Neale "Blind" Barry (Scunthorpe)
42-year-old planner Neale Barry has enjoyed a relatively low profile in his eight seasons in the Premiership.
Hailing from Yorkshire, Barry's career began in Scunthorpe in 1974 where he took charge of local Sunday league fixtures.
Elevation to the Football league list came in 1993 and career highlights have included the 1997 Division One play-off final and fourth official for the 1998 Charity Shield.
Since Fulham's return to the top flight Mr. Barry has officiated at 7 Premiership games involving Fulham all away from home and all defeats for the Cottagers. He has twice penalised Luis Boa Morte, both times he was wrong and both times he cost Fulham a goal oh and in the last 5 seasons, in 10 games, he has used his yellow card 25 times, 5 times against Boa Morte. Observers might imagine that Ref Barry is biased against Boa Morte, but they would be wrong wouldn't they?
Fulham fans criticism of Mr Barry's ability started after an unforgettable moment, strangely enough away at Tottenham, when he could not tell the difference between Steed Malbranque and Louis Saha even after consulting his lino.
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Referee Stats - 2004/2005
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Ref "Blind" Barry has noticeably reduced the rate he pulls out his yellow card in comparison to previous seasons, some 36% less than last season. At the moment there are only 2 Refs giving out less cards per game than Mr Barry
"Blind" Barry has never been a big red card or penalty man and this season is no different just one red and two penalties in 13 games. Could Ref Barry have actually improved over the years?
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Mr. Barry's |
Av Premiership Ref |
|
Total |
Match Avg |
Total |
Match Avg |
| Games |
16 |
|
15 |
|
| Fouls |
413 |
25.81 |
394 |
26.09 |
| Yellows |
32 |
2.00 |
41 |
2.70 |
| Reds |
1 |
0.06 |
2.3 |
0.15 |
| Penalties |
2 |
0.13 |
3 |
0.20 |
| Fouls per Yellow |
- |
12.9 |
- |
9.7 |
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| Homer? (2004-2005) |
| Total |
Home |
Away |
Total |
| Games |
Fouls |
Yellow |
Red |
Pen |
Fouls |
Yellow |
Red |
Pen |
Fouls |
Yellow |
Red |
Pen |
| 16 |
203 |
11 |
0 |
2 |
210 |
21 |
1 |
0 |
413 |
32 |
1 |
2 |
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49% |
34% |
0% |
100% |
51% |
66% |
100% |
0% |
- |
- |
- |
- |
| Premiership Average |
| 15 |
48% |
40% |
46% |
60% |
52% |
60% |
44% |
40% |
394 |
41 |
2 |
3 |
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"Blind" Barry may have seen the light in terms of overall numbers of cautions but sees nothing wrong with 66% of his yellows and 100% of reds and penalties going against visiting players.
There are only 3 bigger homer Refs than "Blind" Barry. Wonder what the odds are on Fulham getting 2 or more yellows with Boa Morte being on the receiving end of at least one of them.
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Previous Fulham games what was refed by Neale Barry
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2004-2005
26-02-2005 Premiership Tottenham
2-0 Fulham 1y 0r
Bookings: Clark (Fulham)
The Lee Clark yellow card foul and subsequent free kick led to the first goal.27-10-2004 League Cup Birmingham
0-1 Fulham 2y 0r
Bookings: Cole, Rehman (Fulham)
The one when Mark Crossley could not be beaten and Fulham won with an unstoppable 35 yard thunderbolt from Mark Pembridge.
2003/2004
20-03-2004 Premiership Chelsea
2-1 Fulham 3y 0r
Bookings: Parker (Chelsea) Boa Morte, Legwinski (Fulham)
19-01-2004 Premiership Newcastle
3-1 Fulham 1r 0y
Bookings: Djetou (Fulham)
14-12-2003 Premiership Leeds
3-2 Fulham 3y 0r
Bookings: Batty, Smith (Leeds) Boa Morte (Fulham)
Mr Barry was worse than expected. The first goal against Fulham stemmed directly from him giving a foul against Boa Morte on the edge of the Fulham penalty area. On replay it was clearly not a foul. If Barry was unsighted he should not have made a decision, if he believed it was a foul in that position he should have yellow carded Boa Morte for diving. There was little or no protection given to Saha against heavy tackles and body checks. A two footed flying tackle from Smith was also ignored. Barry was inconsistent throughout the game.23-08-2003 Premiership Everton
3-1 Fulham 6y 0r
Bookings: Pistone, Watson (Everton) Goma, Hayles, Malbranque, Volz (Fulham)
2002/2003
22-04-2003 Premiership Leeds
2-0 Fulham 2y 0r
Bookings: Boa Morte, Hayles (Fulham)
Although Fulham played below par so did Ref Barry. When he gave a corner against The Cottagers he was the only person in the stadium who was unable to see that the ball had rebounded off the Leeds' player Kewell. Leeds duly scored their first goal from that corner. Thank you Ref Barry.
05-01-2003 FA Cup Fulham
3-1 Birmingham 2y 0r
Bookings: Devlin, Savage (Birmingham)
Sava could have been forgiven to have believed he had scored but an unplaced Ref Barry ruled the 'goal' was offside.
2001/2002
10-03-2002 FA Cup West Brom
0-1 Fulham 0y 0r
Bookings: None
Quarter finals of the Cup. Fulham won the game to go through to the semi finals for the first time in 27 years. Their opponents were of course Fulham Broadway.15-12-2001 Premiership Tottenham
4-0 Fulham 5y 0r
Bookings: Ferdinand, Freund, Perry (Tottenham) Boa Morte, Saha (Fulham)
There was a bizarre incident after 28 minutes. Steed Malbranque fouled Freund but referee Neale Barry got it all wrong as he booked Louis Saha by mistake - and that despite consulting one of his assistants. Ref Barry then went on to wrongly book Luis Boa Morte for diving when he was clearly brought down by Ledley King in the box.2000/2001
18-08-2000 Division 1 Birmingham
1-3 Fulham 3y 0r
Bookings: Grainger (Birmingham) Boa Morte, Coleman (Fulham)
The game where Maik Taylor crocked ex-Fulham Horsfield and Cookie Coleman got yellow carded for pulling the shirt of the same player. What had The Horse done to deserve it ;-)