Fernando Forestieri’s dismisser chosen as referee for Sheffield Wednesday’s play-off final v Barnsley
Many Sheffield Wednesday fans have noted that the man who has been put in charge of their play-off final is the same one who sent off Fernando Forestieri for simulation in 2016.
This weekend it was confirmed that Tim Robinson will be the man in the middle on May 29th when the Owls take on the Reds at Wembley for a spot in the Championship, with the ref taking charge of Wednesday game for the 17th time in his career.
It was his second game that was most notable for Wednesdayites, though, with the official deciding to send off attacker, Forestieri, for diving after he was clearly fouled by Hull City’s Michael Dawson. The decision was roundly criticised, but there was no appeal process because it was a second yellow.
Dawson himself said afterwards that he was lucky not to have been carded after catching the Wednesday man.
Despite some concern in the fanbase, though, Wednesday are actually unbeaten in the last five games with Robinson in the middle - most recently beating Wigan Athletic 1-0 thanks to a penalty scored by Barry Bannan last year.
In total Wednesday have lost only three of the 16 games officiated by Robinson, and he has given three spotkicks to the Owls in that time.
The matchday team is as follows:
Referee: Tim Robinson
Assistant Referees: Shaun Hudson & Akil Howson
Fourth Official: John Busby
Reserve AR: Mark Russell
VAR: Tony Harrington
AVAR: Dan Robathan