Whitestone referees Coventry v QPR
Friday, 19th Sep 2008 09:02

Dean Whitestone is the man in the middle as QPR travel to the Ricoh Arena to face Coventry City on Saturday.

Coventry City v Queens Park Rangers
Referee: Dean Whitestone (Northamptonshire)
Assistants – Merchant (Staffordshire) and Unsworth (Manchester)
Fourth Official – Hobbis (Birmingham)

The farcical performance of the merry flag wavers at Norwich on Wednesday got me thinking again about the role of the linesmen in our game. Twice last weekend penalties were awarded and then rescinded on the advice of the linesman - the hapless Chris Foy can't stand up for falling down at the moment and loves a penalty at the best of times so he must have been gutted when he had to take one off Derby last weekend on the advice of Bob Pollock his assistant. As Pollock hadn't flagged or attracted the referee's attention and Foy only seemed to go over at the insistance of the Sheff Utd players that seemed a dodgy one but the decision to award a corner was probably right.

Then a Stoke on Sunday Everton had a penalty downgraded to a free kick outside the area by Alan Wiley after taking advice - despite Wiley being in a better place to see it. Moyes was sent to the stand for arguing the case and has been charged, Danny Guthrie however has not which sends a terrific message that putting forward a point of view different to the referee is not allowed but deliberately breaking another player's leg because you were "a bit frustrated" is absolutely fine. Well done the FA as ever.

I've run the line before for referees who have asked me for offsides and throw ins only, and even on those decisions I've been told to follow the main man's lead. It makes you feel pretty pointless being there to be honest but I'm not sure I approve of this linesman overruling the referee business we're seeing at the moment. The decisions given on linesman's advice at Carrow Road had to be seen to be believed, including one where a guy flagged for a free kick from forty yards away when the referee was right on top of it all. Linesmen should help out, but the referee should have the final say.

The referee for our game at Coventry is Dean Whitestone from Northamptonshire - a relatively new official on the list. This is Whitestone’s sixth game of the season but he’s already been busy with 15 yellows (three a match) and no reds in his matches so far – eight of those yellows were shown in a tempestuous clash between Yeovil and Leeds and Huish Park in August. This is his first Championship match of the season so far. Last season he also averaged three yellows a match showing 93 in 31 games but he also flashed the red card ten times as well – it seems when he goes mad he really goes for it and looking down the list there are seven and eight card hauls in matches on three or four occasions.

As a relatively new official he only did two Championship games last season, including Rangers’ 2-1 home victory against Colchester over Christmas when again six yellows were shown and Damion Stewart was sent off. He got a six out of ten for that match and that was good enough for joint 14th on the referee league.

Dean Whitestone 6 I actually came away from the game thinking he'd done quite well but as I've reflected during my Sunday in front of the television his mark has dropped by a couple as I've remembered some things that worried me about his performance. Firstly Sheringham should have been sent off in my opinion, secondly Stewart's first yellow was very harsh and thirdly I reckon that was a Colchester penalty at the end. In general play he seemed happy to allow the game to flow and seemed reasonably sensible, but he did get too many key decisions wrong for too high a mark. LFW Colchester Match Report

His last Coventry match was a 1-1 home draw with Southend in December 2006 when two yellow cards were shown, part of a total of 113 yellows (3.72 a game) from 32 matches this season. He also showed 12 red cards and is somewhat card happy if the statistics are to be believed.

Elsewhere there’s a Championship appointment for Jarnail Singh at Bristol City v Doncaster and Andy Hall at Swansea v Burnley – commiserations to all players and fans involved in those games. Chris Foy will be displaying his currently totally unique method of officiating games at Carlisle v Leeds and I’m sure the bumper and vociferous crowd at that one will be understanding and philosophical about his total lunacy if he starts performing again in that lunchtime kick off. Trevor Kettle has Colchester v MK Dons, while Mark Halsey is rewarded for sending off John Terry last week and then refusing Keith Hackett’s request to rescind it by getting Shrewsbury at Chester on Sunday lunchtime. Poor guy.

Lee Mason for us at Villa on Wednesday, more on that on Tuesday.