Atkinson will try again

He had a quiet start to the season but in terms of cards he's been gaining momentum and after 37 games he's taken his total of yellow cards to 114. Four of those came in the Community Shield at the start of the season and of the others 50 have gone to home players and 60 to away players. At one point in time it was more exaggerated than that but recently he's been carding more home players than away players.

He's refereed to previous Burnley games. The first of them was just over two years ago when the lights went out at Crewe. Last season he was in charge of what had become an annual event, a defeat at Bramall Lane. Both times he's booked on Burnley player, both have been players on loan, and from Aston Villa. Maybe Eric Djemba-Djemba will need to be extra careful.

He's not a referee we've had any problems with, he's building quite a reputation for himself and was recently given the Liverpool v Manchester United game. He sent Paul Scholes off in that game, the fifth of six red cards this season. A week later he sent off former Claret Alan Lee as they went down at home to Southend.

W should be OK tonight, he's unlikely to suffer from the 'I can only point one way' problem that so hampered Steve Tanner's performance at Leeds on Saturday. All we need him to do is pass the pitch fit to play on.

He will be assisted by Gary Brittain (Yorkshire) and Andrew Butler (Lancashire) and the fourth official will be Mark Haywood (Yorkshire).

Previous Burnley games:

Season	Opps	V	Res	Y	R	Burnley players carded
a
2004/05	Sheffield Utd	a	1-2	2	0	Cahill
2004/05	Crewe	a	1-1	1	0	Whittingham