Phil SumblerTony Harrington will take charge of this evening’s game at St Andrew’s when the Swans finally return to league action for the first of nine games that all of us hope will lead to glory.
Harrington has taken charge of 27 Championship games to date this season and with his award of 77 yellow cards and 4 red cards he sits “top” of the referee table at this level which could make for an interesting evening.
Of those 27 games this season, 3 have involved us – the home defeat to Huddersfield and the away wins at Nottingham Forest and Rotherham. Total card count of 13 yellows and 0 reds in those 3 games.
He has got himself on the wrong side of Steve Cooper before when he sent Jake Bidwell off towards the end of last season’s 0-0 draw at Ashton Gate with Cooper saying after the match “It’s a poor decision isn’t it. We don’t agree with it
“We’ve looked at it already on the broadcast visuals and on the wide angles. Looking at the position of it and how far out it is from goal and the actual tackle, don’t get me wrong, it’s a foul, it’s as yellow as they come, but to send him off is a bit of a weak decision, a weak mentality.”
The decision though was upheld after an appeal by the Swans.
Harrington began refereeing in the Teesside Junior Football Alliance at the age of 14, having completed a basic refereeing course whilst at school as part of the Duke of Edinburgh award.
After four years as an EFL assistant referee and four years as a National League referee, he was appointed to the EFL Referees List in 2012/13 and has now overseen more than 190 EFL matches.
Tony is the Grandson of Tommy McGuigan, who is in the Hartlepool United record books for top 10 number of appearances and goals for the club.
[wp_live_scraper id=”36″]
