Cliftonville are to lodge an official complaint with the Irish FA regarding one of the Premier League’s longest serving referees.

In a season that started with referees going on strike, match officials are again at the centre of attention.

The old cliche of the best referees being those who aren’t noticed appears to have been lost in the IFA Premiership, with Stephen Weatherall again the subject of heavy criticism from Cliftonville.

The north-Belfast club are now preparing to write a letter to the governing body, explaining their concerns about Weatherall’s handling of a number of games involving their team.

“We have had problems with this referee in the past and now we have problems with him again,” said Cliftonville director Gerard Lawlor.

“I raised concerns about Stephen Weatherall’s appointment to our game against Lisburn Distillery on Tuesday night when I first found out he was the referee, but that fell on deaf ears.

“It is a while since Stephen refereed one of our games and then we had him for the County Antrim Shield match against Brantwood, the league game at Distillery and then he was due to be fourth official for Saturday’s match against Glentoran.

“I know that he has now been taken off that game, but we feel that we have been left with no alternative but to make an official complaint to the IFA.

“His handling of the match and some of the decisions he made left a lot to be desired.

“In a climate where referees have brought themselves into the public eye we need a better standard of officiating.

“It is time to get performances from referees.

“We have incidences like our captain Chris Scannell asking the referee to consult his linesman over a decision and being yellow carded for it and there were other things as well.

“People are going to say that it’s sour grapes on our part because we lost the game 3-1, but that’s not the issue.

“Lisburn Distillery deserved to win the game, they deserve a lot of credit and Paul Kirk has put together a very good team.

“The problem was with the referee. We thought we had moved on from things that happened last year, but we are just back to the way we were.

“We aren’t doing this because we lost one game, we are doing it for the good of football because we want better officiating than what we have at present.

“We have supporters who part with their hard earned cash to follow our team, people who give up their time and work hard for the club and if we keep getting poor refereeing displays they will stop coming to games.

“We have a new league with marketing campaigns to bring more people into grounds and still we have the same referees and the same performances.”

It isn’t just the referees who need to up their performances though.

After blowing Ballymena United away last Saturday afternoon

with a 5-1 win at the Showgrounds the Reds stuttered at Ballyskeagh on Tuesday, going down 3-1 to an impressive Whites side.

Tomorrow afternoon they take on Glentoran at the Oval and after sharing the points in both their league games so far, Alan McDonald’s men will be determined to register their first maximum haul of points in the Premiership campaign.

The Glens have had the upper hand in meetings in east-Belfast over the last few years and most recently won 2-1 in a live Sky Sports game back in April.

With an unbeaten league record that stretches back to January 1, the Glens won’t want to give that up without a fight and with both sides having their eyes on a challenge for the title everything points to an exciting encounter.