Amy Fearn makes football history

Amy Fearn made history on Tuesday night by becoming the first female to referee a football league match.

Fearn, recently married, maybe more recognised by the name Amy Rayner a predominant feature running the line in the football league, but she stepped into the middle after her colleague Tony Bates got injured.

Mrs Fearn was running the line for the opening 70 minutes of the Championship fixture between Coventry City and Nottingham Forest at The Ricoh Arena until the referee Tony Bates pulled as calf and after lengthy treatment from the Coventry physio, was forced to come off. Fearn, as the next senior official of the remaining three, was the obvious choice to take over and thus making history by being the first woman to referee a football league game.

I spoke to Fearn's colleague Chris Sarginson on the history making official and he said "It is very difficult for a lady to get to the top in men's football but why not? Amy has been at her level for many years so is very experienced."

After this Amy will no doubt be looking now at promotion to football league middle and this is a feat, Sarginson believes could happen "FL ref is a big step though. Being a lady no doubt makes it harder but she is strong enough to do it."

Her confidence will no doubt be sky high, and at only 31 years of age it is not impossible for her to make the Premier League list, something I sincerely hope she achieves, but for now she must just get on with things and concentrate on her next appointment, 4th official at Leicester vs Scunthorpe.

Dowd to ref League Cup Final

Stoke-on-Trent's Phil Dowd today was named the man in the middle for February's Carling Cup final between Aston Villa and Manchester United.

The 47-year old will be taking charge of his first match at the new Wembley Stadium, when the game takes place on the 28th February.

The experienced official, has been the biggest improver on the Select Group list over the past few seasons and has been rewarded for his hard work, finally with his first domestic cup final.

Dowd will be assisted on the day by two of the countries leading linesman, Shaun Procter-Green an experienced Premier League assistant and Conference referee and Dave Richardson who is on the FIFA list and has represented his country both internationally and in Europe.

Lee Mason will control the electronic board and Nigel Bannister will be reserve assistant, a massive appointment for him, having been involved with the ball over the line controversy at Watford vs Reading last season.

Congratulations to all five officials, thoroughly deserved appointments for all.

Wiley error helps Arsenal to victory

Alan Wiley took charge of Arsenal's 4-2 victory over Bolton Wanderers at the Emirates Stadium on Wednesday night, a game that was marred by a horrendous tackle by William Gallas.

The French defender went in studs high on Bolton's Mark Davis in the centre of the park, a tackle that Wiley had a very good view of, but surprisingly, and more worryingly wrongly allowed play to continue and from that same phase of play Arsenal gained their equaliser to level the score at 2-2.

The tackle in real time looked bad enough as Gallas was over the top of the ball and appeared to stamp on the ankle of the Bolton player. Wiley should have awarded a free kick to Bolton and shown William Gallas a straight red card for serious foul play. Instead the official allowed play to continue so why did the referee miss it?

Could it be because of his positioning? I think Wiley was in the perfect position to judge the tackle and had a clear view of the incident from only 10 yards away. His vision wasn't obstructed by another player so he shouldn't have missed the tackle.

Perhaps he did see the tackle but he felt it was a good one, but the direction of the ball tells you there is no way Gallas could've won the ball. I don't think he has any excuse for missing the tackle, maybe he could have gotten some help from his assistant Ceri Richards however it's a decision the referee should be making.

I don't have any complaint about Owen Coyle's comments, however I can't see how the Bolton manager can blame the referee for his team losing the game, yes they should have had a free kick in the build up to the goal but the defending and goal keeping was poor so I think he should be blaming his players for the loss and not the officials.

Serena could meet abused umpire again

As the Australian Open started today, Serena Williams could come face to face with the woman she abused at last year's US Open.

Japanese lineswoman Shino Tsurubuchi will be on court at the Australian Open for the next two weeks but Australian Open officials will not confirm whether or not Tsurubuchi would be involved in any of the defending champion's matches.

Williams was fined a record $89,420, plus a further $10,840 on-site penalty after abusing Tsurubuchi in the US Open semi-final in reaction to being called for a foot fault.



The foot fault brought up match point for Kim Clijsters and ultimately cost Williams the semi-final after she was docked a point for the expletive-laden outburst

Williams was placed on a two-year good behaviour bond by the International Tennis Federation. She has an $89,420 fine hanging over her head which will be activated if she re-offends.

No doubt Serena will be hoping that the Japanese official keeps well away from her matches, but we'll wait and see whether round 2 takes place or not.

Ball over the line? Definately not

If you thought the Pedro Mendes ball over the line decision at Old Trafford or Geoff Hurst's goal in the 1966 World Cup final were bad then wait till you see this one from the Bundesliga second division.

Referee Marco Fritz was at the centre of some bad decisions in the game between MSV Duisburg and FSV Frankfurt, but none more controversial than the 81st minute goal from Duisburg's Christian Tiffert.

Tiffert chipped the ball from 20 yards after a poor clearance from the Frankfurt goalkeeper. The ball hit the crossbar and bounced at least a metre forward of the goal line, it was clearly not a goal and the keeper had been let off the hook having already conceded four goals, but to the surprise of the players, managers and spectators, Fritz awarded the goal.



Fritz said "I didn't see it, I only reacted." The goal was given by assistant referee Thomas Munch. Now the German FA have asked for an explanation from the officials concerned as to how this sort of mistake could happen.

Luckily the decision didn't effect the outcome of the game as this was the final goal of a 5-0 drubbing by MSV Duisburg.

Referee Report- Mike Jones

The first of today's two live Barclay's Premier League matches took place at Villa Park where Aston Villa entertained a struggling West Ham United side.

Mike Jones was appointed to take charge of this game and to be honest initially I wasn't sure whether or not it was a good appointment.

Jones was added to the Premier League list last season and in all honesty really hasn't impressed me at all, however today I was pleasantly surprised.

I thought he controlled the game extremely well, and even though the game was poor, he did what he had to do brilliantly.

My concern with Mike Jones so far this season has been his man management skills. Before today he had shown 36 yellow cards in 10 Premier League matches, some of those bookings could have been prevented had his man management been better. So when Kovac was booked in the first half for a very soft foul I did fear the worst, but i was proved wrong.

Kovcac probably should have been sent off. The Czech midfielder, already on a yellow card committed what looked like the easiest of bookings, however Jones decided to give him a reprieve and I for one was glad of this.

The match wasn't bad tempered up until that point so Mike decided to give Kovac his final warning with captain Matthew Upson as a witness, good man management by the referee and good decision making from Hammers manager Zola who substituted Kovac shortly after.

Midway through the second half there was an unsavoury incident between Petrov and Stanislas after a bad tackle from the West Ham player. Both men went head to head like rutting stags, Jones calmed the situation down, got word in his ear from his assistant Scott Ledger and decided to book both players. Again good man management from Jones and did well after that incident to prevent the game from boiling over.

One final decision to give praise for. Stephen Child, who was the assistant at the centre of the offside controversy at St Andrews last week between Birmingham and Manchester United, rightly gave Gabby Agbonlahor offside after the striker latched onto a Robert Green error. The decision looked tight but the linesman got it right.

Before the match I wasn't very optimistic about the appointment of Mike Jones, but after seeing the 42 year old's performance today, it appears as though he has got over the beachball incident at the Stadium of Light and I for one would not be disappointed to watch him take charge of another televised game in the near future.

Verdict: Very Good 8/10

Referee Report- Andre Marriner

Yesterday's teatime kick off saw Everton entertain an injury savaged Manchester City side, a game refereed by one of England and Europe's top officials, Andre Marriner.

I watched the game live on ESPN and personally I thought Andre Marriner and team were outstanding.

Both Everton goals came from set pieces and no doubt Manchester City will have complaints surrounding the awards of those set pieces.

Firstly the free kick for a foul just outside the area. It was a definite coming together and contact was made so a free kick was the right decision, however City cannot blame the referee for their poor defensive wall as gaps allowed Steven Pienaar to curl the ball past a helpless Shay Given at his near post.

Everton were on top in the game and got the opportunity to score a second courtesy of Marriner's assistant Richard West's fantastic spot.

The assistant noticed a clear shirt pull by Micah Richards on Louis Saha, although the initial foul occurred outside the area, the fact Richards continued to tug the shirt inside the box left Marriner and West with no choice but to award the spot kick that Saha stepped up and slotted home for 2-0.

I thought on the whole Marriner handled the game very sensibly. No need for any cards as his man management skills were great throughout and opted to talk to players rather than brandish needless cards.

A very solid performance from who is, in my opinion, among our top 5 referees along with Howard Webb, Martin Atkinson, Mike Dean and Mark Clattenburg.

I wouldn't be surprised to see Marriner get Manchester United v Arsenal at the end of the month as Webb will probably be ruled out as he is refereeing the Carling cup semi final between United and City only days earlier.

Verdict: Excellent 9/10