Howard's way

Howard Webb has been confirmed as the referee for next weekend's Championship play-off Final between West Ham United and Blackpool.

The 40-yeard-old official has been selected to officiate the richest game in English football and will be assisted by linesmen Peter Kirkup and Mike Mullarkey.

The fourth official on the day has been named as Kevin Friend, whoilst poineering female referee Sian Massey has been selected as
the reserve assistant referee.

Webb, who usually takes control of Premier League fixtures has overseen just one of West Ham's matches this season - one of only two in the Championship during 2011/12. That was the opening day 0-1 home defeat againt Cardiff City, on whom revenge was gained in the play-off semi finals.

Of 37 games he has taken control of this season, Webb has shown 107 yellow cards (an average of just 2.9 cards per game) and four red - although three of those dismissals were distributed in the opening six weeks of the season.

The season before, West Ham's most recent in the Premier League, he oversaw four league games played by Avram Grant's side - the home games against Stoke (3-1) and Everton (1-1) plus the trips to Sunderland (2-1) and Manchester City (1-2).

Webb was also in charge of West Ham's ill-fated Carling Cup semi final second leg at Birmingham when United threw away a 3-1 aggregate lead to go out 4-3 after extra time - a game in which six players were cautioned, four of which (Green, Tomkins, Cole and Dyer) were Hammers.

What we said: from the KUMB.com archives

August 2011 vs Cardiff (0-1)
"One of the better things about relegation was going to be avoiding some of the poorer select group officials. Unfortunately since the Premier League doesn’t start for another week it means this week we get Mr Webb whose career was already showing signs of inconsistency well before his disastrous World Cup."

February 2011 vs Birmingham (1-3)
"So once again the Hammers are denied a trip to Wembley. Some will point to Victor Obinna's needless and stupid red card in the first leg as the main cause; others to Howard Webb's failure to spot Ferguson's equally nasty kick tonight."

December 2010 vs Everton (1-1)
"It was a scrappy start and within the first minute we discovered that we were in for one of those inconsistent performances from Howard Webb that makes you long for the days of a couple of years ago when he used to base his decisions on whether they were right or wrong."

October 2010 vs Stoke (3-1)
"Webb added three minutes of stoppage – a rather baffling period given the amount of theatrical watch-tapping, a couple of appearances by the physios and the full complement of substitutions."

May 2010 vs Man City (1-1)
"City's first effort on goal came from a free kick for a non-existent foul given by Howard Webb whose season has been s poor as ours."