Referee: DAVID ROCK
Assistants: Paul Evans and Stuart Kane
Fourth Official: Stephen Parkinson
I haven’t done this for a few weeks because they don’t get huge views, and I thought they weren’t popular. Then I realised two things.
- Popularity is irrelevant, and the three people who asked me about them this weekend like them, so they’re back.
- I hate going into a game and not knowing about the ref, being able to turn around and say something like smugly, ‘this is the referee who wrongly sent off that Port Vale player last season’.
On to Cambridge away, and we get David Rock. This is the referee who wrongly sent off that Port Vale player last season. Aaah, that felt gooood.
Aside from that game, David Rock is an official we have seen a couple of times at Sincil Bank. He first refereed a Lincoln game in 2014, overseeing our 3-1 defeat away at Woking, with him first visiting Sincil Bank later in the season as we beat Southport 1-0. We saw him for a third time in March 2015, as we drew 1-1 at Wrexham. He didn’t officiate us at all in Chris Moyses’ full season in charge, but in our historic 2016/17 season, he was the referee as we went down away at Dover, losing 2-0. He was also the referee who sent off Sean Raggett early in our 1-0 November win against Wrexham at Sincil Bank.
Rock joined the Football League referee list in the 2019/20 season but didn’t officiate any Lincoln games. Two seasons ago, the only game that he was in charge of was our 2-0 defeat at Plymouth in the FA Cup, a game in which he booked seven players. He did have two other notable appearances throughout the season. The first was not with Lincoln; he was the referee who was forced to abandon Scunthorpe’s tie with Bradford early in the season because of falling snow. He was also the fourth official the day Szmodics did his swan dive to earn Peterborough an undeserved 3-3 draw in the final game of the 2020/21 season.
Last season, as well as Port Vale, he was in charge of our 0-0 draw with Portsmouth. The first one, at their place. This season, he’s only had five League One matches. Port Vale won’t like him – he oversaw their 7-0 defeat against Barnsley on the opening day. He’s sent a few off as well – Joe Morrell for Portsmouth (which ref hasn’t sent Morrell off recently) and Will Aimson for Exeter. Mind you, he does let the game flow – he’s 40/54 for fouls per game (54 being the fewest), and 51/54 for fouls per tackle. This man likes to let the game flow! Just don’t get on the wrong side of him – he’s 17/54 for yellows per game. When you consider the other stats, he issues a lot of yellows. It seems like you have to be pretty rough to get him to blow his whistle, but when he does, the card comes out.
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