Meet The Ref - Leicester City v Latics

Latics are on the road again on Tuesday, a trip to the East Midlands to face League One ‘Big Guns’, Leicester City, the referee for the fixture is scheduled to be Freckleton official, Leigh Doughty.

A highly thought of referee, Doughty went from refereeing in the National League back in May 2019 to the Select Group 2 of full time refs by the start 2020-21 season.

 Previous Games

The 36-year-old former PE Teacher has 243 games under his belt with 110 of those coming at Championship level.

 Previous Games

Leigh Doughty has taken charge of three Latics games previously, two of which came at the Brick, a 0:2 defeat by Sunderland in the EFL Cup in 2021 and a hammering from Middlesbrough, 1:4, in October 2022.

Doughty’s last Latics’ game was our goalless draw away at Wycombe Wanderers in February 2025, Toby Sibbick picking up our solitary yellow card, a game which was as exciting as it looks on paper!

Leigh Doughty last took charge of a Leicester City fixture back in May, their one-nil away win at Ewood Park, a good result but not enough to keep the Foxes in the Championship.

Leigh Doughty Latics Games

Date	Competition	Result	Latics Cards
22 Feb 2025	League One	Wycombe 0:0 Latics	1Y
19 Oct 2022	Championship	Latics 1:4 Middlesbrough	1Y
21 Sep 2021	EFL Cup	Latics 0:2 Sunderland	1Y

Leigh Doughty Card Watch 2026/27

Games – 8

Yellows – 31

Reds – 1

Penalties – 2

Leicester City v Wigan Athletic

Referee – Leigh Doughty

Assistants – Oliver Nolan & Matt McGrath

4^th Official – Darren Drysdale

Grab a listen to the latest podcast featuring a preview of the Leicester City game.

Meet The Ref - Huddersfield v Latics

Latics take the M62 over to Yorkshire on Saturday lunch time, 3rd placed Huddersfield Town are the opponents in this League One encounter, the referee for this game is scheduled to be Hertfordshire official, David Rock.

Rock is in his eighth season as a National List official, taking charge of his first game back in August 2019. Port Vale and Northampton drawing 1:1 in a League Two fixture.

Previous Games

David Rock has refereed the Latics seven times previously, four away days and three times at the Brick Community Stadium. We lost the first of those seven away at Swindon Town in February 2021, since then, Rock has been a bit of a lucky charm, we have remained undefeated in the following six.

The last time Rock was in charge of a Latics game was January last season, a 3:3 away draw at Doncaster, coming from three goals down, Joe Taylor, Callum Wright and Owen Moxon all on target in a remarkable fight back, both James Carragher and Morgan Fox ended up in the ref’s book that day.

Rock was last Huddersfield game was also in January last season, their 1:0 League One away defeat at Stockport.

Away from football, Rock works as a PE Training and Development officer for a sports education company.

David Rock’s Last Six Latics Games

Date	Competition	Result	Latics Cards
24 Jan 2026	League One	Doncaster 3:3 Latics	2Y
08 Apr 2025	League One	Exeter City 1:1 Latics	3Y
23 Feb 2024	League One	Latics 1:1 Cheltenham	1Y
24 Oct 2023	League One	Latics 2:0 Oxford Utd	1Y
08 Dec 2021	League One	Latics 2:1 Shrewsbury	2Y
20 Apr 2021	League One	Shrewsbury 1:2 Latics	2Y

 

 David Rock Card Watch 2026/27

Games – 8

Yellows – 36

Reds – 2

Penalties – 3

Huddersfield Town v Wigan Athletic

Referee – David Rock

Assistants – Jake Topp & Joe Simpson

4^th Official – Andy Miller

Grab a listen to the latest podcast featuring a preview of the Huddersfield game

Meet The Ref - Oxford United v Latics

Latics travel down the M40 on Tuesday to face Oxford United at the Kassam Stadium in a League One fixture, the referee for the game is scheduled to be Suffolk whistle blower, Emily Heaslip.

 

33 year old Heaslip, who hails from Bury St Edmunds, has been officiating primarily in the Women’s Super League but does have some EFL experience, including her debut game at League One level which she took charge of on Saturday, Sheffield Wednesday v AFC Wimbledon at Hillsborough.

Emily Heaslip has also refereed Women’s Champions League matches and European Qualifier internationals.

So far in her career in the mens game, Heaslip has taken charge of seven League Two matches and one League One.

Emily Heaslip Card Watch 2026/27

Games – 8

Yellows – 25

Reds – 1

Penalty – 3

 

Oxford United v Wigan Athletic

Referee – Emily Heaslip

Assistants – Nick Blogg & Andy Bennett

4^th Official – Ben Speedie

Grab a listen to the latest podcast featuring a preview of the Oxford game

Previous Meetings - Latics v Reading

Wigan Athletic and Reading have a long history of fixtures in the Football League, the Royals were one of the first league matches for the newly elected Latics back in August 1978, since that day it’s felt like we have followed each other around with promotions and relegations, especially over the past 30 years.

 

We have faced Reading a total of 56 times down the years, winning 20 of those, with the disappointment of defeat being felt on 24 occasions and drawing 12 times. 

We have never met in any cup competition.

Our first meeting was, as stated, in our inaugural season back on the 26^th of August 1978, we suffered a two-nil loss away at Elm Park as we struggled to come to terms with being a full time professional club, but, by the time of the return fixture at Springfield Park we had certainly found our feet, smashing top of the table Reading three-nil, Peter Houghton with two and Noel Ward on target for the Latics that afternoon.

Perhaps the biggest disappointment from a Latics point of view came in the 2000/01 season, Latics and Reading were pitched together in the 3^rd tier playoffs, the first leg, at the JJB, had finished goalless, so it was off to the Madejski Stadium on a Wednesday evening for a winner takes all showdown.

The Latics took the lead thanks to a 26^th minute goal from Kevin Nicholls and hung on until the death, Martin Butler with an 86^th minute leveller, with the game looking likely to go into extra-time Nicky Forster grabbed a 90^th minute winner that sent Reading through to the final.

We shook that disappointment off just four years later when the final game of the 2004/05 season saw Latics beat Reading 3:1 to gain promotion to the Premier League, the eight year stay and 2013 FA Cup triumph that followed certainly made up for that playoff defeat.

Currently we are on a very poor run of form against the Royals, four straight defeats and ten in our last fourteen meetings, just two wins in there for the Latics. 

Last season Reading did the double over us for the second campaign in a row, a 1:2 defeat at the Brick in February and our typical lacklustre showing at the romantically named, Select Car Leasing Stadium, in March, ending with a 3:0 defeat.

Hopefully we can turn the tide this weekend…

Grab a listen to the latest PWU Podcast with a preview of the Reading game and an opposition view provided by Alex from the Elm Park Royals podcast