MATT Donohue will have wanted to stay under the radar in his first Premier League match as a referee.
However, on the biggest day of his career to date, it ended up being quite an eventful one for the former Denton primary school teacher on the south coast.
The 35-year-old was appointed to oversee Bournemouth’s match with Brentford at the Vitality Stadium on Saturday, May 11 – a game between two teams with very little to play for on the penultimate weekend of the campaign, with top-flight football already guaranteed for next season.
Although the three goals in Brentford’s 2-1 victory were scored late on, the drama on Donohue’s debut came much earlier as he took centre stage.
The referee overturned a Bournemouth goal for handball by Antoine Semenyo and then reversed a Brentford penalty won by Ivan Toney, after being advised by the Video Assistant Referee Chris Kavanagh – with Tameside connections himself – to review both incidents at the pitchside monitor.
The decision to rule out the Cherries’ first-half strike angered their manager Andoni Iraola, who was the recipient of one of five yellow cards flashed by Donohue throughout the frantic match.
The Bournemouth boss was left exasperated again when Dominic Solanke had a second goal ruled out for a foul on Brentford defender Nathan Collins – albeit Donohue’s whistle had blown moments before the ball was in the net.
Afterwards, Iraola told the media that Donohue had “a very bad game”.
He said: “It’s true that he [the referee] makes his [Premier League] debut. He may be very good, we don’t know the level. But obviously he has had a very bad game.
“I don’t know if it was difficult but obviously he has not had a good first game. Probably he is a very good referee and after, he makes good decisions and has a long career in the Premier League and referees for a lot of years. But it is true, his first game was not good in my opinion.”
Donohue oversaw Greswell Primary’s sport provision during his eight years at the Percy Road school, before becoming a full-time referee in 2019 officiating primarily in the Championship.