Meadow Park, the home of the Arsenal Ladies, saw an unusual sight on Thursday evening with a Premier League referee running the line during the second half of the Continental Cup game.

The referee for the game was Lucy Oliver and Michael Oliver, who was the man in the middle at the Emirates Stadium on Monday for the Arsenal v Liverpool game, was at the ground as a spectator watching his wife. During half time one of the assistant referees reportedly fainted and there was a call on the tannoy for a qualified referee to come forward otherwise the game would have had to be abandoned.

The Premier League referee, whodisallowed Aaron Ramsey’s goal on Monday despite the player not being offside, duly took a uniform and ran the line for his wife who was right in the middle of proceedings.

Quite an unbelieveable sight that is unlikely to be repeated soon.

For the record, he did not make any dubious decision flagging correctly for offsides and giving goal kicks the right way. Maybe a shame, as it would have been quite the story for a leading male official to be ill-equipped for work at a ladies game!