Ahead of the start of the 2021/22 season, the Select Group 2 (SG2) and National Group Referees List has been confirmed to officiate across the Sky Bet EFL.

Tom Bramall and John Busby will be joining the Select Group 2 pool of referees for the upcoming campaign, whilst Simon Mather, Rebecca Welch, Andrew Kitchen and Tom Reeves have earned promotion to the National Group list.

Of the two new additions to SG2, who will be officiating across the Sky Bet Championship, Bramall has been a National Group Referee since 2018, taking the whistle across multiple competitions including the Sky Bet EFL and Papa John’s Trophy. He also took charge of Morecambe’s League Two Play-Off Semi-Final second leg against Tranmere Rovers last month.

Busby tallied 35 games as a referee during the 2020/21 campaign, including in the Carabao Cup and FA Cup, and also took charge at Wembley Stadium for the FA Vase Final between Binfield and Warrington Rylands in May.

National Group list officials oversee Sky Bet League One and Two fixtures. The quartet of Mather, Welch, Kitchen and Reeves will all bring considerable experience to the list, having previously taken charge of National League regular season and Play-Off fixtures.

Rebecca Welch’s promotion makes her the first female referee appointee to the National Group list for the men’s professional game.

I support England and I always want us to do well at World Cups and Euro's but I think the level of expectation every tournament is unrealistic. Every time a tournament comes around the media hype the team up which hypes the fans which then puts a tremendous amount of pressure and expectation on the England team itself.

Since 1966 we've only ever made 4 semi-finals 1968, 1990, 1996 and 2018. We haven't made a final for 55 years or won anything for 55 years. I find with some people there is arrogance that we should win something but to win something you have to play and beat the best and let's be honest when we come up against the likes of Portugal, France, Germany, Brazil etc we seem to bottle it and I think that is more of a mental thing.

We've always had good individual players but not necessarily a good team. If those player's can't play as a team then we won't win any trophies. Look at Wales they have 1-2 star players but they play as a team, Scotland is another example they play as a team not as individuals.

Then we come on to the media. Every tournament the media builds England up to them knock them down but not just England, every tournament they seem to single out an individual and hammer them in the press. They did it to Gascoigne, Beckham, Rooney, Sterling and a certain right wing newspaper did it to Kalvin Phillips. When England gets knocked out of a tournament they also seem to call for the manager's head and then start touting who is going to be the next manager and the same process starts all over again. The job has the tag line 'The Impossible Job' well it's only impossible because of what the media do and the level of expectation. Look at Germany's manager he's been there for 16 years and the German FA still stuck by him after a disastrous 2018 World Cup.

People go on about how the best league in the World is the Premier League but is it really? It might be the best brand, the best league for paying overinflated wages but not the best league. Look at Germany, Italy, Spain they probably have better leagues than the Premier League. If you take away all the foreign players away from the Premier League and you just have British players then it's average. It's the foreign players and manager's which make the Premier League what it is not the English or British players or managers. The biggest problem we have in England is lack of young and upcoming managers in the Premier League, clubs seem to be opting for club legends like Arteta or Solskjaer etc while the young English and British managers and coaches get overlooked. Is it do with coaching in England? Maybe. Do we have enough coaches? The answer is no. If you watch Spain, Germany, France, Portugal, Italy they play their own style and brand of football they focus more on ball control, passing and possession where England seem to focus on kick and rush and running round like headless chickens.

Do I want England to do well and win trophies? Of course I bloody do but I won't get my expectations up. I think we need to be realistic.

Apparently we are in for Halifax defender Jeff King. What's your opinion. Reports of him were good.

Like last close season Halifax are shedding players. Earing has already gone to Walsall.

BUT last season Pete Wild re-built and kept his side in the promotion race all season. It'll say a lot for him if he can perform the same trick again.

Promoted them too early

Well we are now at the point where many Scot footie fans will be saying, "I've seen this movie before"!!!
Scotland's great draw v England on their own "patch" will mean nothing unless we make it count v Croatia on Tuesday night. This is most definitely Scotland's cup final as well as it being Croatia's cup final - both teams need a victory while Scotland need to finally "bust a bogey", one that has rendered Scotland never qualifying from any World Cup or Euro group no matter how good a footie team they have fielded in the past 50 years. And Scotland have had some vg teams from World Cup Germany '74 onwards where no good fortune has ever favoured even the great teams. So how do we "bust the bogey"????? Can we do it?? I've watched Croatia twice in their group matches and perceive them to be an ageing team that has lost many of their great players. But they still have quality in certain areas of the pitch. Hence my initial view is to "man mark" Perisic and Modric - try to nullify their contribution. I wanna see a physical cup final confrontation v Croatia. We don't want a draw and, in fact, a hi-press attacking strategy is in order for IMO one of the biggest Scotland footie internationals in 30 years - we need to focus on scoring as many goals as poss from a team that clearly doesn't generally score more than two goals v anybody - the footie stats don't lie!! I think Clarke must try to prime every Scotland player who is capable of scoring a goal to "have a pop" at every opportunity - that is the clarion call!! C'MON SCOTLAND, WE DON'T WANNA SEE THE SAME MOVIE AGAIN!! A NEW ERA OF OPTIMISM AND POSITIVITY IS THERE TO BE GRASPED!!!

Mitch Brundle, versatile midfielder or defender, aged 26 I think, has been released by Dagenham and Redbridge. He tackles and can be relied on for a few goals, scored 12 at Dover and 9 for the Daggers. He isn't a northerner but did spend a year at Gateshead so he is a survivor. And he is a free agent who is good enough for our team (if he isn't permanently crocked or something that I don't know about!)

So what do you think Mr Rowe?

Sad to hear about him battling Dementia. Everyone at hibs wishes him all the best.

An absolutely legendary character, when he comes in the room the whole place just lights up. From that era of Scottish managers that smoked cigars and wore car coats and bunnets. Those were the days !!


And someone from hibsnet remembered this classic :

‘Friendly’ versus Middlesbrough at Easter Road

Nobby Stiles came rushing in on Bertie with an over the ball challenge Bertie anticipated it but fell badly on his shoulder on the bone hard surface

Tam McNiven diagnosed a broken collar bone and he would have to come off

“ Give me five minutes” says the bold Bertie

Five minutes later Stiles is getting carried off on a stretcher

“ Ref! Sub!”

Grant Smith who signed a new contract a few months ago has now left the club on a free transfer.

We've now lost 2 good keepers in Smith and Montgomery.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/57496921

So Celtic and Ange Postecoglou will be up against a fairly tough 2nd round CL tie v the Danish Champions. This one will be an interesting encounter and not the first time that the Hoops have played this particular opponent.

So Hibs draw in the 2nd round of the Europa Conference League is v either Gib's Mons Calpe or Andorra's Santa Coloma. It looks like a decent draw for Hibs who should progress to the 3rd round without too much ado while the Dons may encounter a tougher task v Swedish opponents, BK Hacken. Matches to be played on 22 July and 29 July with the 1st leg tie played at ER Stadium.