Foy is referee

Last updated : 13 December 2002 By Tony Scholes

It is not Foy’s first visit to Turf Moor by any means and he was here early in 1997/98 season for the 2-1 League Cup win against Lincoln City that was won 2-1. Andy Cooke and David Eyres got the Burnley goals but Steve Blatherwick and Mark Winstanley were the two Burnley players booked along with three Lincoln players.

It was the same stage of the same competition the following season and this time the 4-1 home defeat against Bury. Glen Little was booked alongside a certain Lenny Johnrose of Bury. Andy Payton scored the Burnley goal whilst Gordon Armstrong was amongst the Bury scorers along with Nick Daws who will be in opposition for Rotherham tomorrow.

Foy was the first referee we saw this millennium when he took charge of our 2-0 defeat at Notts County on 3rd January 2000. It was a poor performance from the Clarets in a game that saw Andy Payton miss a penalty. Foy carded one County player as well as Clarets Graham Branch, Glen Little, John Mullin (also with Rotherham tomorrow) and Dean West.

And so to the First Division and in our first season back he was in charge of the crucial home game against West Brom that ended 1-1 when the Baggies equalised close to the end. Mitchell Thomas and one Albion player were booked. He had a dreadful game that afternoon, his last Burnley game to date.

This season has seen him promoted to the Premiership and he has been showing some true Premiership refereeing form with a total of 64 yellow cards and 5 red cards in just 14 games. That is fast approaching 5 yellow cards per game.

Of the 64 yellows 27 have been given to home team players and 37 to away team players. The five players to see his red card have been Kidderminster’s Drewe Broughton in a 3-1 defeat at Rushden & Diamonds, Phil Jagielka (Sheffield United) and Micah Hyde (Watford) as Watford won 2-1 at Bramall Lane, Bolton’s Ricardo Gardner controversially at Birmingham as they went down 2-1 and finally Palace’s Danny Granville in their recent Worthington Cup win against Oldham.

His last game at Turf Moor really was a nightmare performance and we can certainly expect to see some cards tomorrow, he hasn’t kept them in his pocket for 90 minutes for over a year.