He just reminds me of Bristol Rovers

“He’s not fit to referee in the Football League,” Stan screamed after the game and the words from then Bristol Rovers boss Ian Holloway were no more complimentary.

Ten yellow cards, a red card, the only goal of the game coming from a penalty that wasn’t a foul and was way outside the box anyway (Jason Roberts needless to say was the beneficiary) and just about every other decision wrong.

Apart from booking Gareth Taylor at Brentford for allowing the ball to hit his back from a free kick things haven’t been quite so bad since but that day at Bristol was one of the worst refereeing performances I have ever seen.

There’s been nothing quite like double figures in bookings from him this season but he’s had his moments with a five and a six although he is averaging just short of three per game with 19 from 7 games along with a solitary red card which went the way of Wycombe’s Gary Silk in their recent 1-1 home draw with Oxford.

Ten of those yellow cards have gone to home team players alongside the nine picked up by away players.

There haven’t been any more tens since that day at Bristol, but there has been the occasional eight or nine. His record suggests considerably less than that, for the last couple of years his average is around three per match.

He can also have the occasional lapse and just a year ago he went three successive matches without even handing out one yellow card.

And to be fair to him he had a reasonable enough game when he was at the Turf on his only previous visit, the last game of last season against Sunderland. But I just cannot forget Bristol.

He will be assisted by Bob Pollock (Merseyside) and Chris Reeves (East Yorkshire).(Lancashire).

Previous Burnley games: