Ref-Watch: Sheffield Wednesday (H)

To be honest, when I first saw a picture of tomorrow's referee Brendan Malone, I thought I'd searched the wrong man. He is fairly, shall we say, rounded at the waist (no offence Brendan, I'm not exactly slim myself).

But at least he wasn't asked to take a fitness test like last weekend's ref Lee Probert, eh?

Malone also used to a be a postman, and it certainly takes a lot of stamina to do that. So there's no question that he can run around a football pitch for 90 minutes.

All joking aside, the Wiltshire (I thought his name sounded Irish) official has taken charge of 18 games so far in 2014-15, yet only one of those has been in the Championship - Leeds' 3-1 win at Bournemouth back in September.

He has dished out 38 yellow cards and three reds in those 18 games, whilst he's given just one spot-kick- in the League Two clash between AFC Wimbledon and Hartlepool in August. Even that was saved Pool's keeper Scott Flinders...

In terms of Reading, there has only been one Royals game that Malone has been involved in- and it was a loss- 2-1 at home to Barnsley in August 2011.

Brendan is also a qualified referees' assessor, spending his Sunday mornings checking on the young up-and-comers in the Salisbury and District and Wiltshire leagues, and has apparently sighted his son as the next Howard Webb.

Maybe in 20 years time, I'll be writing a Ref-Watch on Connor Malone then...