Rate the Ref v Northampton - Antony Coggins

I'm saying that Mike Dean officiated the game differently to how regularly would.

There were 4 or 5 points in the game, where the rules would without question state a yellow card was warranted (remember Mike Dean sent off Raheem Sterling for jumping into the crowd in a league game at Bournemouth after scoring a last minute winner - so in general terms he applies the rules as per the written word). However for whatever reason (my belief that because it was a cup game) he was for more forgiving than i've seen him. Kicking the ball away when leading with minutes to go, centre forwards leading with the elbow, shirt pulling when a player had got goal side of the defender - all became instances that he decided to administer a talking to rather than a card.

The above highlights, that its not always the players behaviour that determines how noticeable a referee is. If Dean had played it by the rule book that night, quite probably Noble would have been red carded for two yellow card offences, but he almost took the approach that referee's do in international friendlies, that the rules can be relaxed if a referee decides that how the game will be played.

The rule is, "in the opinion of the referee" and only Mike Dean can answer whether he officiated differently that night. He may of course have been asked as part of the assessor process.