Huddersfield Town will hope their form inspires promotion headlines rather than debate on officials

Huddersfield Town’s 1-0 Friday night win over Hull kept up their gravity defying season and sees them well in the hunt for a play-off place still. For a team many had bottom three in their pre-season predictions to be top three in April is quite the feat. This is all before a season defining run of fixtures in eight days when Luton come to the John Smith’s Stadium a week on Monday, followed by a visit from QPR and then a trip to Middlesbrough.

Lots to talk about then, loads to discuss, but post-final whistle on Friday and for much of the following day’s analysis we come back to the same thing, and it’s not Town’s form. Referees have featured heavily in Town’s season to date, and in several other Championship teams fortunes. Yet again Championship officiating came under the spotlight, and yet again it takes away from what we should be talking about, the football.

We want to cover a far bit of ground here so strap in because there will be things in here you likely won’t agree with. To that end I’m going to spoil the point of this article in just the third paragraph: we need to stop scrutinising referees to this degree or accept VAR (or the baby version being explored for lower league football at least) and there can really be no in between for any of us. Don’t worry, I will not be defending the decisions made on Friday night so please read on, but also don't expect a definitive answer to the issues either.

Huddersfield Town were denied two clear penalties on Friday night, one the referee should have given without a shred of doubt, but another he would need help on. Josh Koroma was fouled in the box, the referee had clear sight, it was a penalty. The first half handball however was nowhere near as clear cut, and that’s