A lot of Newcastle United fans are fuming to hear that Martin Atkinson has been appointed as the referee for the Toon’s clash with Leicester City later on today.
Is Atkinson a good appointment?
Yes
No
A lot of Toon fans do not like Atkinson, and they have not held back with their assessment of him on Twitter.
?? Martin Atkinson will referee our New Year's Day fixture against Leicester City at St. James' Park. #NUFC
— Newcastle United FC (@NUFC) December 31, 2019
Ruined me new year and it’s only 10 clock.
— Jac Ridley (@JacRidley2) December 31, 2019
Another dodgy referee
?
— Grant (@Grant_Richy) December 31, 2019
Jesus do we ever get a decent ref
— Robert Newton (@Skeetz96) December 31, 2019
3 points for the opposition then
— Graham Walker (@Grey_ham79) December 31, 2019
Other Newcastle supporters believe that every single referee is not up to standard in the Premier League.
Horrible that I see these posts before every game and 90% of the time I immediately think “Oh no! We’ll get nothing from him”. There are only 2 decent referees on the panel, and one of them can’t take our games because he’s a Newcastle fan!
— David Moy (@MoyD59) December 31, 2019
There’s not one referee that gets announced for our game where I’m happy to see there name. Not one.
— Jonathan May (@jonnyshabadoo) December 31, 2019
Doesn’t matter which ref it is, they are all terrible and VAR is not making things any better. A lot worse in fact
— LH (@leehindson) December 31, 2019
What do we think?
The Premier League has had some problems this season with both VAR and refereeing standards.
The introduction of the technology has exposed just how poor some of the referees in the top-flight are.
The last time Atkinson took charge of a Newcastle match, they won 2-1, but this season he was guilty of arguably one of the worst decisions of the season.
During Arsenal’s 2-2 draw with Crystal Palace, Atkinson disallowed a Sokratis goal for a foul on Luka Milivojevic, but if anything, it was a foul by the Eagles’ captain.
Newcastle will hope they are not on the end of a similar decision.