‘ Referee for South Wales derby announced ‘

Referee for South Wales derby announced

Josh Smith has been announced as the referee for Cardiff’s home game against Swansea this Saturday, April 2.

Smith comes from a long family line of referees, as he started officiating aged 14, following in the footsteps of his dad and grandfather, who refereed football and rugby league respectively.

He oversaw the first game back in the EFL after Covid, the League Two play-off semi-final between Colchester United and Exeter City. Smith was appointed to the ‘select group two’ of match officials ahead of the 2020-21 season.

He has refereed Cardiff twice so far this season, in a 3-2 EFL Cup win against Sutton United and a 1-0 league loss to Bournemouth at home. This campaign, he has handed out 131 yellow cards and four reds in a total of 34 matches.

He will be assisted by Ian Cooper and Sam Lewis, while Dean Whitestone will be the fourth official for the South Wales derby.

Not only is the game at 3pm on a Saturday and not on TV but for many years there was more often or not a Premier League referee assigned to the derby game.

Seems like the game has been downgraded in a number of ways recently - no doubt the massive police presence will remain though!

75 Yellow Cards and just the 1 Sending Off - This season from this Ref in 21 Games .

75 Yellow Cards and just the 1 Sending Off - This season from this Ref in 21 Games .

Says above 131 yellows and 4 reds? Six of those yellows came in the home game vs Bournemouth so I imagine that could well be topped this Saturday.

Should have sent Lerma off in our game v Bmouth. Horrible, late two footed reckless challenge on Brown but bottled it and gave just a yellow. Also missed 1/2 blatant fouls on Collins in the area. Doesn’t fill me with much confidence…