No time to think, we move on to Oxford on Tuesday night, and doubtless there will be more twists and turns before the final curtain comes down.
Our ref for this game is Anthony Backhouse from Cumbria, and I’m sorry to have to say this yet again, but why, I just don’t get it, someone more suspicious than yours truly might suspect that something is going on here as week after week, the EFL seems to allocate us a ref with the farthest distance to travel, surely they wont pull this stunt when we travel down to Plymouth at the end of the season, I won’t hold my breath.
One thing we can say about Mr Backhouse is, we haven’t got anything bad to say about him as the last time we crossed paths he oversaw our victory back in January 2022 against some team from Merton.
On that day we won 1-0 courtesy of a Matt O’Riley goal after 29 minutes and just 7 minutes later Nesta Guinness-Walker was sent from the field of play for a second yellow card offence, so Mr Backhouse is alright with us.
Ref Backhouse has reffed 33 games this season booking a whopping 110 players, converting two of those to double yellow offences. In addition, he has sent just two players off and awarded just two penalties.
Mr Backhouse will be assisted by Stuart Butler and Paul Yates on the flags with Mark Derrien as the 4th Official.
