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The oddest thing has emerged about Tuesday’s match referee, Bradford’s Martin Atkinson. It seems from significant research that he has never refereed Brentford in a long and illustrious career spanning 16 years.
The EPL referee has of course not officiated Brentford or Fulham side this season but he did call four of Fulham’s matches in their last Premier League season.
Troublingly for the Cottagers, they didn’t win any of them, drawing with Watford and Newcastle and losing to Burnley and Manchester City. He didn’t however show any red cards to Fulham players, and didn’t book any of them more than once. So he’s not mad at any of them!
He also refereed Fulham’s loss at Reading in the 2016/17 play-off semi final. He booked Kevin McDonald and Stefan Johansen that day.
The streak in which Fulham do not win on his watch stretches all the way back to 2013.
On March 8 2014, he refereed Fulham’s 3-1 loss at Cardiff. On November 30, 2013, he was the whistler when Fulham lost 3-0 at West Ham.
You have to go back to September 24, 2013 to find Mr Atkinson refereeing a Fulham win, a 2-1 League Cup win over Everton. On one sour note, he did book now Whites manager Scott Parker that day!
On March 24 2010, he was in charge when the Cottagers lost an FA Cup tie 3-1 at Spurs.
In the 2008/9 season, he refereed three Fulham wins, against Arsenal, Newcastle and West Brom, and in the 2006/7 season, home wins over Everton and Stoke.
That’s 14 matches by our count and still no sign of Brentford.
In 2005/6, he called Fulham’s home wins over Charlton and Liverpool and their 4-2 loss at Old Trafford. Which we think brings us to 17.
Despite making his league debut on August 21, 2004 at Coventry v Millwall, it seems he has never refereed a Brentford match but has called Fulham 17 times.
Among the teams he has refereed in his career are Shaxtat Soligorsk of Belarus, NK Domžale of Slovenia, Norway’s Under 21s and Argentina. But the man from Bradford has never met the men from Brentford.
Let the conspiracy theories begin!
Match Preview: Brentford v Fulham: The deciding factors in West London’s biggest derby ever?
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