Phil SumblerDarren Bond will take charge of the Swans for the second time this season having been the man with the whistle for our 2-1 win over Watford at the Liberty at the start of January.
Bond issued 5 yellow cards in that game and in 20 Championship games this season he has issued 63 yellow cards and 4 reds.
Bond was appointed to the EFL Referee list in 2012 and more recently added to the Select Group 2 referees list in 2016. He has refereed more than 200 times in the EFL
As ever on Planet Swans we like to do our research on the referee and found a facebook group dedicated to Bond (Darren Bond is the worst football league referee – click here) although with just 21 people “liking” the page it never really became a campaign!
Then QPR manager Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink once described a game taken charge of by Bond as being like the ‘Wild Wild West’ telling the BBC after the game “If the referee is going to give those kind of decisions then I don’t think he is fit enough to whistle in the Championship. Certain decisions were ridiculous. It was like the Wild Wild West out there.
“We are all saying we need to protect the referee and players are not allowed to surround them
“It is because of referees like this that it happens. He makes it bad for other referees – the good ones.
“I am sorry for the fans that we had to lose in this manner. It wasn’t meant to be for us to get the three points because of two referee’s decisions.”
Bond will be assisted by Mark Russell and Robert Hyde whilst Andy Woolmer is the fourth official.
