Newcastle fan Michael Oliver is our ref tomorrow

Well - I don't think he will referee against us because he is pro-Newcastle - but as some point out, his objectivity will be questioned if Everton get some questionable decisions tomorrow.
 
Reffing is a very, very tough job and these days it's even harder. I doubt Oliver will be concentrating on anything other than doing his job.

A few weeks ago, Kavanagh got a decision spot on and for that he got an incensed meathead of a centre forward sprinting towards him to scream in his face because Willian, who knew he had handled the ball, pretended he hadn't, and acted as if the greatest injustice of all time had just happened. It's hard too imagine too many other professions where you would face that kind of reaction to doing your job well. And even when refs do a good job, there will still be some lunactics who try to argue that they have made a bad call, sometimes just to draw attention to themselves. It must be infuriating to have to put up with.

In the main, players are consistently dishonest (which they weren't in the past). I just think Oliver will be to in-the-moment to even remember where his sympathies lie.
 
Last edited:
Reffing is a very, very tough job and these days it's even harder.

A few weeks ago, Kavanagh got a decision spot on and for that he got an incensed meathead of a centre forward screaming in his face because Willian, who knew he had handled the ball, pretended he hadn't.

In the main, players are consistently dishonest (which they weren't in the past) and we've got a skewed sense of perspective thanks to how we watch the game.
That’s great and everything but there are rules in place for referees not to oversee fixtures which the teams they support have a vested interest in - as detailed in Michael Oliver’s own words and that’s what we are talking about in this thread.
 
Reffing is a very, very tough job and these days it's even harder. I doubt Oliver will be concentrating on anything other than doing his job.

A few weeks ago, Kavanagh got a decision spot on and for that he got an incensed meathead of a centre forward screaming in his face because Willian, who knew he had handled the ball, pretended he hadn't, and acted as if the greatest injustice of all time had just happened. It's hard too imagine too many other professions where you would face that kind of reaction to doing your job well. And even when refs do a good job, there will still be some lunactics who try to argue that they have made a bad call, sometimes just to draw attention to themselves. It must be infuriating to have to put up with.

In the main, players are consistently dishonest (which they weren't in the past). We've also got a slightly skewed sense of perspective thanks to how we watch the game.
You do know referees supports other clubs and there is a rule for that?
 
The one thing we moan about might be our saving grace if he makes a bad call...VAR
 
I've seen it all over the place, Reddit etc, think it's weird.
It's a football forum. It's not that weird.

You'd think they'd keep him away from these sorts of games given how tight the race is for top 4 and that he's a Newc fan.
 
I'm sure everything will be fine. He's an excellent referee and his haircuts aren't remotely shite.

Just in case he reads this thread before kickoff
 
Its a bad sign that Bruno isnt the captain for me. I always feel like the pressure he puts on refs gets us more marginal calls. I’m expecting us to screwed today.
 
There is literally rules in place to stop this conflict of interest happening. There isn’t a shortage of referees, it would be very easy to swap Oliver with someone else.
And then we'd moan about them. The level of PL refs is probably the worst it's ever been. If he makes a blatant bad call there's a 99% chance it will be incompetence other than being bias. The spotlight will be well and truly on him and will probably work in our favour.

People are under the impression that we're the only team getting bad calls against us when the truth is every team gets screwed. They should stop being so paranoid.
 
Been excellent so far, it has to be said.
 
I think Oliver is one of the best in the business.

Kane just scored and Brighton should have had a PK. Da....
 
He didn't get anything wrong today, but it was actually a strange game where I don't think there were any difficult decisions for him to make. Every decision was quite obvious.

McTominay could perhaps have got a yellow for being a bit too aggressive with the knee/kick near the sideline in the second half, but that's about it. Maybe a couple of late Everton challenges but would need to see a replay to know if they deserved more.
 
Last edited:
Who'd have thought it...maybe we overanalyse and pontificate over refs far, far too much. Seems like only players and managers are allowed to have bad individual matches and only refs can be corrupt or seen to be corrupt...despite clubs being more associated with nefarious tactics than refs at the top level!

I think there's a reason ETH only ever mentions refs when there's a particularly egregious situation like the Eriksen foul. He knows it's a load of bollocks and they're doing a tough job the best they can, the games are all in our hands and it is nonsensical excuse making in football. Players and managers just use the fella in black as a lightening rod for their own shortcomings. Just get on with it...
 
FtGrskgWcAE4-n6


These are Michael Oliver’s own words.

We are now in March or April.
Newcastle are involved in a relegation top 4 battle.
He can’t apparently can referee anyone around them towards the bottom three top four

Can you explain to us why he said what he said about Newcastle around the relegation zone not applying to Newcastle around the Top 4 and why he no longer thinks it’s “not worth the hassle”?
Dunno.

He's a professional ref. Not a great one, but he's still a professional ref.

Wayne Rooney is an Everton fan but still played well for us against them. I struggle to see any refereree deliberately or not deliberately giving wrong decisions in a match because their "favourite team" (who aren't even involved in the match!) are in a similar position in the league.
 
He only did well because this thread was made pre-emptively. Well done @Pexbo
 
Best I’ve seen him in charge of our games. We should lean on him in the press more often.
 
Best I’ve seen him in charge of our games. We should lean on him in the press more often.
I thought he refereed the game pretty well, and the McTominay situation was defused quite sensibly with the ref taking a few moments to talk to both players, without having to resort to a card, in fact I don't think he issued a card all game.
 
Dunno.

He's a professional ref. Not a great one, but he's still a professional ref.

Wayne Rooney is an Everton fan but still played well for us against them. I struggle to see any refereree deliberately or not deliberately giving wrong decisions in a match because their "favourite team" (who aren't even involved in the match!) are in a similar position in the league.

If that was the case then unconscious bias wouldn’t be a thing. Of course he’s not going to go out there and purposely give something against us.
 
He “did well” because we dominated Everton. Most of the plight fans have with referees will tend to dissipate when your team is doing very well. Some egregious decisions aside, mind.
 
I quite liked the way Oliver refereed this game to be honest. Everton did get quite dirty towards the end but generally Oliver seemed in favour of letting the game flow and holding back from handing out yellow cards where possible. This was also a standard he applied consistently throughout the match.

Not the most difficult match to referee but Michael Oliver did his job well in my view.
 
He “did well” because we dominated Everton. Most of the plight fans have with referees will tend to dissipate when your team is doing very well. Some egregious decisions aside, mind.
I don't think he did well because we dominated Everton, he did well because he did well and it helped the actual football talk. I think a small part of the reason we were able to dominate is because the ref let the game go, he wasn't blowing up every second or putting people on yellows unnecessarily. All things being equal, this type of reffing leads to better viewing. Can't always be done, it was fairly easy to ref but I don't think it's a problem to say he did well.
 
It was an easy game for him. Everton didn't put up a fight, United were in control and there were no controversial decisions that needed to be made.

Probably a dream scenario for him beforehand (although I get the feeling some refs relish games that are full of contentious incidents just for the, I dunno, "adrenaline rush" of having to make big calls in vital games.
 

Point taken.

I did fear for our players when Davis came on, but I didn't think Garner was like that, but it was certainly late and dangerous.
 
the feck is he doing reffing in Saudi Arabia?


That's dodgy as hell. Saudi Arabia have admitted they've literally bought Newcastle and so a club's owner paying a ref that can affect the result of their season is a pretty strong conflict of interest.
 
Surely this will lead to a change in referees contracts.

He’s obviously not breaking any rules but you have to question the character of a guy who’ll referee ‘showpiece’ events in farmers leagues. He really does encapsulate all that is wrong with the current crop of referees.