Clarets have a new Friend

Last Updated : 05-Apr-2005 by

Friend got off to a cracking start in his Football League career. After a quiet first match between Scunthorpe and Bristol Rovers he then decided to give his brand new cards some action and sent off a player in each of his next three games whilst handing out fifteen yellow cards.

It was another Scunthorpe match later in the season when he created his record of nine yellow cards in one game and last season ended with him recording almost four per game although there was only one more red card to go with the three at the beginning of the season.

He’s been a bit quieter this season and is under three yellows per game with 86 in 31 games whilst he has sent six players off. Two of those six came in an early season game between Shrewsbury and Northampton with Bertrand Cozic and Ryan Amoo (both Northampton) going for two yellow cards, there were nine yellow cards in total.

One of the more recent red cards came in a West Ham game with Plymouth’s Matthias Doumbe sent off in their 5-0 defeat at the Boleyn Ground. It hardly had any effect on the result it was already 4-0 and West Ham scored from the resultant spot kick to make it five.

The reports on him suggest he is something of a homer, I bet that’s not the case tonight, but only 29 of the yellow cards have gone the way of home players with 57 to away players whilst the red cards have a similar ratio with two home players and six away players sent off.

I don’t recall having seen him referee any game so I’m not sure what to expect.

He will be assisted by John Stokes (Merseyside) and David Unsworth (Lancashire).