Refwatch Preview: Dale v Macclesfield
Tuesday, 18th Sep 2007 20:47

This weekend sees us take on Macclesfield Town at Spotland and we begin our build up with a look at referee Andy Haines from Sunderland who will be in charge. And some other random stuff cos we've never heard of him.

Saturday sees the first visit to Spotland this season of a newbie! No, we don’t mean the ‘striker’ who plays for Morecambe, but a referee in his first season on the list. The official in question is Andy Haines from Sunderland, who was promoted from the Panel List at the end of last season.

He finished 2006/07 by refereeing Oxford’s play-off semi-final at home to Exeter and has so far been in charge of three games at this level. On the opening day of the season, Andy refereed Chester v Chesterfield and followed this up a week later by overseeing another winless home game for bury, when they drew 1-1 with Grimsby.

We contacted bury fan Comical Jonbury for his views on Mr Haines and he said: “That referee gave Grimsby everything. He was the worst referee I’ve ever seen at Gigg Lane. He was even booking our players during the pre-match warm-up which, I have to say, was beautiful. He was definitely worse than Carl Boyeson, who we threw some coins at a few weeks later. That’s because we thought he was called Carl Bucketson!

“I bet I don’t see a worse referee – or a more orgasmic warm-up by the team – ever … well, not until we play another game, anyway.”

Andy also refereed the JPT game between Tranmere and Morecambe at the start of this month.

And that’s it, really!

Other famous Andys