Bates is tonight's referee

It's just over two years since he refereed a game at Burnley and that was on a day when he found himself with a decision that doesn't come around very often. That was whether and when to start the game against Ipswich once a parachutist had landed on the cricket field stand roof.

That was his last Burnley league game, home or away, but he's twice refereed us in the FA Cup since, in the third round in each of the last two seasons. He took charge of the first match against QPR at Loftus Road in January 2009 and earlier this year was the man in the middle when we beat Milton Keynes Franchise. That win was good news too, we've not won too many of our games when he's refereed previously.

He's certainly not a demonstrative referee and he's not one to make excessive use of his cards. Last season he did reach 106 yellow cards in 36 games, just under three per game, but there was only one red card all season.

The yellow card count so far this season is similar with 22 in 8 games, but the red card count has been beaten already with players sent off in each of his last two games.

Of those 22 yellow cards, 7 have gone to home team players and 15 to away team players. He sent off Lincoln's Scott Kerr in their 3-1 defeat at Accrington. That red card was for a bad challenge and the same can be said for his second of the season.

That came last Saturday when he dismissed James Vaughan as Crystal Palace lost 5-0 at Derby. There were four yellow cards too in that game - Dean Moxey and Robbie Savage (Derby) and Edgar Davids and Paddy McCarthy (Palace).

Tony Bates is currently in tenth place in the RATE THE REF Table.

The assistant referees tonight are Paul Curry (Northumberland) and Scott Oldham (Lancashire). The fourth official is Andrew Hutchinson (Cheshire).

Previous Burnley games:

Season	Opps	V	Res	Y	R	Burnley players carded
a
1997/98	Bristol City	a	1-3	3	0	Barnes Beresford Vinnicombe
1998/99	York	h	0-1	3	0	Scott N Moore
2001/02	Bradford City	h	1-1	3	0	Gascoigne Thomas
2002/03	Brighton	h	1-3	3	1	Gnohere(R)
2002/03	Nottm Forest	a	0-2	2	0	I Moore McGregor
2003/04	Millwall	h	1-1	2	0	West
2003/04	Coventry	a	0-4	2	0	Jensen May
2004/05	Plymouth	h	2-0	4	0	Akinbiyi Branch Sinclair
2005/06	Leeds	a	0-2	5	1	Jensen McGreal Sinclair
2006/07	Southampton	a	0-0	3	0	Elliott Harley
2007/08	Scunthorpe	a	0-2	2	0	Jordan McCann
2007/08	Coventry	h	2-0	1	0	McCann
2008/09	Ipswich	h	0-3	1	0	.
2008/09	QPR	a	0-0	0	0	.
2009/10	MK Franchise	a	2-1	2	0	.