If Trevor Kettle is the bête noire of referees for many Yeovil Town supporters, Jarnail Singh is an even more unusual beast as far as officialdom is concerned - a referee who almost verges on being popular amongst the Huish Park faithful.
Another whistle blower who dates back to our Non-league Days, his positive reputation was based on his preparedness to let games flow, play advantage and, in the main, get more things right than wrong. His promotion to the National List was in 2004, a year behind our rise to the Football League. Since stepping up his refereeing has got rather more conservative, perhaps mindful of the ever watchful assessors, but he still tries to play more advantage than most and generally to keep games moving.
Mr Singh did make a major ricket last season at Huish Park, entirely missing one of the most blatant handballs one will ever see (or in his case, didn't see) when Oldham Athletic switched from football to basketball inside their own penalty area - 19th January, 2008. His last visit was 22nd November, 2008, when he had a decent enough match in the 1-0 win over Tranmere Rovers.
This season he hasn't got through any game without reaching for his cards on at least one occasion, totalling 75 yellows so far, but the red card count is a nice lowly two to date. He only issued two reds last season, in 33 games, as well.
This will become the ninth time Mr Singh has been in the middle for Yeovil Town games since joining the National List, with seven league matches at Huish Park and one away F.A. Cup tie his previous occasions. On 3rd January, 2005 he sent off both Colin Miles and Luke Rodgers, then playing for Shrewsbury Town, in separate incidents. Neither player should have had the slightest complaint. The other red issued in these games came on 22nd October, 2005 when Gareth Taylor of Nottingham Forest decided to try to lay out Colin Miles behind the referee's back, but fortunately it was spotted by one of the assistants.
Referee: Jarnail Singh (Middlesex)
Assistant referees: John Farries (Oxfordshire) and Neil Radford (Worcestershire)
Fourth Official: Simon Knapp (South Gloucestershire)
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