Thorpe on top as Rate the Ref reaches mid-season

Mike Thorpe - the current leader

It has been something of a strange campaign to date, with a mid-season managerial change, behind the scenes staffing changes, long term injuries to key players and sensational away form, coupled bizarrely with worryingly poor displays at Turf Moor. As always though, and let's face it, football wouldn't be the same without them, we have had a plethora of match swaying incidents to talk about.

So often, the performances of match officials produce the biggest post match talking points; they always have and they always will. In the past, people have come away from a game, having accused the referee of being poor or one sided. On reflection, it appears that one 'big' decision can sway the way people view a referee's performance and quite considerably at that. This is where the 'Rate the Ref' message board feature has provided some encouraging results; indicating that Burnley fans on the whole, are actually quite impartial when it comes to looking back at the performance of the 'man in the middle.'

The basic concept of rating each match day official was devised as we travelled from Salzburg to Innsbruck, taking in the spectacular mountainous views of Austria in Burnley's 2007 pre season tour. It was decided that awarding referees with just a single mark for a given performance would not be a fair or acceptable form of assessment. Therefore, on returning from Austria, contact was made with occasional message board user and F.A Official, fox40, who was more than happy to offer advice on how officials are assessed within his profession. It was agreed that 'decision making', 'fitness and positioning', 'consistency' and 'control and authority' were the four key factors we should look for when attempting to mark referees.

The first ref to be scrutinised in such a way was Tyne and Wear based Eddie Ilderton for the game against West Brom. The general consensus was that he had a very good game; he consulted his assistants well and was in a good position to award a penalty. He was rated at 79.64 and immediately set a very respectable benchmark.

Surprisingly, Ilderton's performance was bettered just a week later, as the Clarets went down to a poor 2-0 defeat at Scunthorpe. The man in charge that afternoon was Tony Bates (Stoke) and, despite the poor Burnley display, fans returning from the game had no hesitation in scoring his performance very highly.

Mr Bates holds the current high score for 'fitness and positioning' and rightly so; he always seemed to be on the mark for every decision. He currently occupies 3^rd place in the league table and he is joined by refs in positions 2 and 4 who have also both taken charge of games in which Burnley have been defeated; Mark Clattenburg and Andy Penn respectively. Premier League assigned, Clattenburg currently holds the high score for 'Control and Authority' and that night (League Cup 3rd Round versus Portsmouth) it was very evident that he had the respect of all the players on the pitch.

The highest rated official to date is Mike Thorpe (Sussex), who took charge of Burnley's 2-2 away draw at Bristol City. The game was fast paced, end to end, with plenty of incident, but Thorpe acquitted himself superbly. He is the current high score holder in both 'decision making' and consistency' categories and out of 100, he managed to achieve a total rating 91.08. It really was a super performance and is one that will take some beating.

Michael Jones and Clive Oliver are the only referees to have officiated more than one Burnley game this campaign. Pleasingly, both gentlemen have progressed up the league table, as a result of their second games, being an improvement on their first, according to fans present at the games.

The main core of officials so far have scored between 50 and 80 points, with the average rating currently standing at 63.86. However, two officials, Messrs Kettle and Mason, have not faired so well and they currently prop up the Rate the Ref table.

Trevor Kettle (Berkshire) was responsible for the Turf Moor game against Crystal palace. He scored low across the board and will be remembered for making poor decisions, which baffled both sets of supporters on numerous occasions.

Ironically, Kettle's display looked world class when compared to the performance of Bolton based official Lee Mason. As you will likely be aware, Mr. Mason was one of the only people in the ground that failed to see Preston defender Matt Hill deliberately handle the ball on the goal line in the first minute of the recent Lancashire Derby. He allowed play to continue and there is little doubt that had action been taken, the remaining 88 minutes of the game would have been very different.

Mr Mason's decision making was very poor; He failed to award a free kick to Chris McCann for a blatant foul and then, by the letter of the law, was left with no option but to dismiss the Burnley midfielder, for a two footed lunge which followed just seconds later. It should never have come to that though and late on it became quite evident that he had struggled to control the game as players from both sides clashed following the decision to red card Joey Gudjonsson.

Along with 'decision making', Mason also picked up the lowest scores for 'consistency' and 'control and authority.' Mason scraped together a terribly low rating of 17.46, a low-score that surely will not be replaced in the immediate future.

Of course, Lee Mason hasn't been the only referee to make controversial decisions this season. Scott Mathieson recently allowed Deon Burton to score a penalty for Sheffield Wednesday, when the Burnley goalkeeper wasn't ready, on his line or facing the kicker. The Stockport referee was marked down for decision making and consistency, but still managed a rating of 44.45.

On the flip side, Ipswich scored a goal against the Clarets, which possibly should have been awarded by referee Colin Webster (Tyne and Wear). The goal was not awarded and consequently, but interestingly, many Burnley fans marked Webster down for decision making and gave him a total rating of 61.00.

Finally, Premiership referee Mike Dean (The Wirral), officiated the first derby game of the season as Burnley drew 2-2 at home to Blackpool. Crucially Dean awarded Blackpool a very soft penalty and it turned out to be a decision which would change the nature of the game. Dean was rightly scored down for decision making, but this didn't mask what was in the main, a super refereeing display. Dean secured a rating of 80.24 and at the turn of the year he stands 6^th in the Rate the Ref table.

Burnley's first game of 2008 is also against Blackpool and the referee assigned to the fixture is André Marriner from Birmingham. If he can put in a performance as good as Dean did in the corresponding fixture, then we should have a very exciting, free flowing game of football to look forward to on the Fylde Coast on New Year's Day.

Thanks very much indeed to all those who have made contributions to the feature in the first half of the season. All the very best for 2008.