Rob Styles ( Waterlooville, Hampshire)
Referee for Man Utd v Fulham in the FA Cup quarter final on Saturday 6th March.
Rob Styles is into his fourth season as a Premiership referee and is one of the select list of professional referees.
In his four seasons he has developed a fearsome record for giving red cards and penalties. Many fans see him as inconsistent although to his credit there is little evidence of big team itis
Mr Styles has officiated at 9 games involving Fulham since the end of 1997 and The Cottagers have won 5, drawn 1 and lost 3 of the 9 games. Unfortunately the 3 defeats are all games he has covered since Fulham's arrival in the Premiership. Fulham fans will also look back with concern to his last Fulham game where he red carded Boa Morte but yellow carded Liverpool's Murphy for a similar bad tackle. He also gave a penalty against Knight, for Liverpool's winning goal, but for some reason did not yellow card the tall defender.
Luis Boa Morte will have particular need to watch his step as Styles has booked him in each of his last 3 games.
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Referee Stats - 2003/2004
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Ref Styles seems to be fairly normal when you look at his use of the whistle but concerns increase when the number of reds and penalties he dishes out is noted.
He has given the most penalty decisions and red cards so far this season. Styles has had a growing problem with red cards as in 2001/2002 he only issued 1 then in 2002/2003 he issued 6, joint most, and he is now clear leader at nearly 4 times the average rate. In terms of penalties he has either given most or nearly most for the last two and a half seasons.
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Mr. Styles's |
Av Premiership Ref |
|
Total |
Match Avg |
Total |
Match Avg |
| Games |
13 |
|
12 |
|
| Fouls |
335 |
25.77 |
314 |
25.94 |
| Yellows |
48 |
3.69 |
37 |
3.06 |
| Reds |
7 |
0.54 |
2 |
0.16 |
| Penalties |
4 |
0.31 |
2 |
0.15 |
| Fouls per Yellow |
- |
6.98 |
- |
8.47 |
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| Homer? (2003-2004) |
| Total |
Home |
Away |
Total |
| Games |
Fouls |
Yellow |
Red |
Fouls |
Yellow |
Red |
Fouls |
Yellow |
Red |
| 13 |
155 |
17 |
3 |
180 |
31 |
4 |
335 |
48 |
7 |
| |
46% |
35% |
43% |
54% |
65% |
57% |
- |
- |
- |
| Premiership Average |
| 12 |
49% |
45% |
40% |
51% |
55% |
60% |
314 |
37 |
2 |
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Ref Styles does not appear to be too biased in his distribution of fouls but is one of the biggest homers in the Premiership with yellow cards. He thinks it is normal that home players get a yellow every 9 fouls or so and visiting players every 6 fouls.
Although Styles is the top red carder at the moment it is hard to see a clear bias against visiting teams.
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It seems that with the ever helpful support of Man Utd swimming stars such as van Nistelrooy and Ronaldo that there will be plenty of yellows flying around at Old Trafford on Saturday and a good chance of penalties and/or sendings off.
Previous Fulham games refed by Rob Styles
2003/2004
02-11-2003 Premier Fulham 1-2 Liverpool 2y 1r
Bookings: Boa Morte, Boa Morte (sent off 90) (Fulham) Murphy (Liverpool)
Substitute referee Mr Styles' performance left something to be desired particularly after the break, and a series of outrageous decisions in favour of Liverpool clearly started to unsettle the Whites.
And of course if he had shown any sort of consistency, Danny Murphy would have been sitting having an early bath instead of converting the winning penalty, after his pre-meditated assault on Steed Malbranque - Murphy, had violently fouled Malbranque at knee level, was yellow carded after a delay during which fans became extremely upset.
The bias against Fulham caused a great deal of up set for Fulham players and fans.
2002/2003
23-10-2002 Premier Fulham 0-1 West Ham 5y 1r
Bookings: Boa Morte, Marlet, Knight (sent off 90) (Fulham) Cisse, Dailly, Repka (West Ham)
Mr Styles sent off Zat Knight following his vain effort to prevent Defoe steaming through a hole in the defence.
31-08-2002 Premier West Brom
1-0 Fulham 7y 0r
Bookings: Hughes, Johnson, Moore, Wallwork (West Brom) Boa Morte, Finnan, Sean Davis (Fulham)
Mr Styles had one of those afternoons which gives spectators valid grounds for complaint - pedantic, overly fussy and apparently without the remotest sympathy for football as an entertainment. Naturally the fans voiced their complaints in time-honoured fashion, the noisiest cameo of the entire afternoon reserved for the referee's half-time walk down the tunnel.
2001/2002
20-04-2002 Premier Leeds 0-1 Fulham 5y 0r
Bookings: Bowyer, Matteo (Leeds) Goma, Legwinski, Van der Sar (Fulham)
2000/2001
12-08-2000 Division 1 Fulham 2-0 Crewe 12-08-2000 1y 0r
Bookings: Macauley (Crewe)
1999/2000
18-09-1999 Division 1 Fulham 1-0 QPR 2y 1r
Bookings: Scully, Steiner, Steiner (sent off 41) (QPR)
1998/1999
06-02-1999 Division 2 Wycombe 1-1 Fulham 5y 0r
Bookings: Kavanagh, Scott, Stallard (Wycombe) Coleman, Peschisolido (Fulham)
1997/1998
16-11-1997 FA Cup Margate 1-2 Fulham 2y 0r
Bookings: Sykes (Margate) Carpenter (Fulham)
13-04-1998 Division 2 Fulham 5-0 Carlisle 4y 1r
Bookings: Smith (Fulham) Milligan, Smart, Varty, Hopper (sent off 72)(Carlisle)