FA appoints match officials for the Second City Derby

The FA and PGMOL have appointed the match referees to administer this weekend’s clashes of the EFL Championship.

The most enticing fixture of the EFL Championship this weekend is undoubtedly the Second City Derby. It will be the 127th time that Birmingham City and Aston Villa face off in a competitive outing. The fixture will be even more important for Aston Villa as they hope to hand a win to Dean Smith on his derby debut.

The FA has announced the man in the middle for the fixture and it does not look too much good news for the clarets and blues, to be frank. Robert Jones will be overseeing the fixture between the two sides. Birmingham City have never been part of a competitive fixture with Robert Jones in the middles, but Villa have.

The hosts have been supervised by the referee on two occasions and have seen both their outings end in a loss last season. While one defeat came against Peterborough United, the other was at the hands of Bolton Wanderers. However, Dean Smith would have asked his side to ignore the stats and only focus on performing their duty on the pitch.

Robert Jones’ appointment is very unconventional in all honesty given that he was promoted to the EFL Championship in the second half of the 2017/18 campaign only. In 2016, it was Mike Dean who stepped down from the Premier League for a weekend to officiate the Second City Derby.

The most recent match between Aston Villa and Birmingham City on the former’s turf was refereed by Peter Bankes. Cheikh Ndoye was sent off whereas two yellow cards had also been handed out over the course of 90 minutes at the Villa Park.