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Unfortunately I'd billed him ahead of the game as the best referee in the league and, despite that game, I still believe him to be right up there amongst the best and am pleased to see his name down for refereeing our game tomorrow.
In our promotion season he refereed us twice; in the cup tie at West Brom and then at Wembley. His performance at West Brom was as good as any I saw from a referee that season whereas at Wembley I would think it was the Sheffield United fans that might have been disappointed with him and probably concerning themselves over Kevin Blackwell's pre-match comments on his appointment.
This season he's refereed 31 domestic games in which he's issued 99 yellow cards and two red cards. Of those yellow cards, 41 have gone to home team players and 58 to away team players. The two players he's sent off domestically are Arsenal's Laurent Koscielny in their 1-0 home defeat against Newcastle and Rafael of Manchester United in a 0-0 draw at Spurs, both games in the Premier League.
His last game, just a week ago tomorrow, saw his highest yellow card count of the season as no less than eight names went into his book in Newcastle's 4-1 home win against Wolves. The players carded were Shola Ameobi, Kevin Nolan, Jonas Gutierrez, James Perch and Nile Ranger (Newcastle) and George Elokobi, Nenad Milijas and Jamie O'Hara (Wolves).
The assistant referees tomorrow are Peter Kirkup (Northamptonshire) and Mike Mullarkey (Devon). The fourth official is Football League referee Darren Drysdale (Lincolnshire) who last refereed Burnley in September 2006, sending off Wayne Thomas in a 3-2 home defeat against Southampton.
Previous Burnley games:
Season | Opps | V | Res | Y | R | Burnley players carded |
1997/98 | Bournemouth | h | 2-2 | 3 | 0 | |
1997/98 | Luton | h | 1-1 | 3 | 0 | Cooke |
1998/99 | Walsall | a | 1-3 | 4 | 0 | Armstrong Brass Payton |
1999/2000 | Chesterfield | h | 2-1 | 2 | 0 | Cowan |
1999/2000 | Wigan | h | 0-0 | 5 | 0 | Johnrose Thomas |
2000/01 | Crystal Palace | h | 2-2 | 1 | 0 | |
2002/03 | Bradford City | a | 2-2 | 6 | 2 | Cook Papadopoulos Taylor |
2003/04 | Bradford City | h | 4-0 | 0 | 0 | |
2003/04 | Preston | a | 3-5 | 4 | 0 | Blacke Gnohere West |
2003/04 | Ipswich | h | 4-2 | 3 | 0 | Chaplow McGregor |
2004/05 | Blackburn | h | 0-0 | 5 | 0 | Camara Hyde |
2005/06 | Leeds | h | 1-2 | 2 | 1 | Elliott |
2005/06 | Crystal Palace | h | 0-0 | 4 | 0 | Branch Harley |
2006/07 | Sunderland | h | 2-2 | 3 | 0 | Hyde |
2006/07 | Leicester | h | 0-1 | 3 | 0 | Caldwell |
2007/08 | Blackpool | h | 2-2 | 2 | 0 | Akinbiyi Caldwell |
2008/09 | West Brom | a | 2-2 | 0 | 0 | |
2008/09 | Sheffield Utd | W | 1-0 | 4 | 2 | Carlisle Kalvenes |
2009/10 | Tottenham | a | 0-5 | 2 | 0 | Bikey |
2009/10 | Arsenal | h | 1-1 | 2 | 0 | Caldwell Eagles |
2009/10 | Blackburn | h | 0-1 | 5 | 0 | Alexander Fox Duff |
2009/10 | Tottenham | h | 4-2 | 0 | 0 |