Meet The Ref - Wigan Athletic v Stoke City

Name: Jeremy Simpson 

Born: May 1975
Place of Birth: Carnforth

 

 

A former Premier League and FIFA International assistant referee, Simpson is part of the ‘Select Group 2’ of professional ref’s after rising rapidly through the refereeing ranks, he was at Conference level in 2012 and only found his feet in the Championship in the 2015/16 campaign when of the 35 games he took charge of over the season just 15 were at 2^nd tier level.

So far this season 20 of his 25 games have been in the Championship.

 

Jerry has already been in charge of us 3 times this season 3-0 defeat at PNE, home defeat to Reading 1-3 back in November and our 1-0 win against Millwall in February.

 

Simpson has had just the two Stoke games this campaign, their 2-4 win at Oakwell against Barnsley in November and a goalless draw with Millwall at the Britannia in January.

 

Latics related Fact(s):
Simpson was the referee when the Latics put out virtually their youth team against Accrington Stanley in the Checkatrade Trophy back in 2017, not surprisingly they got a bit of a thumping.

 

 

Complete record of Jeremy Simpson’s Latics games

 

Date	Competition	Home Team	Score	Away Team
26-Aug-16	Championship	Latics	1:1	Birmingham
19-Nov-16	Championship	Barnsley	0:0	Latics
02-Jan-17	Championship	Latics	0:1	Huddersfield
04-Mar-17	Championship	Blackburn	1:0	Latics
29-Aug-17	Football League Trophy	Blackpool	1:1	Latics
07-Nov-17	Football League Trophy	Latics	0:4	Accrington
13-Feb-18	League 1	Latics	0:2	Blackpool
11-Aug-18	Championship	Aston Villa	3:2	Latics
20-Oct-18	Championship	Latics	1:0	West Brom
10-Aug-19	Championship	PNE	3:0	Latics
30-Nov-19	Championship	Latics	1:3	Reading
22-Feb-20	Championship	Latics	1:0	Millwall

Jeremy Simpson Card Watch 2019/20

 

Games -25

Yellows – 85

Reds - 6

 

Jeremy Simpson record for Latics games is:

 

Home Games
P7 W2 D1 L4

Away Games
P5 W0 D1 L4

Overall Record
P12 W2 D2 L8

 

This referee has a Latics Love Factor of 18%

Jeremy Simpson Card Watch 2019/20

Games – 22
Yellows – 73
Reds – 6

 

Wigan Athletic v Stoke City
Referee - JEREMY SIMPSON
Assistants – Jonathan Hunt and Mark Jones
Fourth Official – Oliver Langford

Meet The Ref - Latics v Blackburn

The Latics are back at the DW Stadium on Saturday for the first home game since the resumption of Championship football, local rivals Blackburn Rovers are the visitors.

 

Barnsley referee, Darren England will be in charge of the game.

 

This is England’s fifth season as a Football League referee having previously been an assistant. He has ref’d both the Latics and Blackburn once this season, he was in charge our home game with PNE in February, that was the last time we tasted defeat, and he took charge of Rovers’ away defeat to Birmingham back in October.  

 

The 35 year old born and bred Barnsley man does have ‘big game’ experience, indeed his name should be very familiar with Latics supporters, cast your minds back to the 13th April 2013, Wembley Stadium, FA Cup semi-final, he ran the line as the Latics beat Millwall on the road to winning the famous old trophy.

 

England has been running the line for several seasons in the Premier League, he also ran the line the 2015 FA cup final between Arsenal and Aston Villa and he has experienced Champions League games and international matches, but he decided to swap the flag for the whistle and bowed out running the line in an international friendly between Norway and Sweden.

 

England says about his decision to become a ref – ‘I will miss being involved in Premier League and international and European games but the aim is to be back there as a referee one day. It’s short-term sacrifice for long-term reward. Being involved in the big games as a referee would be even better than running the line in them.’

 

Darren England is also a former academy coach at Barnsley FC, one of his former players there is current Everton defender John Stones, he also worked for Barnsley Community Trust before moving to the Football League Trust where he is employed promoting the National Citizens Service for teenagers.

 

Wigan Athletic v Blackburn Rovers
Referee - Darren England
Assistants – Nick Greenhalgh & James Mainwaring
Fourth Official – Steve Martin

Darren England Card Watch 2019/20

 

Games -28

Yellows – 76

Reds - 1