Howard Webb, from Rotherham in South Yorkshire, is 35 years old, and takes charge of his 1st Newcastle match of the 2006/07 season as we travel to Villa Park on Sunday in the Premiership. His Premiership matches this season have seen him show 8 yellow cards and 1 red (to Charlton’s Djimi Traore) in 2 matches, which resulted in home victories for West Ham (over Charlton) and Middlesbrough (over Chelsea).

Howard’s rise through the ranks has been very impressive. He became a Football League referee in 2000 at the age of 29, and just 3 years later he became a Premier League referee, refereeing 7 games in his 1st season before becoming a regular from 2004/05 on. His performances led to him being nominated for FIFA International status in January 2005, and refereed his 1st International match in November 2005, Northern Ireland’s 1-1 friendly draw with Portugal in Belfast.

In August 2005 he was chosen by the Football Association to take charge of the FA Community Shield between Chelsea and Arsenal, showing that he is already held in such high regard. He is already being labelled by many as the next big thing in English refereeing, and is heavily tipped to represent us in the major International tournaments in the future.

Despite being fairly new on the scene, Howard has already refereed 12 Newcastle games, of which we have won 4, drawn 2 and lost 6 (30% win rate). He has never shown a red card in a Newcastle game, but has awarded 2 penalties, both against us, and both at St James Park.

Despite him not refereeing many Newcastle matches, there has been plenty of incident when Howard has been around.

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 last season, 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.

Howard Webb is a real up-and-comer, and is fast becoming one of the top referees on the list. Respected by players and managers, he looks to have a 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.