Gallagher gets derby

His last Burnley game was just before Christmas last season for our 2-1 defeat at Sunderland and although he appeared to allow a Gary Cahill handball to go unpunished, I wrote at the time, “If Gallagher got the decision wrong then it was probably one of the few things he did get wrong all afternoon in what was a good performance.”

Not everything will be seen by the referee and that was the case with Andy Todd, in Blackburn’s recent 0-0 draw with Spurs. Gallagher did send off Lucas Neill that night and to date in five games in is his only red card.

There have been thirteen yellow cards in total, again the Blackburn match recorded the most with four, and they have been fairly evenly distributed with six to home team players and seven to away team players.

I think we’ll be happy enough if Dermot Gallagher continues with the sort of performances we have seen from him in previous games.

The assistant referees are Nigel Bannister and Gary Brittain, both from Yorkshire, whilst the fourth official is Tony Leake from Darwen who was referee, and had such a poor game, for the Turf Moor fixture between the two sides last season.

Previous Burnley games: