Lamentable refereeing standards at League One matches reached a new low at Peterborough United v Charlton on Tuesday

The game moves incredibly quickly and some players are cheating pretty much non-stop. The abuse from on the pitch and from the technical areas is constant.

My sympathy for match officials rose dramatically during Covid games. Without crowd noise to hide behind, the language and behaviour from players and management teams was eye-openingly horrific.

But none of that excuses the lamentable officiating we have seen at Posh matches this season and, yes, my favourite team has benefitted at times.

I did think Bobby Madden’s display at Derby County v Posh in August wouldn’t be surpassed for sheer awfulness this season even though Andy Woolmer at Oxford v Posh gave it a bloody good go.

But step forward Andrew Kitchen, an official who, until last night, was someone I had never seen in the flesh other than when he popped in to postpone Posh v Charlton about 90 minutes before kick off in January.

Unfortunately he was still in charge of the rearranged game which, if there was any real referee accountability, would be his last for some time.

There’s a video clip doing the rounds on social media clearly showing Charlton forward Jesuran Rak-Sakyi punching Josh Knight, or ‘tapping him in the chest’ if Posh boss Darren Ferguson’s conversation with Kitchen has been correctly recounted.

The incident took place in front of four officials who must have had a pretty clear view of the incident. After all it was a great spot to see Josh Knight’s kick out at Rak-Sakyi. But how they then don’t see the Mike Tyson-style haymaker that followed is quite baffling and inexcusable.

Actually they did see it, or someone did, as Kitchen issued a yellow card which makes the decision even worse. It also means Rak-Sakyi can’t be punished retrospectively. Playing dumb and saying you were unsighted is at least an explanation. It was better than Charlton manager Dean Holden’s offering of Rak-Sakyi ‘trying to get away from someone who had stamped on him.’ It was predictable piffle from someone ignoring the fact his player charged towards his victim.

Player safety is supposed be paramount. That’s why the game halts when a player hit his head, or fakes an injury in that area. What Kitchen and his team misinterpreted last night was shameful and actually pretty scary.

If they can’t see something so obvious and so serious they have no right to be involved in professional sport where livelihoods are often at stake.

I wouldn’t be surprised if an apology to Posh will be forthcoming by the end of the week. A fat lot of good that will do.

And Kitchen will then be at Cambridge v Portsmouth on Saturday (unlucky lads) and I wouldn’t rule out a promotion in the near future.

Remember referee Jon Moss and his abysmal handling of MK Dons and Posh in that League One play-off semi-final of 2011? He helped Posh to promotion with a penalty and red card decision so awful it still makes me shudder and my team went on to reach the final. Moss was promoted to the Premier League list at the end of that season.

And John Busby also helped Posh over the line to promotion from League One in 2020-21 with one of the worst penalty decisions I have ever seen in the 95th minute of a huge end-of-season game against a talented Lincoln City side. Busby was next seen by Posh in the Championship at Middlesbrough the following season when he failed to give us a penalty for the most obvious of fouls.

I’m convinced many referees with potential leave football early because of the poor behaviour at junior level games. I have tremendous sympathy for grassroots officials, but those who get to the top are presumably well-trained and well-paid.

They are fair game for critics, especially those who fork out good money to watch a match decided on playing ability and managerial tactics rather than the whims and indiscretions of officials who can’t distinguish a smack hard enough to trouble a professional boxer, or even a gobby YouTube personality, from an apparent ‘tap on the chest.’