Scunthorpe United FC

Alan Young will be the man in the middle for the Iron's home league clash against Colchester United on Saturday.

The Cambridgeshire-based official will travel to the Sands Venue Stadium for his 18th game of the campaign and seventh in Sky Bet League Two. The current campaign is Young's fourth in the EFL.

His first game of the campaign didn't come until October when he oversaw the goalless draw between Cheltenham Town and Chelsea's Under-21s in the Papa John's Trophy. The Robins took the tie 5-4 on penalties, while five cautions were issued. His latest match was at Plymouth Argyle last weekend, taking charge of their 2-0 win over Morecambe in which two yellow cards were shown.

Now the Chief Executive of Bedfordshire FA, Young has been among the news in this current campaign. At Leyton Orient in October, his second game of the season, he failed to play injury time in their match at home to Hartlepool United, subsequently bringing the teams out for the final four minutes of the half before switching ends and commencing the second half. More recently, he handed Crawley Town manager John Yems his second red card in three games, which caused him to be banned from the touchline when the Iron visited there last weekend.

Young has taken charge of just two previous Iron competitive fixtures. The first came back in October 2018 when he refereed our 3-2 away defeat at Wycombe Wanderers when the hosts came from 2-0 down to win. There were six yellows and one red in the game with Jordan Clarke and Andy Dales the two cautioned from the Iron. He had previously taken charge of United in pre-season in 2017 when he was still a Level 2A match official, as Scunthorpe lost away at Luton Town. The last time he oversaw a United fixture was at Salford City last season, in a 1-1 draw. Six yellow cards were shown on the day.

Meanwhile, he's refereed Colchester United on five previous occasions, all of which coming at home. The last came against Southend back in November 2020 when the U's took thrashed their Essex rivals in the Papa John's Trophy. Across the five games, he's issued 12 yellow cards and one red - incidentally the same total across both games he's taken charge of the Iron.

Last season, he took charge of 34 games, issuing 143 yellow cards and three reds. So far in this campaign, he has officiated in 17 encounters, showing 73 yellows and three red cards.

On Saturday, he will be assisted by Abbas Khan and Matthew Parry, while Chris Ward has been appointed as the fourth official.

PAST SCUNTHORPE UNITED ENCOUNTERS

PAST COLCHESTER UNITED ENCOUNTERS