Darren Handley to referee Northampton game

Darren Handley will take charge of the Iron's home league game against Northampton Town on Tuesday.

The Lancashire-based official will travel to the Sands Venue Stadium for his eighth game of the campaign in what is his sixth season in the EFL.

Westhoughton-born Handley had spent six years refereeing in the National League, along with being an assistant referee in the EFL. A PE teacher at Tottington High School, he progressed to level four by the time he turned 18, moving into the West Lancashire Football League as a referee in 1995.

By 2000 he had been promoted to the North West Counties Football League referees list before joining the national list for assistant referees in 2006.

He's taken charge of the Iron on eight previous occasions, six of which have come at the Sands Venue Stadium. United have won four and drawn four of the seven games. In total, he's shown 22 yellow cards and three reds in those games - with the three dismissals going to opposition players.

Meanwhile, he's overlooked seven Northampton games in the past with the last coming in 2017. Across the games, he's issued 24 yellow cards and three reds.

Incidentally, he's refereed this fixture before, back in October 2016. Three cautions were shown on the day - two of which to the Iron (Stephen Dawson and Neal Bishop), while he dismissed the Cobblers' Matthew Taylor. The score ended in a 1-1 draw with Josh Morris' free-kick cancelled out by a Jak McCourt strike.

He was appointed to the original fixture back in December in what would have been his first game of the season, and his first return to the EFL since February 2020 after a period out of action.