Rob Styles ( Waterlooville, Hampshire)Since Rob Styles' appointment to the select list of professional referees, he has developed a fearsome record for giving red cards and penalties. Unfortunately for him many football fans see him as consistently inconsistent, although, to his credit, he appears to be as inconsistent with the big teams as with any other teams. Mr Styles has officiated at 12 games involving Fulham in the Premiership and The Cottagers have won 4, drawn 2 and lost 6. Many Fulham fans look back with concern to a number of instances where Mr Styles' standard of refereeing has been called into question, in April 2005 awarding Middlesbrough a penalty for an incident that took place outside the box, allowing a Liverpool goal that started with a foul on a Diop, again against Liverpool in 2003/2004 season, where he red carded Boa Morte but yellow carded Liverpool's Murphy for a similar bad tackle and giving a penalty against Knight, for Liverpool's winning goal. In the 12 Fulham games he has "controlled" Ref Styles has booked Luis Boa Morte four times and issued him with a red card, he has also red carded Zat Knight twice, and yellow carded Papa Bouba Diop three times.

Referee Stats - 2005/2006
As Ref Styles has covered just 4 games in the current season it may be better to use last season's data. Ref Styles seemed to go soft or hopefully more understanding last season. He whistled less and issued less yellows, they are even below or on par with the Premiership average. However his red card numbers are second to only one other ref, a certain "Deputy" Dowd. Strangely Styles has gone off penalty decisions giving just one in 30 games. The previous season he gave 8 penalties. Lets hope his reasonable behaviour extends to his favourite Fulham targets .	Mr. Styles' Av Premiership Ref Total Match Avg Total Match Avg Games 30   18   Fouls 682 22.7 476 26.3 Yellows 92 3.1 56 3.1 Reds 6 0.2 4 0.2 Pens 1 0.03 3 0.2 Fouls per Yellow - 7.4 - 8.5
Homer? (2005-2006) Total Home Away Total Games Fouls Yellow Red Pen Fouls Yellow Red Pen Fouls Yellow Red Pen 30 318 37 1 0 364 55 5 1 682 92 6 1   47% 40% 17% 0% 53% 60% 83% 100% - - - - Premiership Average 18 49% 42% 35% 67% 51% 58% 65% 33% 476 56 4 3	As noted Ref Styles seemed to be a reformed character last season with less and less for fans to complain about in relation to his performances. Even the split of his decisions between home and away squads is close to average apart from his red cards which he seems to reserve for visiting squads.

2004/2005

19-04-2005 Premiership Middlesbro 1-1 Fulham 1y 0r Bookings: Southgate (Middlesbro) Referee Rob Styles deprived Fulham of all three points when he pointed to the penalty spot after Edwin van der Sar and Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink collided going for a high ball in an incident that quite clearly took place outside the box. Fulham boss Chris Coleman lost his cool and had to be restrained after attempting to confront Styles at the final whistle. Referee Style telephoned Chris Coleman, after seeing the video replays, to apologise for his mistake. That was nice of him eh? 05-02-2005 Premiership Liverpool 3-1 Fulham 5y 0r Bookings: Luis Garcia (Liverpool) Diop, Pembridge, Rehman, Van der Sar (Fulham) Traore, of Liverpool, mugged Diop, who had just clashed heads with Gerrard seconds before, and charged forward with the ball passing out to Riise. The pulled back cross was expertly drilled home from eight yards by Baros. Fulham players and management were furious with referee Rob Styles for not penalising Traore for the challenge on Diop. Van der Sar was booked for dissent but the goal stood. 27-11-2004 Premiership Fulham 0-2 Blackburn 3y 1r Bookings: Diop, Knight (sent off 76 for second yellow), (Fulham) Ferguson (Blackburn) 21-08-2004 Premiership Fulham 2-0 Bolton 0y 0r

2003/2004

06-03-2004 FA Cup Man Utd 2-1 Fulham 6y 0r Bookings: Keane, Phil Neville (Man Utd) Boa Morte, Goma, Hayles, Volz (Fulham)02-11-2003 Premiership 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, with Boa, instead of converting the winning penalty after his premeditated assault on Steed Malbranque - Murphy, had violently fouled Malbranque at knee level and was yellow carded after a delay during which home fans became extremely upset. The bias against Fulham caused a great deal of upset for Fulham players and fans.

2002/2003

23-10-2002 Premiership 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 Premiership 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.

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)