Meet The Ref - Latics v Swansea - Andre Marriner!

Wigan Athletic entertain Swansea City this weekend at the DW Stadium, the game will be refereed by Birmingham official Andre Marriner, NO I hear you cry, yes unbelievable I know but true, I thought we'd seen the last of the bungling whistle blower at a Latics game.

For those of you that can't quite recall what the fuss is about, it was Marriner who was in charge of the Latics v Blackburn 3-3 draw back in November when he allowed a goal to stand even though Blackburn's Morten Gamst Pedersen had played a corner to himself, he then played NINE minutes stoppage time and only blew for full time once the Latics had restarted the game following the Blackburn penalty that gave them a share of the spoils

Marriner spent time 'resting' following his mare at the DW and has only ref'd nine games in the four months that followed.

The 40 year old has been a top flight referee since 2005 when he took charge of the Latics v Fulham game, which we won, courtesy of a last minute Pascal Chimbonda goal

For the record:

Marriner first got into refereeing because he liked the money, his words not mine, he reveals this information in a recent interview he gave with refworld.com:

How did you get introduced into refereeing?

I went along to watch a local football team that had asked me to play for them. The referee had not turned up and so as I was a neutral at the game, they asked me to referee it. It was an end to end game and I really enjoyed the experience. At the end of the game, they even handed over £10.00 for my services!!!

What has been the highlight of your career so far?

The highlight for me personally is the day that I received my letter inviting me to referee on the Southern Football League following a successful interview. This made me realise that I was going to referee semi professional football

What is the best game you have officiated and why?

Without a doubt, it will always be the 2003 Inaugural Conference Play Off Final between Doncaster Rovers and Dagenham & Redbridge. It was a massive game at that stage of my career as it led me to be promoted onto The National List as a referee.

Who has been the biggest influence in your career and why?

There is no single person that I can name as everybody I have worked with and met to do with refereeing have had some kind of influence on me.

Well there you have it, a money grabber who listens to no one.

Card Watch, Andre Marriner 2011/12

Games - 17
Yellows - 59
Reds - 3

Wigan Athletic v Swansea City (3pm)

Referee: A Marriner
Assistants: W Smallwood, A Watts
Fourth Official: C Pawson
Match Delegate: P Henson
PGMO: P Roberts

I hope that nothing as ridiculous as the last time he was at the Latics happens again

















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.