Referees warned to get black card calls right

Championship football referees will be told their handling of the black card must improve at next month’s meeting of the 16 match officials.

The difficulties experienced by David Coldrick and Joe McQuillan over the last two weekends have created alarm about top referees’ ability to administer the new rule, aimed at taking a number of cynical fouls out of the game.

While there has been a degree of disappointment among refereeing authorities with the level of criticism aimed at the referees, particularly Coldrick after his performance in Omagh last Sunday week, there is also a realisation mistakes were made.