Meet The Ref - Villa v Latics - Mike Jones

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Wigan Athletic face Aston Villa on Saturday and a win against the Villa would be very welcome considering our current predicament, recently we haven`t had the rub of the green from the match officials, so the Latics could well be looking to the referee for a strong but fair performance, so who will be the man in the middle? Chester official Mike Jones that`s who.

This is will be only the second time Jones will have taken charge of a Latics game this season, the other occasion was the 2-2 draw against Stoke at the DW Stadium in December.

Mike Jones is famous or is it infamous for being at the centre of an incident which saw one of the strangest goals of all time, Jones allowed Darren Bents beach-ball goal for Sunderland against Liverpool to stand. Unfortunately following that game at the Stadium of Light and a storm of controversy Jones had a little time out of the Premier League limelight and was demoted down to the Championship

He was heavily criticised at the time by former referee Dermott Gallagher for getting the laws of the game wrong, Gallagher said about the incident: 'It was a glaring error and it's difficult to fathom. Even referees in local parks should know that if there is an outside agent on the pitch then you stop the game and restart it with a drop ball.`

Well Mike Jones apparently didn`t know but I`m sure that he does now.

It all sounds like a load of balls to me.

The 43 year old whistle blower started refereeing because he was awful at football and sick of being left out at school when the other boys were kicking the ball around, so he took to enforcing the laws of the game at the tender age of 15.

You almost feel sorry for him

Jones was promoted to become a football league referee in 1997 and progressed to the Premier League in 2008 when he took charge of the Hull City Wigan Athletic game, in a recent interview with refworld.com Mike was asked:

What is the best game you have officiated and why?

'The best game for a sense of achievement was my First Premier League Game between Hull City and Wigan Athletic.'

A 5-0 away win for the Latics that day and one that Jonesy will remember all his life, let`s hope that on Saturday we get another great victory.


Mike Jones Card Watch 2010/11:

Games - 33, Yellows - 117, Reds - 6





















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