RateTheRef

I wonder where contributors would place Graham Poll. In my view he could be in either group. The Beeb had the Arsenal v Man Utd game in 2005 on 'Their Match of the Day' last Saturday when Keene was engaged in a fracas in the tunnel before the teams had even emerged at the start of the game, and Silvestre was later sent off, and this was Poll at his best in my view, with authority stamped all over him. However Poll could also be maddingly controversial and I am not just talking about his 'three card' exit from the World Cup stage. Any thoughts?

Thought Poll was a poor referee. Very authoritative so could keep control but when it came to key incidents I don’t remember him getting many

Robert Styles.... always one match away from a disaster occurring....

Apologies if this is not suitable but out of the archives a couple of categories

Good solid referees

Gerald Ashby
Alan Wilkie
Jeff Winter
Steve Dunn
Dermot Gallagher
Gary Willard
Phil Dowd
Robbie Hart
Roger Dilkes
Keith Cooper
Keith Burge
Peter Jones
Paul Durkin
Martin Bodenham


A few refs who courted controversy

Mike Reed
Paul Danson
Paul Alcock
David Elleray
Mike Riley

I know this is all about opinions but surely you've inadvertenly put the horrendous Jeff Winter in the wrong category here?  He always gave me the impression it was about him and, post-refereeing career, he hasn't changed!

Off the top of my head, I would have Alan Wiley as a shoe-in for one of the best and most consistent referees.  I thought Uriah Rennie started out decent enough but then really dropped off. 

Elleray seemed to suffer from not going full-time.  From being regularly appointed to the League's top matches, he seemed to end his career (from my memory) of refereeing fairly run-of-the-mill matches, with the exception of a Manchester derby towards the very end where he sent Roy Keane off for the umpteenth time (quite rightfully I might add - his 'revenge tackle' on Haaland).

The one thing I like is the opinions and reasons behind them I do sincerely apologise to Shy Talk and any other Barnsley fans that match in question is not in my memory bank but I always rated Willard

As for Wiley yes he would be up there amongst the best wasn’t afraid to give the big decisions and a good man manager but I’m trying to go back mostly as far as I can remember to mid /late 90’s and early 2000’s

I fully accept from his career stats that Mr Willard had a good career as a referee; I however can only judge him on the 2 occasions I saw him live. The first was about 3 months earlier than the Liverpool debacle mentioned above, when he refereed the Premiership local derby between Sheffield Wednesday and my team Barnsley (again!) one  evening just before Christmas 1997.

However on this occasion also I have to use the term refereed loosely, as all the major decisions in the match were actually made by Paolo di Canio. When he wasn't niggling and/or fouling he spent the evening on Willard's shoulder giving him the benefit of his advice, which the "referee" almost invariably took, or berating the linesmen with complete impunity. At one point he indulged himself with a long rant right in the linesman's face, ending with a you need binoculars gesture, without any retribution.

And of course, in stoppage time and with Barnsley 1-0 up and cruising to a comfortable win, up pops the pseudo ref with an equaliser when he should have been having a nice long soak in the bath. I don't know what it is about Barnsley, but we certainly brought out the worst in Mr Willard.

Watching World Cup rewind today brought back some great memories. Seeing a referee send his assistant to the goal line and cover offside himself at a free kick (and the subsequent scramble of the assistant getting back in position)
2 great decisions by Darren Cann (pre goal line and VAR tech) one on goal/no goal and a very tight offside.
And good ol' John 'Jack' Taylor in his moment of glory. V enjoyable

Agree.  Although I did not get within a million miles of international football, I used to use Linesman / Assistants in that way.  "Left wings first half, right wings second - straight across the park at half-time."  By logic (such as it was) was that the Linesmen / Assistants experienced both back-lines and both sides of the Field of Play during the game.  It had the added benefit of confusing the heck out of some players.  The only time I did not do this was with a very "green" Linesman / Assistant who - in my view - needed to be shielded from the helpful comments coming from the dug-outs.  It worked for me, but it does seem odd seeing the "wrong" diagonal being run today, such is the uniform approach these days.

Always a groundskeepers friend if you could run left wings. I actually found it more comfortable, although had to revert to type to make any progression. I always felt swapping from one to the other during a game put pressure on the Assistants. Last guy I saw do rights/lefts in a match at a decent level was Eddie Evans

I have seen this reference from various people to the referee running "left wings" in this instance where the linesmen / assistants are tracking the right-backs (or left-wingers) if you prefer. While I can see how we might say the assistant "was running left-wings" surely the referee is in effect running right-wings, i.e. from the right-wing to right-wing in each half? To avoid this ambiguity (in my mind) I always prefer to refer to who the assistant is tracking, i.e. right-back or (these days) left-back.