Picking up the pieces...

Well - thats Keith Hackett's job after a disastrous weekend for referees in the Premier League, and on the back of the Watford v Reading controversy too. Matches were riddled with errors, several of them match-changing. Hackett's own position could be called into question. But first, lets analyse the key incidents.

Firstly, the Merseyside derby. I thought Mike Riley did a little better than the previous week, although at times he still stifled the flow of the game rather. Liverpool had a third goal harshly disallowed for a pretty insignificant foul. But the big controversy is Tim Cahill's red card. He dived in to the challenge, wound up by an earlier altercation with Arbeloa, though I don't think he expected the red card. Many think its harsh. That said, I can see why it was given. Cahill dives in with a lot of force and aggression - arguably "excessive force". His legs wrap around the opponent as he tackles in a scissors movement, arguably "endangering safety". Those two make it serious foul play, and a red card. Personally, I'd go with yellow, but its certainly not a totally incorrect decision by Riley - perhaps a harsh one.

Now - Mr Styles. What can I say? He has history, but yet again he's made a terrible blunder, a perfectly timed tackle punished with a penalty at a crucial time in the game. Styles had the perfect view, he couldn't have been better placed - the decision defies belief. Given the history Styles has with poor penalty decisions, maybe its time to consider his position on the Select Group of Premier League referees. Consistent errors like this can't be tolerated. More on that later.

Steve Bennett at Wigan. The penalty he gave wasn't as bad a decision as Styles' call, and Bennett didn't have quite such a good view. That said, it is the softest of penalties, and there is barely any contact. City also had a couple of good penalty claims turned down - in both cases Wigan got the free kick, rather bizarrely. The usually reliable Bennett seems to be going downhill rapidly.

Chris Foy should have given Middlesbrough a penalty. Steve Tanner should have sent off Ryan Nelson. Tottenham should have had a penalty for handball by Diarra, although Mike Dean was probably unsighted so that one is a little more understandable. But six matches with pivotal decisions wrong is not a good average, and a couple of them are inexplicable errors.

Where do we go from here then? How does Keith Hackett pick up the pieces after this weekend? I've been following this blog on the BBC website, which contains all sorts of suggestions as to how to make things better, including the use of technology, sacking Mr Styles, cross-examining referees and demoting about half the Select Group.

As I said last time, the whole culture within the Select Group seems to be wrong. There is favouritism. There is random punishment and demotion. There is public rebuking of referees which can do their confidence no good. And there is a total lack of support when mistakes are made. How can we claim that the Select Group of Professional referees has improved standards when Styles gives a decision like that? What future is there for professional referees?

What we need is some distinction between mistakes. Hackett needs to strike a balance between supporting referees and making them accountable. I have four suggestions:

• Accept mistakes will be made by referees, and don't relegate people simply for odd picky things, especially if they aren't Hackett's favourites. No discrimination!
• Look to see if the mistake made was avoidable. This weekend, Styles and Dean made wrong decisions. Styles had a perfect view, so it was inexplicable. Dean's view was blocked, so the mistake is understandable. If you're going to punish, do it for avoidable mistakes.
• Look at the long-term view. If someone is consistently making avoidable mistakes, do something about it! (Some of you might get who I'm subtly referring to here.) The idea is to improve standards. Alan Wiley had a bad game at Stoke the other week, but its a drop in the ocean of good showings. Styles has been making bad errors for several years (see two ridiculous penalties last season). Don't demote someone for one mistake (as happened with Andy D'Urso and Matt Messias several years ago), but consider the positions of the consistently bad performers.
• Bring new referees through. The Select Group is rather closed off at the moment, with few people joining. The barriers need to be broken down, giving more opportunities for the best Football League referees to make the step up. Competition is healthy! When they do make the step up, make sure they've got the experience to do it, and don't rush them (as with Stuart Attwell). Then we can see some new promising talent succeeding on the Premier League.

Does that sound implausible? Its certainly not how I see it happening at the moment. Combined with support for officials following mistakes, which I rather suspect they don't get, this should ensure some kind of decent future for refereeing in this country.

On the other hand, perhaps we need a total change of direction - with new management. Perhaps the Select Group should be abolished. Either way, if something isn't done, then I can see weekends like this happening more often in the future, which means everyone is talking about the referees and not the football.