Planet Swans ArchivesTwelve months on and Swansea face Mansfield at the Vetch on Friday night – keen to let football be the winner after last year’s game descended into farce with the Swans running out 4-1 winners against 9 man Mansfield at the Vetch.
Much was said after that game about the standard of the referee not least by Mansfield manager Keith Curle who moaned “I have to be careful what I say about officials but I believe the professional stage yesterday was too big for them, In that kind of atmosphere, I think my players were let down by officials who were not up to the job.”
Well on that basis Curle and the travelling Mansfield support will no doubt be pleased to discover that the football league have appointed Lee Probert to referee the game on Friday night. The very same Lee Probert who took charge of the same fixture last season and handed out red cards to Iyseden Christie and Lee Williamson.
Probert will be assisted by Gary Chapman and Brendan Malone – luckily for Mansfield different assistants to those provided by the football league last season.
Probert has taken charge of seven games this season and handed out 25 yellow cards and four reds suggesting that Curle will be none to comforted by seeing the same man in charge yet again.
With a sell out Vetch crowd expected on Friday night, the atmopshere will be no less quiet then it was twelve months ago and Mansfield fans will be praying that they leave the Vetch believing the referee is up to the job this time around.
It does seem a strange decision by the football league to appoint the same man who drew so much criticism from the visitors last season but nothing should surprise us any more.
