Don't fall into the Mason's arms

Last updated : 26 September 2008 By Tony Scholes
In a week when referees, and in particular assistants who see optical illusions, have come under the microscope I think it is a ridiculous decision to appoint Bolton referee Mason to this fixture.

His only previous Burnley game was of course Burnley v Preston last season when he turned in one of the worst refereeing performances I've ever seen. It might not have been as bad as those from George Hartley (Wolves at home 1969/70) or Keith Hackett (Notts County away 1976/77) or even on a par with Kevin Lynch (Barnsley away 1994/95) but he turned in an absolute shocker.

It doesn't make him a bad referee, it means he had potentially his worst ever game that day. At some stage we were going to get him again, but surely they could have given him a different game. Why on earth didn't they give him our last home game against Blackpool, he would have come in for some stick surely but this decision is a nonsense and if nothing else puts Mason under unnecessary pressure.

For the record, he made an horrendous mistake in the first two minutes when a Preston defender handled the ball on the line. I remain convinced that he didn't give the decision to avoid sending someone off but from that moment on he'd lost the game, he had no control over it.

He sent off both Chris McCann and Joey Gudjonsson. McCann's was fair enough for the challenge, but it was a challenge that wouldn't have happened but for his incompetence a few seconds earlier in not stopping the game, and Joey's, well I don't see how anyone could ever be convinced it was intentional.

Those two red cards were two of just four last season from him and there were also 114 yellow cards in 31 games. This season he's refereed five games so far with fifteen yellow cards and one red in his first game of the season.

Seven of those yellow cards have gone to home team players, eight to away team players, and the player he sent off was Ibrahima Sonko (then with Reading) in their 4-2 defeat at Charlton.

Did I see officials had been under the microscope this week? It wasn't just at Watford, there was also controversy at Hull with Everton's goal and whether it crossed the line. Hull boss Phil Brown was critical of both referee and assistant. The referee at Hull last week was Lee Mason in his only Premier League game this season.

Tomorrow he'll be assisted by Andrew Butler (Lancashire), who is here for the second time in a week, and Mick McDonough (Tyne & Wear) whilst the fourth official is one of the Football League's nightmare referees Trevor Kettle (Rutland). Mason is bottom of our 'Rate the Ref' table with a rating of 17.46, Kettle, who was last here for the home game against Crystal Palace last season, is only two places above him with a rating of 31.51.

Previous Burnley games:

Season

Opps

V

Res

Y

R

Burnley players carded

a

2007/08

Preston

h

2-3

2

2

Elliott McCann(R) Gudjonsson(R)