Andre Marriner, 35 years old from Birmingham, will be in charge of tonight’s Carling Cup Third Round tie between Newcastle and Portsmouth at St James’ Park. It will be only Andre’s 2nd United game, the 1st being our 2-1 defeat at Norwich City in April 2005, and therefore his 1st game on Tyneside.

Andre was promoted to the National List in 2003 and Select Group at the beginning of last season. Injuries prevented him from refereeing regularly last season and probably cost him a place on the FIFA list, but he’s now back and aiming high once again. In his 3 Premiership games this season he has shown 9 yellows cards and 0 reds.

He has refereed 3 Portsmouth games in the past, a 2-0 defeat to Manchester City in April 2005, a 0-1 home loss to Everton in January of this year and a 1-0 home win over Middlesbrough in April.