Ref Watch: Exeter City (A)

January 29, 2026 Gary Lincoln City, Referee 0

Referee: SUNNY SINGH GILL
Samuel Fudge and Darren Wilding
Fourth Official: Richard Morris

Gill is a face we’re not entirely familiar with, having had him just once before. He’s the son of a referee himself, one you’ll doubtless all remember; Jarnail Singh.

This weekend will be the second time Gill has officiated an Imps match. He was in charge of our 1-0 defeat at Port Vale, a game best forgotten. On that occasion, I was happy with him, saying after he booked Ben House early that “it pointed to Sunny Gill being too card happy, but he had a strong game in his first spell officiating an Imps game. His Dad, Jarnail Singh, would seemingly send one of ours off whenever we got him, but Gill handled things well from the first minute to the last.”

How has he performed this season? Straddling League One and Two he’s only sent off one player, in Burton’s 3-2 win against Forest Green, which was an entirely justified decision. On the whole, he seems to be a lenient official; in his five League One matches this season he averages 20.2 fouls per game, leaving him 47th out of 60. For fouls awarded per tackle he’s low down, 0.6 which is 41st out of 60. However, when he does award a foul, he’s likely to show a yellow – he averages  4.2 yellows per game, which means he’s 17th out of 60. Be aware – if he decides a tackle is a foul, he’s more likely to punish it. However, does that suggest he will use early yellows, as he did with House at Port Vale, to stamp his authority on the game? Is the high yellow ratio what leads to lower foul counts?

He hasn’t awarded a penalty to a team since the week before we lost at Port Vale, and in his last game, he showed eight yellow cards, with Northampton and Carlisle the aggressors.