Clarets no longer the bad boys

Stan - one of the many managers to have spoken out about the number of yellow cards being handed out

To date 133 First Division matches have been played and in those matches a total of 3,403 free kicks have been awarded for fouls, that is almost 26 fouls per match. Maybe that is not too bad but referees in our division have seen fit to issue a massive total of 501 yellow cards at 3.76 cards per match and also not too far short of one red card ever three matches with 41 handed out.

This suggests almost that something evil is going on out on the First Division pitches every week or that some of the referees are going way over the top.

It really is easy for a manager to whinge after a poor display and point the finger at the referee over a dodgy booking or two but the figures do really support the managers.

Just looking at our fixtures in the league, 12 of them, there have been 47 yellow cards and 5 red cards handed out. And that includes the Bradford City home win when referee Mike Dean kept his cards in his pocket all afternoon. The yellows have been fairly even but thankfully only one of the reds has come our way.

And now onto that Fair Play League. One point is awarded for every foul conceded, two points for each yellow card and five points per red card. The total is then divided by the number of matches played to give a points per game total.

So far we have conceded a total of 137 fouls, received 24 yellow cards and just David May’s red card in the game at Franchise. This gives us a total of 190 points from 12 games and an average of 15.8 points per game and that puts us eighth from the top.

Ten sides have conceded less fouls than us and thirteen have conceded more. Crewe are sitting top of this particular column with only 94 fouls conceded whilst the bad boys are currently Millwall with a staggering 223 which is 53 more than second worse Derby.

Again Crewe are the good boys with only 8 yellow cards and that is half of those received by next best Cardiff who have 16. The worst in this column are Stoke with 28. Apart from Stoke only another six sides have more than Burnley’s 24.

But we are amongst the good boys as far as red cards are concerned with only David May’s in our column. Only four sides in our division have not had a player sent off in a league game this season and needless to say Crewe are one of them. They are joined by Gillingham and the two East Anglia clubs Ipswich and Norwich.

At the other end Palace, Rotherham and Watford all have four with two of them having had players sent off against the Clarets.

So Crewe are currently the good boys, Millwall most definitely the worst offenders (there is no truth in the rumour that all but one of the fouls have been conceded by Kevin Muscat) and for once we are in the top third.

Draw your own conclusions on this one but my view is that the managers, a breed well known for complaining after poor results, are right on this one. The number of cards being handed out is getting out of control and too often referees are showing no common sense and no real understanding of the game.

The full current Fair Play League Table is shown below: