Dean Finally Pays The Penalty

Dean Finally Pays The Penalty

*Gasp* - the Penalty Man got one wrong. Mike Dean, who trains at home dangling a yo-yo from one finger to make sure he gets the gesticulation of pointing to the spot just right, awarded a pen to Blackburn for a foul by Brian Jensen on an onrushing Martin Olssen.

Let's get one thing clear here - it is not a foul, and therefore not a penalty. It is a poor decision from Mike Dean. I'm not quite so quick as Brian Laws to cry 'cheat' at Olssen, mind you. He may well have dived, but there is enough doubt in my mind for me to hold back on excess criticism of him, as he may well have simply stumbled as he tried to turn. Whichever way you look, it certainly is not a spot-kick.

Mr Dean seemed to have a strange day. Burnley fans may feel they should have had a penalty for a foul which was basically on the line of the penalty area, but I'm satisfied it was outside. They did, mind you, I feel, have a legitimate grievance for when Blackburn goalkeeper Jason Brown spilled outside of the area with the ball in his hands, and Mike Dean gave nothing.

Now I'm not saying Brown would have been sent off or even cautioned, but it was a free-kick Burnley ought to have had.

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I've actually had messages prior to writing this piece this week urging me to look at Howard Webb's poor performance in the Birmingham v Arsenal game.

I am aware I have only seen edited highlights, and not the full game, but I can see very little that he has done wrong in this game.

I can only assume that there are two points that people think are irregular. The first is the Arsenal 'goal' where Abou Diaby fired in the corner only for it to be chalked off for a foul he had committed seconds earlier. And that is exactly what it was. It was a foul. He barged Bowyer out of the way, for me, before he shot for goal. No big deal.

The only incident I can possibly think of that anyone might (and that's a very big might) take exception to is Stephen Carr bringing down Andriy Arshavin. Perhaps some may feel this ought to have been a sending off for the Irish full back, but there is no way that it was a clear goalscoring opportunity. Arshavin is good, but he isn't that good.

I'm not retracting my analysis of Mr Webb from last week, but just because I was critical of him then does not mean I will automatically think everything he does is incorrect. I felt he was fine this week.


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If there was a red card to be had for denying a goalscoring opportunity, I'd have thought it was at the KC, where Jozy Altidore looked about to pull the trigger when hauled down rather obviously by Chris Smalling of Fulham. Hull got their spot kick, but Smalling did not even receive a card for his misdemeanour.

I'm not saying it was a horrific mistake from the referee, as this is clearly a close call, but I think the defender can count himself lucky on this occasion.

Shortly afterwards, there was an interesting call for a penalty at the other end, which was waved away. If you take a look at the incident again, you'll see Kevin Kilbane not only allow the ball to strike him arm while trying to control it, but have a sneaky look to his left to see whether the referee was going to blow for this - a clear sign of guilt, to me.

To make matters worse for Fulham, Zoltan Gera then challenged for the ball and went down looking again for a penalty. He surely threw himself to the ground rather than was forced there, and was rightly cautioned for simulation, but it probably shouldn't have got that, since Fulham likely should have had a penalty.