Hooper to referee Burnley for first time

Last updated : 30 September 2011 By Tony Scholes

He started refereeing at league level at the start of the 2008/09 season and his first game was the League Two fixture between Exeter and Shrewsbury on 16th August 2008, the day we had parachutists landing on the cricket field stand roof.

In January of that season he refereed his first Championship game, Norwich v Barnsley, in January, but tomorrow's game will be his first at this level in what will be his seventh game of the season.

I don't recall having seen him referee previously but looking back at his record he does seem pretty keen on making use of his red card. Since the start of the 2008/09 season he's sent off no less than 25 players in just 93 games, that's more than one every four games. His yellow card count in those games is 241, not much over two and a half yellow cards per game.

This season, in the six games, he's given out 17 yellow cards and two red cards. Of those yellow cards, 8 have gone to home team players and 9 to away team players. The two players he's sent off are Northampton's Nick McCoy in a 2-2 League Two draw at Northampton.

The other red card came in his last game, Colchester's 1-0 home win against Walsall in League One. There were no yellow cards in the game but Walsall's Andy Butler was sent off just over half an hour into the game.