Meet The Ref - Arsenal v Latics - Oh No It's...

Wigan Athletic travel to the Emirates Stadium on Tuesday to face Arsenal in the Carling Cup quarter finals and who will take charge of this highly important game? None other than our good friend Martin Atkinson, oh no.

Less than two weeks since the easily swayed bottler sent off two Latics players against Manchester United at Old Trafford, in a game that consisted of just 8 fouls being committed by both teams and no United players booked, even though Vidic scythed down Rodallega and N`Zogbia in the box and kicked Rodallega in the head, we find him in charge of the Latics against another big club.

It isn`t the fact that he gives free kicks and bookings against us, that isn`t the problem, the problem is he wont give the Latics anything in return, even when the offence is blatant, unless of course we are on a break and he`ll drag it back rather than give us advantage.

Martin Atkinson, the new Phil Dowd.



In a recent interview refworld.com Atkinson tells us why, amongst other things, he got into refereeing:



How did you get introduced into refereeing?

Started refereeing at the age of 16 due to the local team not having a Referee to officiate games. I therefore took the FA Referees instruction course in order to make myself available. I was encouraged by a local Referee who assisted me at the start of my career.


What has been the highlight of your career so far?

There have been numerous highlights in my career to date including promotion onto the National List of Referees, promotion onto the Select Group of Referees. The highlights of my career was the appointment to the FIFA international list and refereeing The 2006 FA Community Shield at the Millennium Stadium, Cardiff.


What is the best game you have officiated and why?

Best game involved in was the Liverpool v Arsenal re-arranged Carling Cup tie a couple of years back. I had to postpone the first game due to fog, then the re-arranged game produced nine goals in a 3-6 win for Arsenal. This was an end-to-end game of cup football and a pleasure to be involved in as a Referee.

Great, an Arsenal lover!


Martin Atkinson Card Watch 2010/11:

Games - 15, yellows - 55, reds - 7

Win tickets for Latics v Stoke click here for details




















Latics and Proud

Fancy writing an article about the Latics? Why not get in touch, we are always looking for new contributors, after all we are all Latics fans here and want to get the Latics message to the world, so if you have a favourite match or Latics memory get it jotted down, or whatever you want to say put it into an email and send it to us here at Vital Wigan

To get your article published just click here and we will put it onto the site

Click here to join in the debate on the club forum.