A busy start

Last updated : 19 August 2005 By Tony Scholes

Messias’ season got underway two weeks ago when Peterborough entertained Chester in a League Two fixture. He certainly made a name for himself by giving out a total of six yellow cards during the ninety minutes, five of them going the way of visitors Chester.

It didn’t quieten down either, a week later he moved up a division when he refereed the League One game between Huddersfield and Swansea at the Galpharm Stadium. This time he made it seven yellow cards, Huddersfield claiming three of them and Swansea four, and also sent off two Swansea players, Kristian O’Leary and Izzy Iriekpen, both straight red cards.

That’s not bad, thirteen yellow and two red from just two games with the away teams being hit hard by a referee who only sent off two players in the whole of last season and averaged around three and a half yellow cards per game, most of those games in the Premiership.

His last Burnley game came during that 2004/05 season when we beat Nottingham Forest 1-0 at the Turf back in November of last year. He certainly had a quiet enough day that day but he has had his moments with the Clarets including an horrendous performance in a 3-2 win at Norwich in 2001 whilst I still wonder how on earth he didn’t send off Lucien Mettomo for a challenge on Dean West as we went down 5-1 at KKMC at the end of the same year.

This won't be his first Watford v Burnley game either, he was referee when we won there four seasons ago in the match featured in our Happy Hunting article.

We’ll certainly be hoping he’s calmed down with his cards tomorrow – and certainly it would be good if he kept his red card firmly in his pocket all afternoon.

He will be assisted by Bernard Baker (Hampshire) and Shaun Procter-Green (Lincolnshire) whilst Gary Sutton (Lincolnshire) will act as fourth official. Sutton is new to the Football League referees list and was at Edgeley Park on the opening day of the season for his first ever game in the middle, Stockport v Mansfield.

Previous Burnley games:

Season

Opps

V

Res

Y

R

Burnley players carded

a

2004/05

Nott'm Forest

h

1-0

1

0

Duffy

2002/03

Wolves

h

2-1

8

0

Cox Grant West

2001/02

Watford

a

2-1

4

0

Gnohere Grant

2001/02

KKMC

a

1-5

2

0

Papadopoulos

2000/01

Norwich

a

3-2

6

0

Armstrong Ball Little Smith Taylor

1999/2000

Gillingham

h

0-3

0

0

.

1997/98

Northampton

h

2-1

0

0

.