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That night he was accused of hounding Gareth Taylor and given the number of free kicks he gave against the Burnley striker it is a wonder he only reached as far as his yellow card. Taylor was hardly able to go for the ball without Clattenburg’s whistle being heard. He also yellow carded Tony Grant and Palace’s Tony Popovic and Steve Vickers.
At the time there were campaigns being run by supporters at other clubs to get rid of him after dreadful performances so we hadn’t been the only team to suffer at his hands.
Last season he was back at the Turf on two more occasions and this time both ended in defeat. The first of these was the visit of eventual Champions Portsmouth and this time he reached for his yellow card on five occasions although Lee Briscoe was the only Burnley player in the five.
But we are still paying for his last visit although he cannot really be blamed. He was back for the home ‘Throw One In’ against Sheffield Wednesday at the end of last season and sent off Ian Moore who will complete his suspension for that red card at West Brom.
There were just the six yellow cards taking his total in three Turf Moor matches to fifteen yellow and a red. Four of those yellow cards against Wednesday were for Burnley players Gordon Armstrong, Steve Davis, Arthur Gnohere and Gareth Taylor.
He does like to make heavy use of his cards and there were 135 in just 35 games last season, fast approaching 4 per game. To add to that there were 8 red cards with the last couple coming in play off games.
Despite all the cards he still didn’t equal his record last season, that was in the 2000/01 season when he booked a total of eleven in the match between Sheffield United and Portsmouth at Bramall Lane.
His 2003/04 season got underway at Prenton Park in midweek and the Carling Cup clash between Tranmere Rovers and Bury and he booked four Bury players in a match that saw former Burnley trialist Eugene Dadi score the only goal.
It is hardly likely that there will be no cards tomorrow.