The man in charge of the final Sky Bet League One match of the season between Portsmouth and Peterborough United on Saturday evening is JOHN BUSBY.
Referee John Busby is certainly more experienced than some officials Posh have suffered this season but he is completing just his second season as a Football League referee!
Busby has been active with ‘whistle and flag’ for over twelve years before being fast tracked into the EFL following just one season in the Football Conference!
Even though Busby has made a quick rise into the Football League, he has been involved in a number of prestigious games including County Cup finals, Senior Cup final, FA Vase semi-final, and FA Trophy quarter finals to name just a few. More recently, he was the Fourth Official for the second leg of the FA Youth Cup Final a couple of seasons ago between Chelsea and Manchester City at Stamford Bridge and did the same role during the International Champions Cup between Liverpool and Barcelona at Wembley Stadium.
Despite being in his second season, he has already taken charge of three Posh matches and two Pompey matches.
Two of those three Posh matches have come this season with the first coming on the opening day of the season against Pompey’s south coast rivals Plymouth Argyle and then against Southend United in the second round of the Checkatrade Trophy.
Posh beat the Green Army two-one while they also put two goals past the Shrimpers while keeping a clean sheet. Both matches saw four yellow cards shown in the match with Posh picking up two and three yellow cards accordingly.
Pompey have only had Busby once this season but it ended in a three-nil victory against Bristol Rovers. They also picked up just one of the three yellow cards issued during the game.
So far this season Busby has officiated 42 matches issuing 109 yellow cards and 4 red cards.
His last match came on Saturday in the League One clash between MK Dons and Scunthorpe United. The Iron won two-nil which relegated the Buckinghamshire side while the Dons picked up both yellow cards.
His highest card tally this season is seven cards which has happened on two occasions. The first time was in mid-August in the League One match between Gillingham and Bradford City. The Bantams won one-nil thanks to a 19th minute Dominic Poleon goal who also picked up four yellow cards. The Gills, meanwhile, picked up two yellows and a red card which went to forward Conor Wilkinson.
The second occasion came at the end of March in another match at Gillingham! The Gills picked up another three yellows while the team that beat them two-one, MK Dons, picked up the other four yellows.
The assistant referees for the Portsmouth v Posh clash are Robert Dabbs and Simon Shaw. The fourth official is Christopher Kidd.
Portsmouth -Vs- Peterborough United
Venue: Fratton Park
Date: Saturday, 5th May, 2018
Kick-off: 17:30pm
Referee
John Busby
Assistants
Robert Dabbs
Simon Shaw
Fourth official
Christopher Kidd
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Photos courtesy of Joe Dent / www.theposhpics.com
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