Take Your Apology and Shove It

‘Quite a few hearts sank when the players heard he was refereeing our game. Apparently he has quite a bit of history with Bolton, too. I don’t know what that history is because I haven’t been here long enough, but I do know it went down like the Bismarck`

The words came from Gary Megson, as he recalled the reaction to the news that Rob Styles was to referee last Saturday`s game at Manchester United. If he wants history, the Bolton manager can ask Ricardo Gardner or Kevin Davies. Alternatively, he could nip up the road to Manchester City and speak to Tal Ben Haim.

In October 2005, Bolton were away at Chelsea. With the Wanderers 1-0 up and looking comfortable, Michael Essien went in on Ben Haim with a leg-breaker of a challenge that caught the Israeli just below the knee. It was as clear a sending off offence as you`ll see, but Styles who was a few yards away gave only a yellow card. Later on in the game he sent off Ricardo Gardner for handball. ‘Denying a clear goal scoring opportunity` is the official blurb. While there was certainly a goal threat, the Blues would have had to do a fair bit more work to put the ball in the net. Bolton went on to lose 5-1.

Later, in April 2006 Bolton were down 2-1 at Arsenal and under the cosh. In a rare Whites counter attack Emmanuel Eboue handled the ball in his own penalty area. Styles waved away the appeal of Kevin Davies who had a clear view of the incident. Then he sent off Ivan Campo. The Gunners retained their lead and ran out the winners.

Clearly Styles has a big club bias, at least when it comes to handling Bolton games. The FA could do with looking at his record with respect to all games involving the top four. But they won`t. Football`s ruling body is too weak to do that. As for his apology, the man from Waterlooville can insert it in the orifice of his choosing.