RateTheRef

Ive been someone who has sung the praises of Darren England over the past few months and was expecting him to have a good game this evening but unfortunately that didn’t happen. The game just seemed to big for him in the first half was inconsistent from minute one. Penalty decision wasn’t really his fault and was very tough for near side AR to see but throughout the first half let some very easy fouls go and gave some very soft ones which didn’t make him very popular with either sets of fans. Improved a lot in the second half and was rather easy for him. But this has just shown me that promotion may be too early for him after a poor two months or so.

Since England had his PL trial game he's gone completely off the boil. A poor FA Cup game and now this (albeit I've not seen highlights of the Leeds game last night).

Extremely worrying as he seemed to be in almost everyone's top three or four strongest candidates for promotion this year.  Anyone can have a poor game but this sounds as though it's more than that.

Refereeing isn't a lot different to playing in some respects.  Players can make a mistake in a game and then suffer a confidence crisis for the next few games, referees are no difference.  The big difference is referees tend to be criticised more for their mistakes and don't get as much leeway as players.

I was extremely disappointed with Darren England’s performance in the first half of the Leeds United v Millwall game. As a former referee with no affiliation to either club, I feel eligible to comment. The penalty decision was correct albeit following a mistake (ball out of play) by his Assistant.

That said, his decision making during the first 45 minutes was at best bizarre. It was a high tempo game between two good sides and he was clearly helped by both sets of players who by and large behaved themselves. He had a much better second half.