Optimism fades as referee is appointed

By Nathan Jackson
August 21 2007

Lincoln City's hopes of a victory on Saturday suddenly faded this morning as it was announced that our referee is going to be Jarnail Singh, a ref with a reputation for being a bit rubbish. Singh has very rarely come out of a match without at least one of the sides criticising his performance as he gives free kicks for even the smallest of challenges and fouls.

Jarnail Singh hasn't refereed the Imps since an away game at Macclesfield in the 2005/6 in which he was heavily criticised for giving Macclesfield the softest penalty of the season, and for sending Keith Alexander to the stands for kicking the ball back onto the pitch when it had been kicked off.

Having qualified to be a Football League Official back in the 2004/5 season and he has refereed the Imps 3 times, City failing to win on each of those occasions. The first time he refereed the Imps was a 1-0 defeat at Northampton in April 2005, followed by a game at Rushden in August 2005 and then the aforementioned Macclesfield game. In those 3 games you could count City's free kicks on one hand, the most frustrating part about it was that you could see Singh laughing whenever he gave a decision against us.

Singh has a reputation as being a "homer" referee as he seems to always give decisions to the home sides. In 2004/5 he refereed 29 games with 7 going the way of the away side. He followed that up in the 2005/6 season with 31 games and only 8 were won by the away side. 29 games in 2006/7 saw 29 games and just 8 away wins. This season he has refereed two games, both with home wins.