least favourite. Alan Shearer in particular will be dreading
meeting up with his old foe again. The main problem Rennie has is
a tendency to completely lose the plot for periods during a match,
ambling around giving absolutely nothing no matter how blatant it
is.
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Newcastle United Vs Charlton Athletic History |
04/05 – A quiet day for Mark Halsey in an appalling
game as Newcastle took the lead near the hour through Kieron Dyer,
only to relinquish it seconds later to Dennis Rommedahl.
Newcastle 1-1 Charlton. Ref: Mark Halsey (Lancs). Yellow Cards:
NUFC 1 CAFC. Red Cards: None. Penalties: None.
03/04 – In our quest for 4th place we took a very
early lead through a Shearer header, and Young’s clearance hit Jenas
and went in to put us 2 goals to the good. Charlton fought back and
Jensen pulled a goal back but, just as they were threatening to equalise,
Laurent Robert went down under Chris Perry’s challenge, Mike Riley
had no hesitation in pointing to the spot, and Shearer scored the
rebound after Kiely saved his spot kick to give us a 3-1 victory.
Newcastle 3-1 Charlton. Ref: Mike Riley (W. Yorks). Yellow Cards:
NUFC 0 CAFC 2. Red Cards: None. Penalties: NUFC 1 CAFC 0.
02/03 – Andy D’Urso saw Shaun Bartlett give Charlton
a first half lead before an Andy Griffin piledriver and a sweet Laurent
Robert strike gave us a 2-1 win just days after defeating Juventus.
Newcastle 2-1 Charlton. Ref: Andy D’Urso (Essex). Yellow Cards:
NUFC 2 CAFC 1. Red Cards: None. Penalties: None.
01/02 – Mike Dean was on hand as we took ourselves
3 points closer to Champions League qualification with goals from
Gary Speed, Lomana Tresor LuaLua and Alan Shearer’s 200th strike in
the Premiership in a 3-0 win.
Newcastle 3-0 Charlton. Ref: Mike Dean (Cheshire). Yellow Cards:
NUFC 1 CAFC 2. Red Cards: None. Penalties: None.
00/01– It was Andy D’Urso again, this time to witness
a 1-0 victory for Charlton, with an early winner from Graham Stuart
proving to be the only goal.
Newcastle 0-1 Charlton. Ref: Andy D’Urso (Essex). Yellow Cards:
NUFC 1 CAFC 2. Red Cards: None. Penalties: None.
© Paul Mosley
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