The Latics travel to the Britannia Stadium on Tuesday night as they get back to Premier League football following their exploits in the FA cup. A visit to Stoke is usually a bruising affair and ensuring things don’t get too out of hand is Chester official Mike Jones
This will be Jones’ fourth Latics game this season, we’ve lost the other three! Chelsea on the opening day, Swansea away in October and Newcastle away in December when he controversially awarded the Geordies a penalty and sent off Figueroa for the most innocuous challenge you are likely to see.
I thought Jones may prove to be a lucky ref for the Latics, his first ever Premier League game was our 5-1 away win at Hull when that man Zaki grabbed a brace, but since then he has refereed us 12 times and we’ve only won once, drawing 2 and losing the other 9! There have been some dire performances in there as well from Jonesy
The 43 year old whistle blower started refereeing because he was awful at football and sick of being left out at school when the other boys were kicking the ball around, so he took to enforcing the laws of the game at the tender age of 15.
Jones was promoted to become a football league referee in 1997 and progressed to the Premier League in 2008 when he took charge of the Hull City v Wigan Athletic game, in an interview Mike was asked:
What is the best game you have officiated and why?
He replied: ‘The best game for a sense of achievement was my first Premier League Game between Hull City and Wigan Athletic.’
A 5-0 away win for the Latics that day and one that Jonesy will remember all his life, almost forgive him for the other non performances
Mike Jones Card Watch 2012/13
Games – 20
Yellows – 58
Reds – 2
Stoke City v Wigan Athletic
Referee Mike Jones
Assistants M Mullarkey, P Bankes
Fourth Official M Halsey
The latest edition of the PWU Wigan Athletic podcast is now available for download.
This week in the studio are Dan, Rob, Greg, Mick and Gareth who discuss in great detail the failings against Sunderland (00:00), bad goals conceded and lack of spark. The cup game at Macclesfield (22:00) is also previewed, what a great tie this is, the magic of the FA cup is talked about, slight disagreement amongst the team here.
There is also a preview of Tuesday nights Premier League game away at Stoke (40:00)
If you would like to get involved in the podcast or have any topics that you’d like to be discussed please get in touch at wigan@vitalfootball.co.uk marking your email PWU Podcast
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Thank you very much for listening, your support is very much appreciated
The PWU crew
Latics and Proud
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