Stuart Attwell has been appointed to referee Cardiff’s City game against Newcastle at St James’ Park on Saturday 19th January. It will be the first time he has refereed the Bluebirds since their humbling at Anfield last October.
The game was largely uneventful in terms of refereeing decisions, at one stage it looked as though the red half of Liverpool were going to be celebrating a demolishment of the Bluebirds but the South Wales side steadied the ship. The game was finely poised at 2-1 going into the 84th minute but two goals from Mane and Shaqiri put paid to any dreams of an unlikely draw.
See below for an overview of his Premier League stats this season.
• 11 games refereed
• 37 yellow cards issued (an average of 3.3 yellows per game)
• 0 red cards
• 2 penalties awarded
Stuart Attwell is still yet to issue a red card this season and has only awarded two penalties; in Bournemouth’s 2 -1 away win over West Ham way back on August 18th and Huddersfield’s 3-1 loss at home to Southampton on December 22nd. He has however awarded four or more yellow cards in all but three of his matches this season.
This weekend sees yet another battle between two relegation-threatened sides and the result could go some way towards settling just who drops back down to the Championship and who lives to fight another day in the Premier League. Last weekend saw a somewhat baffling performance from the match officials, let’s hope for better this time around.