Dowd is referee for Saints game

Last Updated : 12-Dec-2008 by
It's just a week short of a year since he last refereed a Burnley game and it is one that John Spicer will remember as it just about brought his Burnley career to an end. Spicer was sent off right on half time and that proved to be his last start for the Clarets.

Maybe the red card was harsh, but otherwise he had a decent enough game that earned him a rating of 61.50 in our Rate the Ref feature, and overall Dowd has never caused us much of a problem over a number of games, and we couldn't even blame him when Watford won at the Turf in 2003 (it wasn't Dowd who conceded seven goals).

He has sent off three other players in Burnley games, all in games played on the Turf. The only Burnley player in that group was Brian Reid (against Lincoln in 1998/99 season), and the other two were Sean Davis (Fulham in 2003) and Hayden Foxe (Leeds in 2006).

To this season and he's sent off three players. The first was Aldershot's Ricky Newman in a 3-1 defeat at Luton and he's been followed by Darren Moore of Barnsley in a 4-1 home win against Doncaster and West Ham striker Carlton Cole as they lost 2-0 at home to Arsenal.

His yellow card count, in eighteen games, is 57 which is just over three per game. Of those, 25 have gone to home team players and 32 to away team players.

We've had some disappointing referees in recent weeks to say the least, but I've never had a problem with Dowd and hopefully that will continue tomorrow.

The three other officials have all been involved in Burnley games earlier this season. The assistant referees are John Stokes (Wirral) and Paul Tierney (Lancashire). Stokes was an assistant at our 1-0 home win over Fulham in the Carling Cup and Tierney was on the line for our tie against Arsenal just nine days ago.

The fourth official is Football League referee Anthony Taylor (Wythenshawe) and it was only last week that Taylor was with us, refereeing the league win against Sheffield United at Bramall Lane.

Previous Burnley games:

Season

Opps

V

Res

Y

R

Burnley players carded

a

1998/99

Lincoln

h

1-1

5

1

Ford Reid(Y/R)

2000/01

Grimsby

h

1-1

1

0

.

2000/01

Gillingham

a

0-0

1

0

Branch

2001/02

Sheffield Wed

a

2-0

5

0

A Moore Briscoe West Weller

2002/03

Fulham

h

3-0

2

1

I Moore

2002/03

Watford

h

4-7

2

0

McGregor

2003/04

West Ham

h

1-1

5

0

Blake Branch West

2004/05

Leeds

a

2-1

4

0

Dyff Sinclair

2004/05

Bournemouth

h

2-0

4

0

McGreal Sinclair

2004/05

Derby

a

1-1

4

0

Grant Valois

2005/06

Hull

h

1-0

3

0

Harley

2006/07

Leeds

h

2-1

3

1

Hyde

2007/08

Ipswich

a

0-0

3

1

Alexander Elliott J O'connor Spicer(R)