A few Newcastle United fans have been reacting on social media, after the Premier League announced that Martin Atkinson will take charge of our New Year’s Day clash with Leicester City.
Head coach Steve Bruce will welcome the Foxes to St. James’ Park for the 15:00 kick-off looking to begin 2020 by seeking revenge on Brendan Rodgers for the 5-0 drubbing we suffered at the King Power Stadium earlier in the season.
Atkinson will be in charge for the New Year’s Day encounter for what will be his fourth Newcastle game of the campaign and second Leicester match, having overseen the Foxes’ 1-0 loss at Manchester United in September.
Each of his three Toon games of the campaign thus far have come at St. James’ Park, with the Magpies beaten by Arsenal, held to a draw by Brighton & Hove Albion and triumphant over AFC Bournemouth.
The West Yorkshire resident was last holding the whistle for a Premier League game on December 27 when Wolves beat Manchester City, on a day he awarded his fifth penalty and brandished his third straight red of the term.
What will the result be vs Leicester?
Win
Draw
Loss
No Premier League official has issued more sending offs this season than Atkinson, who ranks fourth of the 20 referees for yellow cards with 52 over 17 appearances.
Atkinson also ranks ninth for fouls per game with an average of 21.88, per WhoScored data, while deeming 0.66 fouls per tackle during his matches.
Here are some of the messages shared as fans reacted to news that Atkinson will referee our game at home to Leicester on New Year’s Day…
Ruined me new year and it’s only 10 clock.
— Jac Ridley (@JacRidley2) December 31, 2019
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
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
Jesus do we ever get a decent ref
— Robert Newton (@Skeetz96) 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
3 points for the opposition then
— Graham Walker (@Grey_ham79) December 31, 2019
In other Newcastle United news, the club have been linked with a £35m Premier League star as part of Bruce’s January plans.