I'm pretty sure he is not from Bournemouth. Someone edited his wiki page. The ref site shows him from Hampshire. He has refereed most of the southern clubs this season - us, Reading, Brighton, Bournemouth amongst others. The powers that be would never be that stupid to choose a referee that would lay them open to questions of bias.
When I first qualified as a referee, I was told that if I got to a high enough level then I would have to declare which club I support and I would be excluded from officiating in their matches and those of their rivals that the powers that be were aware of a feeling of strong dislike to each other. I was a teenager then, but I assume that rule still applies.
I think this came up before because he refereed the Reading Bournemouth game recently and Reading were questioning his allegiance. I believe he was born in Dorset but that area is now classed as Hampshire... but he is now based in Dorset again. Apparently he is a Southampton fan. Each referee must declare who he supports. I went to Uni with a guy from Banbury, which is where Dermot Gallacher is from. Being from that area, he put Oxford down as his team but it was common knowldge with the locals he was a Man Utd fan (even stories of him having a Man Utd tattoo but doubt he would do that in case he was asked to show it).
Wiki says Bournemouth became part of Dorset until the 1970s but now along with Poole and Christchurch it's no longer part of the county but is a unitary authority. The same not always reliable source says Keith Stroud comes from Gillingham, about an hour's drive away in north Dorset. If true it would probably make Yeovil his nearest league football team
If our team plays to the level that we know it can do, Then we would beat everybody in this league with or without the ref
if ALL our players play to the level we know they can he could be just in his underpants we would still win
According to the commentators you are all wrong. Apparently, the team that the ref supported as a boy were them up the road who have thrown away both promotion and a play-off place, this season. Having said that Keith Stroud seemed a reasonable ref.
I don't care to much where he comes from as I thought he had a good game, tried to keep it flowing, and had a word with players rather than reach into his pocket as a first step.