Jones to referee second Burnley game this season

There was one big talking point in that game although there really should have been two. He yellow carded Ben Davies early in the game, the only card of the game, for a challenge on George Boyd but it was a bad one and Davies could count himself very lucky not to have received red.

That passed without comment, Match of the Day not even bothering to show the challenge, but the big talking point was their first goal which should not have been allowed for any number of reasons.

Jones gave a free kick against Michael Keane for handball, wrongly in my view, permitted them to take it with a moving ball and then ignored the offside which allowed them to go through for Harry Kane to score.

He's one of the more experienced referees nowadays although only three of his ten games in 2015 have been in the Premier League.

It's a season that is likely to see him reach 100 yellow cards tomorrow in what will be his 30th game. At this moment he's handed out 99 along with seven red cards.

Of those yellow cards, 42 have gone to home team players and 57 to away team players. His last four red cards have been outside the Premier League, the last player he sent off in a Premier League game being Man City's Eliaquim Mangala in their 3-0 win at Southampton in November.

His most recent match was Norwich's 2-0 win at Leeds on Tuesday in which there were four yellow cards, all going to Norwich players including once Burnley target Graham Dorrans who scored one of the goals.

Of concern for us is the fact that in his 28 Burnley games previously there has been just one away win, that being Reading's easy 3-0 win at Burnley in 2006.

Mike Jones is currently eight in RATE THE REF with a rating of 69.81 out of 100.

The assistant referees are Richard West (East Riding) and Mark Scholes (Buckinghamshire). The fourth official is Anthony Taylor (Wythenshawe) whose last Burnley game was the Boxing Day defeat against Liverpool.

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