‘One of the worst I’ve seen’: The trailblazing refereeing duo not remembered fondly at Portsmouth

They are a groundbreaking refereeing duo who quite rightly hit the headlines with their landmark appointments.

Rebecca Welch is blazing a trail for female officials and is set to become the first woman to referee a Premier League match on Boxing Day, as she takes charge of Fulham v Burnley.

Meanwhile, Sam Allison is scheduled to become the first black official to oversee a top-flight game in 15 years, with Sheffield United’s home clash with Luton Town on his schedule.

They are milestones to be applauded, as refs’ chief Howard Webb makes good on his promise to diversify refereeing at the highest level.

But they are also a pair who’ve made reverberations around Pompey over the past 16 months - and not necessarily for the right reasons.

Allison came firmly to the Blues’ attention in August of last year for his display in the 2-2 Papa John’s Trophy draw at Crawley.

The former player, who is the cousin of old Blues favourite Fitzroy Simpson, produced a perplexing performance at Broadfield Stadium, which eventually drew exasperated laughter from both dugouts.

It was the award of two penalties which drew the ire of Cowley with Allison slipping up and impeding Pompey in the build-up to the second goal, as Crawley eventually nabbed a bonus point with a 6-5 shootout win.

Cowley embarked on a lengthy conversation with Allison in Crawley’s car park after the game, and made his feeling clear when speaking about his display.

He said: ‘I think that was one of the worst displays of refereeing that I have seen.

‘I like him, he’s a really nice man, I don’t like saying this, but I’m just telling you the truth about what I think – and I feel I should say it because I love football and we have to do better

.‘The FA have to do better, the EFL have to do better, this is such a shame, all these people come here and the game is just farcical.

‘The referee falls over in the middle of the pitch, he slips over. Okay these things happen, he gets in the way of our midfield player, can’t pick up the second ball, then doesn’t blow his whistle and regain his composure and stop the game.

‘He then lets the play carry on and gives the softest of penalties – it’s a completely soft penalty.

‘He has already given them a penalty in the first half which I thought was soft. He has then given them another penalty in injury time and I just thought that incident summed up his performance.

‘I thought he was really bad for both teams. We were all laughing, none of us knew what he was going to give next, we didn’t know which way he was going to go.’

Welch’s performance as she refereed 1-1 draw at Derby County in September was one which drew criticism for a number of ‘bizarre’ decisions, culminating in giving a controversial penalty for handball against Regan Poole five minutes from time.

It was the rough treatment of Colby Bishop and lack of consistency which led to Mousinho having an ‘orderly’ conversation with Welch after the game.

He said: ‘I waited half an hour after the game to knock on the door (of Welch’s changing room). The referee’s are always very good and very accommodating. They don’t mind feedback at all and they don’t mind head coaches and managers going in to speak to them – I’ve done that a handful of times.

‘I’ve done it after wins, draws, losses, whatever it is, I’ve made sure I’ve just been consistent.

‘So, yeah, I knocked on the door after the game and had a good discussion with Rebecca and her team. Kevin Friend (Professional Game Match Officials Limited official) was there supporting her, so it was good to have someone of that stature to sort of sit in and listen to everything.

‘I suppose I made my dissatisfaction with some of the decisions known in a polite and orderly way – and, yeah, we had a conversation. We didn’t come out agreeing, but that’s the way football is.’