The list is growing… the list that is of referees not welcome in these parts of South Yorkshire anymore.
To the names Gary Willard, Mike Riley, Martin Atkinson and Trevor Kettle, you can now add Gavin Ward, after the official, who was referring only his fifth game at this level in four years- abandoned yesterday’s match at Home Park with Barnsley 4-1 up and running riot.
Reds boss Mark Robins was understandably furious, as were the Reds faithful who had forked out to travel the 605 mile round trip, but Ward, who decided to abandon the game just 13 minutes away from where the result would have stood and did so without consulting the managers or players defended his decision.
He said:
"From my point of view, I have got to look at players' safety and with the rain coming down, the ball holding up and a lot of surface water on the pitch, players' safety was paramount and that was the reason for abandoning the game.
"Unfortunately, the score-line is irrelevant. You have to look at players' safety and that is our first priority.
"We look at the weather forecast to prepare for a game and I knew that the forecast was for consistent, heavy rain.
"When we started the second-half, it was only getting worse and that is why we abandoned it."
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