Steve Bennett, Orpington,
Kent.
Steve Bennett spent five seasons refereeing in the Nationwide before making the step up to the big time, but made a name for himself as a linesman - joining the league list back in 1992.
Bennett has now been elevated to the hallowed ranks of the FIFA list. He hit the headlines in his first game in 2003/04, sending off Francis Jeffers in a bad-tempered Community Shield match between Arsenal and Manchester United. When he was called to officiate in their next league meeting at Old Trafford, eyebrows were raised, and he was again caught up in the controversy after sending off Patrick Vieira, which incited an infamous near-riot.
In 2004 he got into trouble with FIFA for giving a second yellow to an Everton player for keeping his shirt on but lifting it over his head.
Ref Bennett has officiated at 15 Fulham Premiership games in which Fulham have gained just two victories, six draws and seven defeats. However one of the wins was a 1-0 win against Liverpool so that must be worth at least 3 wins.
The ony time Mr Bennett has bossed a Fulham game on Merseyside was a Liverpool game in April 2004 which ended in a 0-0 draw.
So far this season Mr Bennett has officiated at 13 Premiership games dishing out 48 yellows, 4 reds and 1 penalties.
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Referee Stats - 2007/2008 |
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Ref Bennett is one of the busier yellowcard issuer in the Premiership but at least he manages to keep his whistle in his pocket more than most of his collegue refs. The worry for players is that if he whistles the yellow peril is more likely to appear than normal.
He is also more likely, in comparison
to the average ref, to produce a red. However Ref Bennett has reduced his
penalty per game ratio to 1 in 13 games from 1 in 5 games for the last two
seasons, presumably because of the league's campaign against divers. |
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Mr. Bennett's |
Av Premiership Ref |
|
Total |
Match Avg |
Pos |
Total |
Match Avg |
| Games |
13 |
|
|
8 |
|
| Fouls |
307 |
23.6 |
13th |
208 |
25.3 |
| Yellows |
48 |
3.7 |
6th |
28 |
3.4 |
| Reds |
4 |
0.3 |
5th |
1 |
0.2 |
| Penalties |
1 |
0.1 |
12th |
2 |
0.2 |
| Fouls per Yellow |
- |
6.4 |
5th |
- |
7.5 | |
| Homer? (2007-2008) |
| Total |
Home |
Away |
Total |
| Games |
Fouls |
Yellow |
Red |
Pen |
Fouls |
Yellow |
Red |
Pen |
Fouls |
Yellow |
Red |
Pen |
|
13 |
167 |
24 |
1 |
1 |
140 |
24 |
3 |
0 |
307 |
48 |
4 |
1 |
| |
54% |
50% |
25% |
100% |
46% |
50% |
75% |
0% |
|
|
|
|
| Premiership Average |
|
8 |
50% |
45% |
64% |
72% |
50% |
55% |
36% |
28% |
208 |
28 |
1 |
2 | |
After 13 games so far this season Ref Bennett has managed to split his yellows 50-50 between home and away players, no mean achievement. In relation to reds he has a clear bias against visiting teams.
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Previous Fulham games what was refed by Steve Bennett
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26-09-2007 Premier Aston Villa2-1
Fulham 3y 10r
This was a busy game for Ref Bennett, he got told off by the Villa boss,
who he then banished to the stands, he refused Fulham a clear penalty when the Cottagers
were 1-0 up and then went on to give Baird two yellow cards which saw the Fulham
player walk at 70 mins. |
25-08-2007 League Cup Fulham 1-2 Bolton 5y 0r
There was controversy in the 97th minute when Kamara latched on to a Healy shot to poke the ball over the line only for the referee to disallow it. Replays conclusively showed the Senegal striker was onside. |
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05-05-2007Premier Fulham 1-0 Liverpool 4y 1r
Bookings: Brown, Diop (Diop sent off 90 for second yellow[foul]),(Fulham) Arbeloa, Fowler (Liverpool)
Wonders will never cease not
only did Mr Bennett miss Brown's headbutt during the game, he waited until
the 90 min to send off Diop and then officiated at a status clinching
Fulham victory. |
09-04-2007 Premier Fulham 1-3 Man City 4y 0r
Bookings: Bocanegra (Fulham) Barton, Beasley, Vassell
(Man City) |
01-01-2007 Premier Fulham 0-0 Watford 3y 1r
Bookings: Radzinski (Fulham) Priskin, (sent off 90 -2nd yel), Young (Watford)
Helguson had two goals disallowed for offside one of
which was definately a goal. |
02-12-2006 Premier Blackburn 2-0 Fulham 4y 0r
Bookings: Henchoz, Savage (Blackburn) Diop, Helguson
(Fulham) |
11-11-2006 Premier Portsmouth 1-1 Fulham 3y 0r
Bookings: Knight, Niemi, Queudrue (Fulham)
Mr Bennett refused Pompy a
penalty and refused Fulham's claims to disallow the Pompey goal by
ex-Fulham Andrew Cole. |
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03-12-2005 Premier West Brom
0-0 Fulham 4y 1r
Bookings: Watson (West Brom) Boa Morte (sent off 45 for 2nd yellow),Diop, McBride (Fulham)
Dispite Mr Bennett's homer
instincts Fulham took a deserved away point. |
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30-04-2005 Premier Fulham 2-0 Everton 4y 1r
Bookings: Diop(sent off 76 for 2nd yellow) (Fulham) Arteta, McFadden, Pistone (Everton)
The two yellow cards for Diop were excessive and for
them to result in a red card was ludicrous. |
05-03-2005 Premier Fulham 0-0 Charlton 5y 0r
Bookings: Boa Morte, Cole, Goma (Fulham) El
Karkouri, Kishishev (Charlton) |
20-12-2004 Premier Charlton 2-1 Fulham 3y 0r
Bookings: Kishishev
(Charlton) Diop, Rosenior (Fulham) |
16-10-2004 Premier Fulham 2-4 Liverpool 4y 1r
Bookings: Green (Fulham)
Josemi(sent off 77 for 2nd yellow), Luis Garcia, Traore (Liverpool) |
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17-04-2004
Premiership Liverpool 0-0 Fulham 3y 0r
Bookings: Bocanegra, Goma, John (Fulham)
Steve Bennett whistled for 16
Liverpool fouls and did not follow-up with a single yellow card. He
whistled for 10 Fulham fouls and followed up with three yellow cards.
Bennett also helped Liverpool by giving them a dubious penalty which van
der Sar saved. Sounds fair. |
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22-03-2003 Premiership Man Utd 3-0 Fulham 3y 0r
Bookings: Ferdinand, Gary
Neville (Man Utd) Melville (Fulham) |
29-01-2003 Premiership Man City 4-1 Fulham 4y 0r
Bookings: Foe, Jensen,
Sommeil (Man City) Boa Morte (Fulham) |
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26-12-2001 Premiership Fulham 0-0 Charlton 3y 0r
Bookings: Boa Morte, Hayles (Fulham) Parker (Charlton)
Steve Bennett booked
Luis Boa Morte for diving, a decision greeted with apoplexy throughout the
ground. Graham Stuart's tackle looked solid enough to fell a grizzly. "He
is a victim in this circumstance," said Fulham's assistant manager
Christian Damiano "You only need look at the television replay." Which did
indeed support Damiano's argument. |
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04-11-2000 Division 1 Fulham 3-0 Huddersfield 6y 1r
Bookings: Fernandes, Saha
(Fulham) Jenkins, Kozluk, Lucketti, Sellars (sent off 69, 2nd
yellow)(Huddersfield) |