Northampton Town (a): Should’ve Gone To Specsavers

The Football League has now announced the officials that will take charge of the match between Northampton Town and Lincoln City at Sixfields in League One on Tuesday 15th August (19:45).

Referee: Ollie Yates.
Assistants Referees: James Vallance and Samuel Fudge.
Fourth Official: ~~Craig Hicks~~ Anthony Da Costa.

QUIZ: How much can you remember from the last time The Imps played Northampton Town at Sixfields? Have a go at our quiz here or further down the page!

You can discuss this refereeing appointment here, or in the comments at the bottom as well as get involved with our pre-match discussion, and many other topics on our 100% Imps forum!

This will be the ninth Ollie Yates has been the man in the middle for a match involving Northampton Town, and his ninth match overseeing a game involving Lincoln City.

Last 3 Northampton Town Matches:

30/10/21: Carlisle United (h): 3-0 (Y: 2, R: 0)
26/2/22: Rochdale (a): 1-0 (Y: 2, R: 0)
15/10/22: Leyton Orient (a): 0-0 (Y: 3, R: 1)

Last 3 Lincoln City Matches:

27/4/21: Shrewsbury Town (a): 0-1 (Y: 6, R: 0)
12/2/22: Wycombe Wanderers (h): 1-1 (Y: 6, R: 1)
27/8/22: Fleetwood Town (h): 2-2 (Y: 7, R: 0)

His average rating in his last Lincoln City match was 2.55. Some of the comments can be found below:

sedgleyimp: “Well pretty shocking I have to say. Lost control of the game very early on with some decisions which were odd, unclear or both. Seemed to want to make his decisions in slow motion. I will give him some credit for a couple of attempts to use advantage and then going back to book Nsiala for a poor challenge, but overall he wasn’t good enough. Got no support from the linesman on the Co-Op side though who failed to spot a ball going out for a corner when it had nearly reached the South Common.

2/10.”

libertine: “2. Probably came off thinking he’s a top ref for ‘letting the game flow’. Should have booked Rooney but instead did a ‘calm down’ talking, to which Rooney left the conversation even more hot headed and acted like a petulant bully to the coach, of course the referee wasn’t even watching to see if his talk had worked. An absolute prat. It wasn’t like we’re complaining about borderline decisions, there were clear fouls that he just blatantly ignored.”

PerthImp: “2/10. Simply too soft and allowed the game to get out of control – lucky he didn’t have a major bust-up and a serious injury on his hands. Tried hard to play the advantage but didn’t do it very well. I know football is a physical game but some of the stuff being dished out by Fleetwood was below the belt and the referee ereeconstantly missed all sorts going on (why are “referees assistants” so powerless and inept these days – are they under instructions to leave decisions to the referees? Beginning to wonder if those making decisions on how games should be refereed really know what they are doing- the offside laws being a prime example). Rooney should have been sent off – he already had a deserved yellow to his name when the referee gave him a talking to – the petulance he showed was disgusting and he threw the ball away, which some referees would have immediately brought a second yellow.”

Ollie Yates oversaw a total of 35 matches last season, showing 141 yellow cards and 1 red card. He showed 7 yellow cards on five occasions: Lincoln City 2-2 Fleetwood Town (League One), Stevenage 3-0 Sutton United (League Two), Bolton Wanderers 1-3 Oxford United (League One), Crawley Town 1-4 Accrington Stanley (FA Cup) and Ipswich Town 2-0 Shrewsbury Town (League One).

So far this season, he has officiated two matches, showing 9 yellow cards: Tranmere Rovers 1-2 Barrow (League Two, 4 yellow cards) and Bristol City 5-1 Oxford United (League Cup, 5 yellow cards).

Sources: English Football League & Soccer Base.

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