The Football League have now announced the Match Day officials that will take charge of the game between Sunderland and Leeds United this Saturday.
Sunderland host Leeds United on Saturday August 19 for the game at the Stadium of Light and the match carries a 5.30pm kick off.
Referee: Andy Davies
Assistant Refs: Daniel Leach and Darren Blunden
Fourth Official: Tony Harrington
Match Day referee Davies has officiated two games so far this season, showing eight yellow cards.
He took in 38 games in 2016/17 with a return of 136 yellow cards and four red cards.
His highest card count that year was eight yellows in the game between Cardiff City and Aston Villa. He also showed seven yellows and one red in the match between Ipswich Town and Brighton.
He took charge of 36 matches in 2015/16 and in those games, across all competitions and football divisions, he handed out a total of 127 yellow cards and five red cards.
He was most card happy in the match between Charlton and Leeds on December 12 with a total of eight yellow cards being shown. Wimbledon and Notts County on September saw seven yellows and he also showed seven in the November tie between MK Dons and Charlton.
A former player with a number of clubs at youth level, Davies capitalised on this experience to make a rapid rise through the refereeing ranks. He was appointed to the EFL Referees List in 2012/13 and since then has refereed over 100 EFL matches.
Source – EFL.
Let`s hope it`s not another repeat and more of the players edge closer to automatic bans.
I never really mind who the officials are with a couple of exceptions of course.So long as they read the game well,don’t get card happy and remain completely impartial I am comfortable with most.It’s human nature to make an odd error and I guess they do balance out over 46 games…/