Under fire Webb makes dash to Cardiff

Howard Webb is having a busy few days. The dust had hardly settled on his performance in the Man City vs Tottenham game on Sunday then he was jumping in his car for a drive down the M6 to Cardiff to take charge of the Cardiff vs Crystal Palace Carling Cup semifinal on Tuesday night, a game that stretched into extra time and penalties, a severe fitness test for the strongest of referees.

After the Mario Balotelli incident, Webb will have been kept busy until late on Sunday night and part of Monday filling in forms and answering phone calls from the Football Association about the clash between Balotelli and Scott Parker. Webb did not send Balotelli off for stamping on Parker but indicated after the game that he would have done if he had seen the stamp.
Referees cover a similar amount of ground to players during a game - although not at such a fast pace - and top level refs are astonishingly fit. I watched Webb closely last night and he glided around the ground, seemingly unbothered by the fact that he'd only had 48 hours between stressful games.
I may be wrong but I thought I saw a glimpse of Webb stretching his leg muscles on the touchline - with a few minutes to go -  while he waited for a player to be treated, but he gave a near perfect performance. The only curious call was right at the end when he failed to award a yellow card to a Palace player, almost, it seemed, out of sympathy for the effort the players had put into 120 minutes of football.
No, Webb was right on top of the action throughout the game, often surprising players who look up to appeal to the ref only to find him standing right next to them.
Separately, the FA came out in support of Webb today after some pretty unpleasant and uncalled for criticism from Balotelli's agent.
FA Chairman David Bernstein said: "We all have a duty to respect our referees, to question their integrity or imply anything other than total impartiality is reckless and unfounded. It harms the perception and treatment of referees at every level of football, and we must not allow that climate to exist.
 "Referees have only one live opportunity to make a judgement call on those instances that they see in a fast paced game. They do not have the benefit of numerous camera angles and replays, they make these decisions with honesty and integrity."
Bernstein went on to say that, "specifically relating to the incident involving Mario Balotelli, Howard Webb did not see the incident but on review confirmed he would have sent the player off if he had seen it at the time. On review, Webb would not have sent off Joleon Lescott for the incident involving Younes Kaboul."
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