Premier League new boy will referee Luton's Championship opener with Burnley

Luton’s first Championship game of the 2024-25 campaign against Burnley this evening will be refereed by Matthew Donohue.

The Manchester official had the whistle for one Town game last term, the final Premier League contest of the campaign, as the Hatters were beaten 4-2 by Fulham at Kenilworth Road. That was one of his two top flight matches, having made his debut in the highest tier of English football just one week earlier, when Brentford won 2-1 at AFC Bournemouth.

Donohue refereed 36 fixtures in total, including 30 Championship fixtures, showing 171 yellow cards and three reds, as he took Luton twice in the 2022-23 Championship campaign, the 2-1 win at Huddersfield on January 1 and then the 2-1 FA Cup triumph at Wigan Athletic. He also officiated the 2-0 loss to QPR in November 2021, plus the Hatters' 2-1 losses at Reading and home to Barnsley in the season beforehand.

Prior to that, Donohue’s first experience of Kenilworth Road was when he had the whistle for Town’s 4-0 Carabao Cup defeat to Leicester City when Luton were led by Graeme Jones in September 2019. Paul Hodskinson and Mark Dwyer are the referee’s assistants this evening, with Gavin Ward the fourth official.