three card trick during this summer's World Cup goes some way to
proving.
And, by his own admission, he also stank the place out during the 2002
World Cup.
But, has he really been that bad where Everton are concerned?
Of the last ten Everton matches he's refereed, the Blues have won two,
drawn two and lost six. Amazingly, the two draws were against Chelsea
and one of the two wins was the away at Villa in 2004/05! The other win
was the obligatory home win over Fulham, also in the 2004/05 season.
Over the course of those 10 games he has issued nine yellow and two red
cards.
In addition, there are just two clubs that Mr Poll has shown a total of
five red cards to. One of them is Arsenal and the other one is….wait for
it…. oooh, the tension….Everton!
So we can definitely feel a bit hard done by there!
Liverpool, on the other hand, have fared much better as they have won
seven, drawn none and lost three of the last 10 matches that Mr Poll has
refereed.
He has booked 11 and sent off no Liverpool players during those 10
matches.
But, when griping about Poll, most people will refer back to the 1999/2000
Goodison derby (yes, it really was that long ago!) .
He, once again, appeared to bottle it big time as he blew the final
whistle a full 15 seconds before the end of added time as the ball was
sailing into the Gwladys Street goal.
His explanation at the time was that he was playing a maximum of three
added minutes when everyone knows that the rule is that the added time
called by the referee is always a minimum.
To save himself any embarrassment, all he had to do was make Westerveld
take the free kick again and penalise Don Hutchison for encroachment.
It would have been a ludicrous decision as the Don had his back to
Westerveld but at least it would have been within the rules of the
game!*
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But how has he performed in other derby matches?
Well, everyone will remember last season's outing as we got leathered
1-3 (1-3 isn't much of a leathering but they did batter us to be fair!)
and Poll sent off Arteta and Neville and booked Cahill and Beattie. He
also booked Kewell and Crouch for them.
His hands were tied with the red cards, especially Arteta's needless
foul on Luis Garcia (I take that back, there is no such thing as a
needless foul on Luis Garica) but he also disallowed a perfectly good
James Beattie header in that match. So that's twice he's robbed us in
two derbies!
The only other derby he has refereed was the 0-0 draw in the 2002/03
season. No controversial decisions in that one…oh, apart from the fact
that he didn't send off Gerrard for his near-castration of Gary
Naysmith!
So I'd say that's 3-0 to Liverpoll (sic).
We wonder what controversial decisions await us at the weekend!
*I'm assuming that everyone knows the script for this one but for those
of you that don't, here goes. The Goodison derby of 1999/2000 was
heading for a 0-0 draw when Liverpool were awarded a free kick just
outside their own area. Westerveld took the free kick before Hutchison
was 10 yards away and it cannoned off the Everton man's back
and into the Liverpool goal. But, as the ball was looping into the goal,
and Westerveld was scurrying back looking pinker than the Liverpool
shirts that night, Poll inexplicably blew for full time and the Blues
were robbed of a derby win!