By Nathan Jackson
April 23 2010
It is with our dread and terror to reveal that tomorrow's referee is Jarnail Singh. Often regarded by many fans as one of the worst referees in the country, Singh will retire at the end of the season and many City fans had hoped that we wouldn't see him again after his diabolical performance against Rotherham.
City have had many encounters down the years with Mr Singh. He's disallowed perfectly legitimate goals, given penalties where the player quite literally fell over with no assistance and denied some of the most blatent penalties you'll ever see.
Singh was last in charge for our home game over Rotherham in February. He gave a penalty in the 13th minute when Adam Le Fondre was "fouled" by Swaibu, and I use the term "fouled" in the very loosest term. He sent off Swaibu for the "challenge" and Le Fondre put away the penalty. Swaibu is the only player he's sent off this season.
Later on in the same game he denied a penalty when someone barged into Chris Herd's back as he was about to shoot.
Fun times are certainly not ahead.
CITY'S RECORD UNDER SINGH
2004/5 - Northampton Town - Lost 1-0 - Denied penalty shouts for both sides, including City having a ball cleared off the line by a defender's hand.
2005/6 - Rushden and Diamonds - Drew 1-1 but we had a goal disallowed at 1-0 because one of our own players went down injured in the build upto the goal....a full 10 seconds before Singh blew....even though the ball was already in the net. He also laughed when our fans appealed a decision.
2005/6 - Macclesfield Town - Drew 1-1 - He sent Keith Alexander to the stands for kicking the ball and gave a penalty when Clive Wijnhard went down in the box, even though no defender actually touched him.
2007/8 - Accrington Stanley - Won 2-0
2007/8 - Macclesfield Town - Won 3-1
2009/10 - Rotherham United - Lost 2-1 - See all aforementioned comments.
