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A look back at some of his Burnley games show that he has never been over eager with his notebook although on a couple of occasions he has taken the names of two Burnley players.
In the Waddle season of 1997/98 he kept his cards in his pocket during our 1-1 League Cup draw at Lincoln although he did book both Andy Cooke and Damian Matthew along with one Wycombe player.
Since then they have all been home games. In the 1999/2000 promotion season there were no cards in the 2-1 win against Bournemouth and in our first home game back in Division One against Wimbledon there was just the one card for Wimbledon’s Paul Robinson.
Last season he was in charge of our 2-0 home win against Sheffield United and booked on Blade along with Lee Briscoe and Ian Cox.
This season he has handed out just 27 yellow cards in 31 games and that gives him a slightly higher average than last season. In both of these seasons there has not been a single red card.
In fact the last time he produced his red card was as far back as 14th October 2000 when he sent off Oldham’s Craig Dudley in the last minute of a 1-0 home win against Swindon. Dudley ironically had scored the goal.
Some will say that Baines is too lenient, many will tell you it is why he has not progressed beyond the Football League. Having said that I have never seen him have a bad game, he allows the game to keep going and certainly looks to have the respect of the players.
I’m all in favour of this kind of referee and look forward to him having another card free day tomorrow at the Turf.