Refwatch: Millwall

[Far Canal]

Reading v Millwall Tuesday, 22 February 2011 20:00

Referee Dean Whitestone

Assistant 1Gary Evetts
Assistant 2 Andrew Bennett
4th Official Mark Russell



Dean is thirty one years of age, and currently single. He started in senior football in 1993 in Northampton and came through the United Counties and Southern Leagues to reach the National List of Assistant Referees in 2001. He was promoted to the Referees’ List midway through season 2005-06. Refereed the Conference Play Off Final in 2006 and enjoys keeping fit, tennis and travelling.

Mr Whitestone scores an average of 2.77 stars on rate your ref

http://rateyourref.co.uk/referee/Dean-Whitestone


Card record (last 3 seasons):

2010/11: GAMES: 25 YELLOW CARDS: 66 RED CARDS: 6
2009/10: GAMES: 31 YELLOW CARDS: 76 RED CARDS: 5
2008/09: GAMES: 35 YELLOW CARDS: 86 RED CARDS: 6

Averages: Yellow Cards: 2.51 per game; Red Cards: 0.18 per game
(low red card count)

Reading FC record:

Championship We 17Feb 2010 C Palace 1 - 3 Reading 3 yellow cards
bookings: Reading: Griffin. Crystal Palace: Davis, Scannell.
Championship Sa 07Nov 2009 Reading 1 - 1 Ipswich
bookings: none
Carling Cup Tu 26Aug 2008 Reading 5 - 1 Luton 2 yellow cards
bookings: Reading: Noel Hunt. Luton: Martin.

[Kitson12]

Good record under him, guarenteed to show a red card though tonight.

[RoyalBlue]

Whilst we maintained our good record under him, it was despite rather than because of his attendance!

This guy was absolutely abysmal!!

One of the referee's major responsibilities is to ensure the safety of the players. Yet twice last night he allowed play to continue when head injuries had clearly been incurred. Whilst Tabb was writhing around in discomfort, Mills appeared to be out completely cold and motionless. Furthermore, and worryingly at the time, it appeared to take quite a while before he came around.

Then we have some of the decisions not given. Probably worst of them all was the way Noel Hunt appeared to be body checked by a defender and flew up into the air as he tried to break forward. The way I saw it, that should either have been a freekick to us and yellow card for the defender or a yellow to Hunt for a blatant dive!

[bigmike]

Worst Referee I have seen in a long time.

I have to say that the standard of refereeing seems to be getting worse every year

[floyd__streete]

Can I throw in my own brickbat here. I am not one to normally complain about referees, I certainly wouldn't normally waste bandwidth discussing their performances on here because there is nothing whatsoever we can do to influence the refereeing performance. That said, Whitestone last night was awful. His performance was best summed up by the yellow card shown to Griffin who was preparing to take a throw in injury time. Couldn't get that card out quick enough. Fussy, inconsistent, missed an awful lot and the worst referee I have seen at any Reading game this season.

[If you still hate Futcher]

With regard to the 2 head injuries my view was that Tabb saw that he was up against 2 much bigger players and tried to get as much out of the situation as possible.

I too did originally think that Mills was out cold but once the physio had come on I would have expected him to get Mills into the recovery position if he was even slightly groggy.

The worst decision (of many on the night) was to award a free-kick against Griffin down in the corner at the death when all he was doing was shielding the ball. The ref had it in for him though as he had taken his time on several throw-ins and free-kicks

[Jackson Corner]

I usualy try to give refs the benefit as it is a hard job and you are always going to divide opinion whichever way he gives a decision. But this ref was beyond belief I just lost count of the number of wrong decisions he made, I know as a Reading fan I am biased but every wrong decision seemed to be against us to the point it became almost laughable. As mentioned the one near the end when he ran off the field and round to award a free kick to Millwall for Griffen shielding the ball? Shocking.

[The Cap]

Aren't this lot meant to be assessed? Then again how on earth can you assess that? He was absolutely dire. Not often you get the Mad Stad crowd on their feet getting that passionate about an official's performance.

[heathrow royal]

Aren't this lot meant to be assessed? Then again how on earth can you assess that? He was absolutely dire. Not often you get the Mad Stad crowd on their feet getting that passionate about an official's performance.

Fully agreed mate.

[Y21_Royal]

Even if you ignore the two times he allowed play to carry on when a player was down with a head injury, he had a shocker.

Booking Griffin without any warning or indication he was taking to long, not booking Hunt for a blatent dive on the edge of the box, missing Mills' clear shove in the back on their forward toward the end of the game. There was no consistency what so ever and at no point did you feel like he had any control over the game.

[ayjaydee]

Can I throw in my own brickbat here. I am not one to normally complain about referees, I certainly wouldn't normally waste bandwidth discussing their performances on here because there is nothing whatsoever we can do to influence the refereeing performance. That said, Whitestone last night was awful. His performance was best summed up by the yellow card shown to Griffin who was preparing to take a throw in injury time. Couldn't get that card out quick enough. Fussy, inconsistent, missed an awful lot and the worst referee I have seen at any Reading game this season.

I thought the booking for Kebe for the same offence was equally farcical.

Also, for any referees out there - is there a rule preventing a substitute taking a throw in before kicking the ball? Cos that's what happened to a 'Wall sub, the player about to take the throw was subbed, the replacement took the same position but the ref ordered him away.

[STAR Liaison]

Can I throw in my own brickbat here. I am not one to normally complain about referees, I certainly wouldn't normally waste bandwidth discussing their performances on here because there is nothing whatsoever we can do to influence the refereeing performance. That said, Whitestone last night was awful. His performance was best summed up by the yellow card shown to Griffin who was preparing to take a throw in injury time. Couldn't get that card out quick enough. Fussy, inconsistent, missed an awful lot and the worst referee I have seen at any Reading game this season.

I thought the booking for Kebe for the same offence was equally farcical.

Also, for any referees out there - is there a rule preventing a substitute taking a throw in before kicking the ball? Cos that's what happened to a 'Wall sub, the player about to take the throw was subbed, the replacement took the same position but the ref ordered him away.

I thought the same and was told it is true that you have to have entered the field of play before you can take a throw.

[Duke the Dog]

He was probably the most all-round incompetent ref I've seen in a while (he missed loads from both sides) and luckily for him there weren't too many (any?) contentious situations to deal with!

BUT, TBF to refs, the rules don't help them. There are now too many areas open to interpretation to individual refs and the inconsistency within games (let alone from ref to ref and game to game) are getting infuriating.

Plus as the rules change subtley each year, a lot of supporters (and I suspect a few players!) don't know them either (the farcical off-side rule is a point in case - active or not active???).

[Mad Dog's Ghost]

Nice moment when Long, I think, cleanly headed the ball out in front of West Stand. Griffin runs back to defend the throw only for it to be awarded to us.

[Y21_Royal]

I thought the booking for Kebe for the same offence was equally farcical.

Disagree on that one, the ref clearly waved at him to hurry up and take it and Kebe then tossed the ball to Hunt, always gona be a yellow. With Griffin he just produced the card without any warning

[RoyalBlue]

With regard to the 2 head injuries my view was that Tabb saw that he was up against 2 much bigger players and tried to get as much out of the situation as possible.

I too did originally think that Mills was out cold but once the physio had come on I would have expected him to get Mills into the recovery position if he was even slightly groggy.

Well Mills must have been taking very good acting lessons from his girlfriend then!! And the ref was clever enough to make that assessment before the physio even came on?! Disgraceful decision.

As for Tabb, it certainly looked like he got caught by the defender (whether unintentional or not). Also I don't think Tabb is the same type of character as Harte who has shown he is quite happy to portray mortal injury to benefit himself and his team. What's more, it was dangerous for the ref to assume he was play acting if, indeed, that is what he did.

Can I throw in my own brickbat here. I am not one to normally complain about referees, I certainly wouldn't normally waste bandwidth discussing their performances on here because there is nothing whatsoever we can do to influence the refereeing performance. That said, Whitestone last night was awful. His performance was best summed up by the yellow card shown to Griffin who was preparing to take a throw in injury time. Couldn't get that card out quick enough. Fussy, inconsistent, missed an awful lot and the worst referee I have seen at any Reading game this season.

I thought the booking for Kebe for the same offence was equally farcical.

Also, for any referees out there - is there a rule preventing a substitute taking a throw in before kicking the ball? Cos that's what happened to a 'Wall sub, the player about to take the throw was subbed, the replacement took the same position but the ref ordered him away.

I thought the same and was told it is true that you have to have entered the field of play before you can take a throw.

So surely with the ref's permission he can enter the field of play and immediately step off again to take the throw?!

[RoyalBlue]

Even if you ignore the two times he allowed play to carry on when a player was down with a head injury, he had a shocker.

.......missing Mills' clear shove in the back on their forward toward the end of the game. .

To be fair it was the equally incompetent assistant on the East Stand side who should be most criticised for missing that one! It happened right in front of him as he looked along our defensive line.

[paultheroyal]

Booking Griffin without any warning or indication he was taking to long, not booking Hunt for a blatent dive on the edge of the box, missing Mills' clear shove in the back on their forward toward the end of the game. There was no consistency what so ever and at no point did you feel like he had any control over the game.

Not defending the referee last night, because although i am a big supporter of referee's i have to say he did have a poor game. At 30 years of age I do believe he is to young to be reffing at this standard.

Anyway, back to the quoted part of this message, no sympathy for Griffin because he was a booking waiting to happen. Referee had a very animated exchange with Griffin 5 mins before the caution to hurry up, and then Griffin gave him the opportunity to card him.

[RoyalBlue]

Have to agree with PTR regarding Griffin's booking.

However, have just watched the BBC highlights and seen the ref walk right past an absolutely prone Mills, whose arm is dropping limply by his side, and completely ignore him!

Disgraceful refereeing. Before being such a stickler on time keeping he should remember his duty of care to the players.

[leon]

Have to agree with PTR regarding Griffin's booking.

However, have just watched the BBC highlights and seen the ref walk right past an absolutely prone Mills, whose arm is dropping limply by his side, and completely ignore him!

Disgraceful refereeing. Before being such a stickler on time keeping he should remember his duty of care to the players.

agreed however he also should have booked Hunt for the ridiculous dive between two defenders in the penalty area.