Fletcher is in charge

He had a busy afternoon too handing out no fewer than seven yellow cards with four of them being waved at our players Lee Briscoe, Ian Cox, Tony Grant and Lenny Johnrose.

Last season he handed out only six red cards but in issued a staggering 165 yellow cards in just 39 matches.

Things are not much different this season either and so far there have been 30 in just seven games with 13 to home team players and 17 to away team players. There have also been a couple of red cards to add to that, both in Division Three matches.

The first of these was Huddersfield’s Danny Schofield who was given his marching orders in stoppage time in their 1-1 draw at Doncaster and then just last Saturday Danny Mellanby of Darlington was sent off in a 2-2 draw at Torquay.

Darlington boss Mick Tait was far from happy with Fletcher’s decision to send off Mellanby who had been on the field for only fifteen minutes as a second half substitute.

"It was a silly challenge from Danny but I can’t believe he was sent off for it," said Tait. "The referee said it was two-footed from him but I told him that was absolute nonsense. It was a booking but certainly not a sending off."

Those comments almost echoed those of Huddersfield manager following Schofield’s sending off at Doncaster on August Bank Holiday Monday where he also said it was a yellow card at most.

Schofield too had come on as a substitute midway through the second half so maybe the advice tonight should be for the subs to be very careful when tackling.

His assistants tomorrow will be Mark Hutchinson from Nottinghamshire and Glyn Mellor from Derbyshire.

Previous Burnley games: