Meet The Ref - Latics v Northampton

Latics face Northampton Town at the DW Stadium on Saturday, Bedford based referee, Josh Smith will take charge of his first Wigan Athletic game, we seem to be hearing that quite a lot this season.

 

Josh Smith

The 27 year old is in second year on the National List, he’s ref’d the Cobblers on one occasion, their 0:2 home defeat to Peterborough in the Football League Trophy in September 2019.

 

Smith is a PE and Maths teacher by day and works at a school in Barnet.

 

Hailing from Bourne in Lincolnshire, Smith had a serious problem with a shoulder injury, which he had to have pinned to stop it from dislocating, he has overcome this and is now living his dream.

 

Smith says - “I’m thrilled to get on the Football League list so soon.

“I love the job

 “When you start refereeing you automatically have an ambition to get to Football League level, but you don’t expect it to happen.”

 

Josh Smith Card Watch 2020/21

Games – 7

Yellows – 21

Reds – 1

 

Wigan Athletic v Northampton Town   
Referee - Josh Smith
Assistants - Jonathan Hunt and Wade Smith
Fourth Official - Craig Taylor

 

Any Previous? Latics v Northampton Town

 

Northampton are in town tomorrow (Saturday) as the Latics look to pick up some much needed points in this seasons League 1 campaign.

 

Michael Jacobs knee sliding after a 30 yard cracker v Northampton

The two clubs have met 35 times down the years with the Latics having much the better of things, 18 wins to the Cobblers 5, in fact the last seven meetings have all gone the way of the Latics, with Northampton failing to score in any of those games.  Feb 2001 was the last time we conceded a goal against the Cobblers, a 1:0 defeat away at Sixfields.

 

I remember fondly going to Sixfields on a Friday night in April, back in 2003, a 9^th minute Nathan Ellington goal and an Andy Liddell penalty 2nd half penalty gave us all the points that evening and all but guaranteed promotion to the Championship.

 

The last time we met at the DW Stadium was in September 2017, a Michael Jacobs 30 yard screamer gave us the points, of course Crackers started his career with Northampton, but that didn’t stop him celebrating in typical fashion with his trade mark knee slide.

 

 

Previous Encounters

 

Played – 35

Won – 18

Drawn – 12

Lost – 5

 

Last Six Meetings

Competition	Date	Result
League 1	01 Jan 2018	Northampton 0:1 Latics
League 1	19 Sep 2017	Latics 1:0 Northampton
League Division 2	04 Apr 2003	Northampton 0:2 Latics
League Division 2	30 Nov 2002	Latics 1:0 Northampton
League Cup	10 Sep 2002	Northampton 0:1 Latics
League Division 2	13 Apr 2002	Latics 3:0 Northampton

Any Previous? MK Dons v Wigan Athletic

 

Any previous you say, well not much actually between the two clubs, Latics and MK Dons have only faced each other on four occasions and one of those was an FA cup replay.

 

Three wins and a draw suggest that we certainly have the upper hand in this particular fixture, played twice at Stadium MK and won them both.

 

The first of these was an FA Cup 3^rd round replay back in January 2014, following a 3-3 draw at the DW Stadium we went to Milton Keynes and posted a 1:3 aet victory, with 2 Nick Powell goals and a Mark Antoine Fortune effort putting us on course for a run to the semi-finals.

 

Our next meeting was the opening game of the 2017/18 season, once again Nick Powell on target giving us a 0:1 win in Paul Cook’s first game as Latics boss.

 

Callum Elder saw red in the first half of this game, for a late challenge.

 

We did of course give them a good spanking at the DW Stadium in April 2018 as we roared our way to the League 1 title.

 

Previous Encounters

 

Played – 4

Won – 3

Drawn – 1

Lost – 0

 

Competition	Date	Result
FA Cup 3rd Round	04 Jan 2014	Latics 3:3 MK Dons
FA Cup 3rd Round Replay	14 Jan 2014	MK Dons 1:3 Latics
League 1	05 Aug 2017	MK Dons 0:1 Latics
League 1	07 Apr 2018	Latics 5:1 MK Dons

Meet The Ref - MK Dons v Latics

 

Latics face MK Dons on Tuesday in a League 1 fixture with both clubs desperate for points to pull themselves up the table. The man charged with making sure the laws of the game are adhered to is Surrey referee, Charles Breakspear.

 

 

This will be only the 3^rd time that Breakspear has refereed a Latics game, the first time was way back on the 31^st January 2015 when we traveled to Portman Road and played out a goalless draw against Ipswich.

 

The last time was our League One encounter at the Valley back in September 2017 when we thumped Charlton 0:3.

 

Breakspear was in charge of two MK Dons games last season, they were both at Stadium MK, they won them both, 2:0 v Coventry in the Football League Trophy and 2:1 v Rochdale in the league.

 

Charles Breakspear Card Watch 2020/21

Games – 8

Yellows – 30

Reds – 3

 

Milton Keynes Dons v Wigan Athletic
Referee - Charles Breakspear
Assistants - Sam Ogles and Damith Bandara
Fourth Official – Abba Khan