Laws at the Turf

Last updated : 31 October 2008 By Tony Scholes
He sent off Wayne Thomas that day following a challenge on Grzegorz Rasiak. He got that one wrong, but looking down the list of his previous Burnley games there are a good few more where he's had more than an influence on the result.

There are almost too many to list, but some of his highlights were the refusal to send off Andy Dawson in the Scunthorpe game in 1999, his half time bust up with Stan Ternent in 2004 at the Gillingham cup tie when the police had to intervene, and who can forget that most ridiculous of penalty decisions at Preston in 2005. Steve Cotterill got so wound up with that one he took it out on the drugs tester and ended up in front of the FA.

Since his last Turf Moor game he's refereed two away games. The first of these was at Hull at the end of 2006. He yellow carded six players but had a decent enough game, but he was at it again in pre-season when he ordered us to substitute Remco van der Schaaf at Bradford City after a challenge that most observers didn't even consider to be a foul.

He's had a quiet enough start to this season. In 13 games to date he's yellow carded 26 players and sent off two. The first of those he sent off is a familiar name, that of Bolton's Gary Cahill in their Carling Cup defeat at home to Northampton.

The second was a former Stan Ternent target at Burnley Paul Heckingbottom. He went in Bradford's 1-1 home draw with Luton. Of his yellow cards, ten of them have gone to home team players and fourteen to away team players.

He worries me to death, so often he gets the big decisions wrong and has an influence on the result of the game. Hopefully that won't be the case tomorrow.

Previous Burnley games:

Season

Opps

V

Res

Y

R

Burnley players carded

a

1997/98

Gillingham

h

0-0

5

2

Eyres(Y/R) Ford Howey Waddle

1997/98

Walsall

a

0-0

4

0

Cooke Harrison N Moore

1998/99

Stoke

h

0-2

1

0

O'Kane

1999/2000

Scunthorpe

h

1-2

1

0

.

1999/2000

Rotherham

h

2-0

0

0

.

2000/01

Sheffield Utd

h

2-0

4

0

Ball

2000/01

Watford

a

1-0

1

0

Ball

2001/02

Barnsley

h

3-3

2

0

Ball

2001/02

Sheffield Utd

a

0-3

4

0

West

2002/03

Huddersfield

a

1-0

2

0

Briscole I Moore

2002/03

Grimsby

a

2-2

0

0

.

2002/03

Grimsby

h

4-0

0

0

.

2003/04

Crewe

h

1-0

2

0

Chaplow

2003/04

Gillingham

h

3-1

5

0

Blake

2003/04

Bradford City

a

2-1

2

0

May

2004/05

Leicester

h

0A0

0

0

.

2004/05

Preston

a

0-1

3

0

Camara Roche

2005/06

Derby

h

2-2

4

1

Branch Duff G O'Connor Thomas(R)

2005/06

Sheffield Wed

a

0-0

2

0

McCann

2006/07

Hull

a

0-2

6

0

Duff Elliott Thomas