in association with NewcastleStats.com

Following the recent furore over refereeing in the Premier League, we’ve decided to take a glance this week at referees and attempt to answer that age-old question: Who’s The Biggest Baddie In The Black?

In order to answer that sanitised poser, we’ve taken the six refs who’ve presided over the most Premier League fixtures:

Table 1.0: No. NUFC Games Officiated by Referee

Then, calculated the number of points per game in matches they’ve refereed. First at home:

Chart 1.1: Home Points Per Match by Referee

At this stage, Riley & Wiley are neck-and-neck for—um—unluckiest ref, while Steve Dunn is looking odds-on to be our best mate: what chance the FA of bringing him of retirement… please? Next, we looked at how we fared under these upholders of the law while on the road:

Chart 1.2: Away Points Per Match by Referee

Yet again, there isn’t much to choose between Wiley & Riley, but the clear difference here is how few points we’ve gained on the road when Graham Poll has been in the middle: an average of 1 single point per match, but even that is a decent return when compared to David Elleray: we’ve come away with only 6 points from a possible 27 in matches he’s officiated on our travels!

Finally, the combined totals:

Chart 1.3: Points Per Match by Referee

You can see that, from those we’ve looked at, Graham Poll has been our hoodoo ref with a, frankly stingy, average of 1.47 points per match he’s presided over. Not far behind is David Elleray who’s has been a total monster to us on the road. At the other end of the scale, Steve Dunn comes out as clearly most sensible referee and possibly a chap you may want to buy a pint or two if he’s round your local.

However, before you start burning effigies of Mr. Poll, I’ll leave you with a poser:

There is a referee that didn’t make the top 6 list we looked at, who has officated well over 10 NUFC matches in which we’ve garnered an average return of under 1 point per match. Who is he? I know for many of you, the mere mention of his name is enough to give you a bad case of indigestion.

That’s it for this week. Remember, these stats do not take into consideration the caliber of the opposition, so bear that in mind before jumping to any conclusions and our usual disclaimer: *No actual science involved.

Until next week, Keep The Faith. NS

Thanks for joining us this week. If you have a suggestion for Stat Of The Week and would like to see your name up here somewhere, let us know your idea!