Ref Watch...Martin Atkinson

Last updated : 03 November 2006 By Les Roberts

He's refereed just one Everton game in the last three seasons and has issued us with two cautions.


He showed yellow cards to both Phil Neville and Nuno Valente during last

season's dreadful 0-1 defeat to Portsmouth, the game when it really hit

home how much we were struggling!


For Fulham he has taken charge of three games since 2004/05, has booked

just two players and the Cottagers (surely the most ill-advised nickname

ever!) have won two and lost one of the games he has refereed.


So that's a bad sign before we even start really!

On the plus side, he's one of the more lenient refs as he's booked 13 players and sent off one in six games so this may not be like previous encounters whereby someone generally gets a red card.

And David Weir is still out so it can't go off between him and Louis Boa Morte either!

No, I don't think I've ever seen him before either!