I know this game isn’t going to rank highly on people’s bucket lists, well MK Dons fans anyway, but I’m sure it will feel a bit special for Stevenage Borough and their fans, plus as well our matchday referee Simon Mather.
Mr Mather only came onto the EFL League list last season and even then, he only sneaked in for one game in League 2 at the end of the season.
This season he has officiated at just two League 1 fixtures, with the remaining 9 games shared between PL2, the EFL Trophy, and League 2, so this could be considered to be his biggest fixture as he makes his debut in the FA Cup Round 1.
In those 11 games he officiated over he has booked, 49 players, 3 of those converted to a double yellow/red (that’s the highest we have seen this season for this stat), plus 2 straight reds, and awarded 5 penalties, that’s one every 2 games by my maths.
From all that you can deduce we haven’t seen Mr Mather, and I can’t even guarantee that’s him in the photo we have used.
On the flags we have Richard Morris and Steve Rushton, with Greg Read as the 4th Official.
