Michael Salisbury will be the man in the middle when Crystal Palace host Aston Villa on Saturday afternoon, and a number of Palace fans have been reacting to the news on social media.
Salisbury is yet to take charge of a top-flight fixture, so the clash at Selhurst Park will be his first, with the former teacher only starting to officiate in the EFL during the 2016/17 season.
He has shown 30 cards in just eight games in all competitions during the current campaign, five of which have been red cards.
Palace will put their unbeaten home record under Patrick Vieira on the line against Steven Gerrard’s side, with the Eagles recently having issues with a relatively new Premier League referee this season in Darren England.
He took charge of Palace’s 1-1 draw with Newcastle last month and ruled out Christian Bentke’s late header following a foul in the build-up.
[freshpress-poll id=”365240″]
Palace fans react
Reliable Villa reporter Ashley Preece shared the news regarding Salisbury’s appointment on Twitter on Wednesday morning.
Here is what these Palace fans had to say in reply to the update, with one labelling it as ‘awful news’ and a few comparing it to when England was in charge against Newcastle.
“Oh man I can’t wait for a repeat of the Newcastle fiasco. They love using mid table clubs as guinea pigs”
“Given we have previous with Villa, this is a terrible appointment.”
“Awful news, the making his debut for our game against Newcastle was shocking. Not even biased, just a poor referee”
“This is gonna be so bad… another don that doesn’t know what he’s doing officiating our game”
“Oh joy! Hope he’s better than the last rookie to rock up at Selhurst. Surely he can’t be worse than that Darren England fella against Newcastle! ”
“We all know that one teacher who can’t handle his class so goes around handing out detentions”
In other news: Palace in talks with £9m worth of talent after Vieira gives the ‘green light’
