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It was hardly a surprise, at Molineux last season just five days short of a year ago, he twice incredibly ignored clear claims for penalties for handball, and in his only other Burnley game, the home fixture against West Ham in the 2004/05 season, I described his performance at the time as shocking. So he's done us no favours so far.
Since that night at Watford he's only sent off two players, both in the Millwall v Oldham game, one from each side and both second yellows for over celebrating goals. That was on the same December day as Chris McCann and Joey Gudjonsson came up against Lee Mason. Those two cards have taken Friend's red card count to eight this season in his 28 games.
His yellow card count has now reached 71 of which 31 have gone to home team players and 40 to away team players. He's having a quiet run just now with only two yellow cards in his last four games and none at all in the last two.
Hopefully he'll have a decent game tonight, he hasn't previously when refereeing the Clarets.
He will be assisted by Wayne Barratt (Worcestershire) and John Magill (Essex) with fourth official duties in the hands of David Belbin (Middlesex).
Previous Burnley games:
Season | Opps | V | Res | Y | R | Burnley players carded |
a | ||||||
2004/05 | West Ham | h | 0-1 | 3 | 0 | Camara |
2006/07 | Wolves | a | 1-2 | 2 | 0 | Duff Gudjonsson |
2007/08 | Watford | a | 2-1 | 1 | 0 | Akinbiyi |