Referee: PAUL HOWARD
Assistants: James Vallance and Conor Farrell
Fourth Official: Neil Hair
We’ve only had Paul Howard twice at Sincil Bank, and on both occasions, he impressed me.
The first time he officiated one of our matches, he awarded a penalty to our opponents, AFC Wimbledon. However, it was a justified penalty, Conor McGrandles fouling Luke McCormick and Aaron Pressely scoring from the spot. It was an awful game; we lost 1-0 and reading back he wasn’t popular with everyone. “It’s an odd one with the ref, the stands were incandescent with rage over some decisions, but from our vantage point we couldn’t see what the fuss was about,” I wrote. “The foul on Scully wasn’t a penalty, and whilst he missed the odd free kick, he wasn’t as bad as some. He clamped down on their time-wasting with a flurry of yellow cards, which isn’t always easy to do, and I was genuinely shocked when I saw the reaction at half time.”
The second time he was at the Bank was another 1-0 defeat, this time against Burton Albion last season. Again, he put in a performance notable enough for me to lavish him with praise. “The referee, Paul Howard, was excellent in my eyes. He let little things go, not really bad tackles, but certainly tetchy stuff others might have pulled the game up for. It meant it wasn’t as broken as it could be, because when a player went down screaming he let things progress, and usually within seconds they were on their feet. I had one criticism of him all evening, blowing for a foul when we could have played on. A ref will always draw criticism for something he does because football is subjective. When 50% of the decisions go against you and your team, you’ll disagree with at least one. The fact I can only recall one minor little thing tells you how good the official was, or how fair the match was. In fact, the biggest one he got wrong was not awarding a foul against Adam Jackson for a wrestling move. Fair play Mr Howard; you seem like one of the good ones.”
That Burton game was the last one he had in League One – he’s only officiated twice this season, both times in League Two, where he averages three yellow cards per game. He is 24/39 for fouls per game, 28/39 for fouls per tackle and 32/39 for yellows per game. He’s either had two very easy games, or my impression of him from our previous two matches have been right. If there’s one thing we won’t be talking about tomorrow, it’s the referee.