Flood warden sinks

Last updated : 12 June 2003 By Tony Scholes

Hall was promoted to the elite list last year but has incredibly been axed without ever refereeing a Premiership game. Clearly his performances in the Nationwide have been looked at and the man that plays on waterlogged pitches has had another nightmare season.

He did make it as fourth official a few times in the top league but that could be as far as he ever gets, and hopefully will be.

There aren’t many worse than Hall, particularly with Barry Knight not having been in action since last October, and I’m sure Gareth Taylor will have a smile at this news.

It was Hall who yellow carded him after just six seconds at Rotherham as he was being carried off severely concussed. He turned that game into a farce handing out seven yellow cards and then in January was even worse as he turned the Ipswich home game into a farce.

The truth is we have never seen him have anything but a bad game, starting with the day he sent off Andy Cooke at Macclesfield after an incident with Efetorbe Sodje (on yet another waterlogged pitch).

Hall handed out a total of 140 cards (12 of them red) this season in just 33 games and it is unlikely that he will get another chance at the top level.

Demoted with him was Liverpool referee David Pugh who has been out of action since February.