RateTheRef

Kettle Jr has refereed my team twice at home and received favourable comments on both occasions, from a fanbase not noted for positive views of officials.
A significant upgrade on his father!

Having just seen the incident a couple of times in slow motion, I have to say I believe Mr Bramall was 100% correct. At the instant the Villa player first makes contact with the ball it is grounded and the keeper has both hands on it.
The fumble seems to be caused by the ball being kicked out of the keeper's hands.

A first look at Kettle Jr for me next Tuesday. Anyone got any good (or bad) first impressions?

He took a League One game at Oakwell earlier in the season and I was pleasantly surprised as he performed very well.
The Barnsley crowd is not a forgiving one where referees are concerned, but the consensus opinion of Mr Kennard-Kettle was generally favourable.

4.1.25 Barnsley 3 Crawley Town 0 League One
Referee: Gavin Ward

Pleased, and not a little surprised, to say that I thought Mr Ward had a very good game today. He produced cards only when necessary, preferring verbal reprimands on a number of occasions. He even declined an opportunity to award a penalty, correctly carding a Crawley player for a dive in the area as the home crowd breathed a sigh of relief.
His final card count was 5 but should have been 3 save  for a stoppage time spat between two opponents which would have resulted only in a warning had the protaganists not continued chelping after Mr Ward had ended his sermon.
Happy to revise my previously negative opinion of this official.

6th August AS Roma v Barnsley (St Georges Park)
Tom Reeves

Accrington Stanley v Barnsley 20/7/24
Ross Joyce

A noted contributor to a Barnsley's fans' forum has run a referees' performance table this season, with members' scores from 1 to 10 invited and then averaged.

Winner of the Comparatively Competent Cup, for the best aggregate score, was Martin Coy with 7.25 for his sole appearance (at an away win at Burton on Easter Monday)

Overall best performance of the season went to Sunny Gill with a 7.78 for our ill-fated FA Cup replay at Horsham. However two rather less accomplished outings at Cheltenham and Blackpool left him languishing in 22nd place out of 40 with an aggregate of just 5.06.

And finally the worst performer of the season, and winner of the Golden Kettle (!) was judged to be Peter Wright with a dismal 1.64 at Leyton Orient.

Not having attended any away matches I couldn't possibly comment on any of the above, except to note that some validation may be taken from the fact that both the best and worst performances were chosen by the same group of our fanbase, our worthy and long-suffering away support.

I'm intrigued by Ms Simms' forename, noting that both JCFC and the West Riding FA itself refer to her as Jane, whereas the pitchside announcer introduced her as Elizabeth. Also a quick look at the WSL appointments page show her listed as Elizabeth Simms.