We go looking for a third straight Sky Bet Championship victory tomorrow afternoon as we head to Stoke City. The Potters have begun the season with nine points from six matches to sit well inside the top-half. Here's a rundown of the officials chosen for tomorrow's fixture.
Referee: Keith Stroud
Assistant Referees: Jonathan Hunt and Sam Lewis
Fourth Official: Mark Jones
Keith Stroud began his professional career back in 2004 and has been involved in FA Cup and Play-Off finals, as well as spending a number of seasons officiating in the Premier League.
In total, we have won 16 and drawn three of 28 games under the Hampshire official. Most notable among those were our 2-2 draw at Bramall Lane in April 2013, which saw four penalties and three red cards given, and a pair of home wins over Queens Park Rangers and Leeds United at the end of the 2018/19 season.
Last term, Stroud was in charge of back-to-back home wins against Sheffield Wednesday and West Bromwich Albion, either side of the restart, before officiating our Play-Off Semi-Final First Leg away at Swansea. The Hampshire official showed Rico Henry a red card, which was later recinded, and awarded The Swans a second-half penalty in the 1-0 defeat which ended our seven game winning run under him.
So far this season, Stroud has shown six yellow cards in five competitive fixtures.
Stoke City 2020/21
73 fouls – 16th in Championship
10 yellow cards – 6th in Championship
1 red card – 2nd most in Championship
The Bees are not on TV this weekend, which means the only way to watch us play is through iFollow. For only £10 (£7 for international fans) you can keep up with all the action in a live stream.
Tune into The Warm Up with Stu Wakeford and Marcus Gayle tonight at 6pm on our Youtube channel for a first glimpse at our third shirt.