Referee Darren Drysdale has been handed a backdated ban and warned about his future conduct by the FA for for squaring up to Alan Judge in the Blues’ 0-0 draw with Northampton Town at Portman Road last month.

Drysdale admitted improper conduct to an FA independent regulatory commission, who imposed a ban which ran from 19th February to 10th March, meaning the official, a sergeant in the RAF based at Waddington in Lincolnshire, can return to football.

The 50-year-old, who has been refereeing since 1988 and was appointed to the National List of referees covering EFL games in 2004, was removed from officiating in two EFL matches and missed a further three fixtures he would have expected to have been involved in either as a referee or fourth official. Drysdale has also been warned about his future conduct.

In a statement Drysdale claimed the abuse he had received from Judge was the worst he had experienced as a referee: “Alan Judge then, in my opinion, exaggerates his fall in a desperate attempt to gain a penalty kick for his team.

“I then processed what had happened for a few seconds before blowing my whistle and decided to caution Alan Judge for an act of trying to deceive a match official.

“As I blew my whistle Alan Judge shouted aggressively in a loud voice at me and from a distance of only five metres ‘It's a f***ing penalty you cheating bald c***!’.

“Reacting completely out of character, I took exception to what I considered to be an offensive comment. I walked towards Alan Judge who then continued his tirade of abuse as he then, what I deemed as, aggressively and provokingly pointed his finger towards my face and shouted, ‘You're a fucking cheating c**!”.

“I accept that I should not have moved my head towards Alan Judge as this only inflamed the situation. At no time was there any physical contact between myself and Alan Judge.

“My action of moving forward was as a posture of authority and with the player being significantly shorter than me, this led to me looking down at him. I then issued a yellow card to Alan Judge for his exaggerated fall.”

Neither Judge nor Town gave an account of the events, Tarik Shamel, head of on-field regulation, explaining: “I spoke with the Ipswich Town club secretary, Stuart Hayton, on the telephone, who confirmed that neither the club nor Alan Judge wished to make any complaint against Mr Drysdale.

“Mr Hayton said that it was acknowledged that the referee may well have been reacting to something that was said and the player concerned did not wish to pursue the matter and did not want any action taken against Mr Drysdale.”

The club was contacted again on March 7th with Shamel adding: “Alan Judge...was unavailable to be contacted. Mr Hayton did, however, reconfirm the club and the player’s previous position.

“Mr Hayton was able to confirm that he was aware that whilst the player did not accept that he had used the word, “c***”, he did agree that he had used other insulting words towards Mr Drysdale, immediately prior to the incident in question.”

Judge was later asked for his account again but the commission was told: “His stance remains the same that he does not wish to be involved at all and he considered the matter closed when he left the field of play that evening.

“He wishes Mr Drysdale well with his refereeing career and does not wish to pursue the matter nor add any further comments or speak to the regulatory commission.”

Drysdale said that with hindsight he should have dismissed Judge for his conduct. Soon afterwards, he did send off Flynn Downes for comments he made immediately after being booked for a foul.

A day after the incident, Drysdale released an apology to Judge and Town through Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL).

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