Premier League ref Bobby Madley will take charge of Saturday's crunch game. It'll be  the first EFL game he's reffed this season having reffed around 20 Premier Leauge games so far.

https://www.grimsby-townfc.co.uk/news/2018/april/madley-in-charge-against-chesterfield/

Quoted from Les Brechin

Premier League ref Bobby Madley will take charge of Saturday's crunch game. It'll be  the first EFL game he's reffed this season having reffed around 20 Premier Leauge games so far.

https://www.grimsby-townfc.co.uk/news/2018/april/madley-in-charge-against-chesterfield/

Must be the fish and chip supper afterwards that brings him to Grimsby.

Has he been sent down to the basement as punishment for some sort of a ridiculous balls-up in a Prem game?

I do worry that the 'big name' referees tend to be a bit too egotistical.

Def lumping on a red card on my betting account knowing this

Good referee is Madley.

I just hope he understands that he’s reffing a 4th Division relegation 6 pointer and not leary pampered multi national brands. Tackles may fly in, nerves could be frayed and Home fans may (should) be hostile.

I watched Michael Oliver ref the trophy final between North Ferriby and Wrexham on the TV a couple of years ago and he was excellent, kept the cards in his pocket as he understood the standard and level of both sides.

Give me Bobby Madley over some of the dross we've had officiating this season any day. Once of the best refs in the PL in my opinion.

Hopefully it isn’t because of a feck up he’s made.
Maybe the FA realise that this game could be massive for the future of either club. And for once have got something right!!

I know we've had some crap refs in League 2 but I feel there are far fewer threads on here complaining about the officials since we got out of the National League.

I remember when we got Prem referee Mark Halsey to ref our 6-1 win over Barnsley in early 2004 - he gave us two pens and sent off a player each.

We then got him for the Newcastle match in which he famously didn't see Whittle elbow Shearer (or he did see it and chose not to do anything about it).

You normally notice the difference in quality. Teams that scheme (naming no Cheltenhams) usually get hit the hardest and we're not like them in that respect so I think we might feel the benefit.

Quoted from Civvy at last

Hopefully it isn’t because of a feck up he’s made.

His last game was Man U's routine 2-0 win v Swansea last Saturday. Don't think there was anything out of the ordinary there (like giving the away team a pen!)

Someone better tell him there’s no VAR at BP to pass the buck to. He’ll just have to do the best he can and carry the can.

Quoted from RichMariner

I know we've had some crap refs in League 2 but I feel there are far fewer threads on here complaining about the officials since we got out of the National League.

Last game I went to was Coventry - couple of terrible decisions from the linesman (and he got plenty of verbal as a result) but the ref seemed absolutely spot on.

Quoted from TheRonRaffertyFanClub

Someone better tell him there’s no VAR at BP to pass the buck to. He’ll just have to do the best he can and carry the can.

VAR isn't used in the Premier League though?

I'd say that the referees are a bit better than the non-league days, but tend to let the big defenders push, pull and shove opposition strikers around with impunity. I'm thinking here of all the times Matt has practically had his shirt removed in the box, but nothing has even been said. They are also suckers for players hitting the deck under the slightest of pressure when outside the box - something which costs us as we don't dive in the same way (Davies aside).

Yeah agreed - the refs aren't perfect but are definitely an improvement on non-league