It was nice of Seb Stockbridge to award us what some thought was a debateable penalty on Tuesday night, well Ryan Lowe anyway. My pre-match concerns about Mr Stockbridge weren’t far off the mark though, whilst I couldn’t find any specific occasion he had done us down, it appears my recollections about his general ability to control a game are more relevant. The farcical situation with their physio in the final few minutes was ridiculous, how many times did he tell him to get off the pitch in what was possibly the most blatant time wasting exercise I’ve ever seen in a game, and Stockbridge was fobbed off or should I say ignored like a naughty child.
Well we can only hope for better this weekend with Ross Joyce from Cleveland as the man in charge. The last time we saw Mr Joyce was back in November 2019 when we suffered a 3-2 defeat at home to Rotherham, for the record the Dons goals came from Alex Gilbey and Joe Mason going 2-0 up inside 13 minutes. Rotherham scored three goals inside 20 second half minutes, the winner coming 4 minutes from time. To make matters worse Baily Cargill was sent off after an off the ball incident in the 6th minute of injury time.
Digging deeper into our historical connections with Mr Joyce, it would appear that he has reffed us on 3 occasions in the past and we have lost each time.
Ref Joyce has officiated at 24 games this season and issued a mind boggling 99 yellow cards, 3 double yellows, 1 straight red and awarded 9 penalties.
He is assisted, but it looks like he doesn’t need much help, by Ravel Cheosiaua and Matt Smith on the flags, and Chris Husband will be taking care of who Joyce sends off.
