Looked forward to seeing another relatively new official at FL level. Looks the part and gets around the ground well but: his foul detection, recognition and/or consistency appeared very lacking. Missing obvious goal kick/corners and throw ins by giving them the opposite way. Three of the corner/goal kick decisions went our way to the surprise of both us behind the goal and the players!
There were continual fouls, for both sides, that he failed to whistle for, in the end it became farcical. I am all for officials keeping the game flowing and their cards in their pockets but he took it to the extreme and it was to the detriment of the game. Although he issued 6 in the second half (including the double yellow red) it had already become a festival of fouls and infringements that sometimes were and sometimes not awarded.
Amongst others, our CB continually grappling with their 9 so much inside the penalty area in the first half it became embarrassing that he wasn't being sanctioned or even spoken to for it. At one point their 9 had a clear 5 lateral yds between him and the ball for him to run onto and shoot from 7 yards, he didn't get anywhere near it because he had our CB all over him pulling him back, it was like someone had tied an anchor to him. No wonder he chased after the official asking why he didn't get a penalty, we were wondering why as well.
He eventually sent off our CB, no complaints, but he and a couple of others could/should have gone a lot earlier.
Before this he had issued 5 cautions in four games, was he trying too hard to maintain his average which was similar in the National League last season?
We lost 2-0 and I have no issue with the result because we were once again atrocious but I did have an issue with the official.