Oliver coming to the Turf for More

Last updated : 28 October 2011 By Tony Scholes

I hadn't realised it was almost three years since Oliver had refereed a Burnley game, and that too shown by Sky against Swansea in January 2009. It was his third Burnley game and all three have been at home.

He first refereed us in January 2008 when we beat Scunthorpe 2-0 with goals from Robbie Blake and Ade Akinbiyi, and in the promotion season he refereed the home game against Plymouth as well as the one against Swansea.

We had players sent off in both games. Chris Eagles went in the Plymouth game on the say so of an assistant referee and Oliver got it all wrong when he sent off Michael Duff and awarded a penalty in the Swansea game.

He joined the Football League list for the 2007/08 season and that Scunthorpe game at Burnley was his first game in the Championship. It was thought even then that he was being fast tracked towards the Premier League.

That Premier League bow came in August last season when he refereed Birmingham's home win against Blackburn in August and he went on to referee no less than 16 games in the top flight last season.

This season, four of his eight games have been in the Premier League. In one of those, QPR v Aston Villa last month,  he handed Villa a penalty with a very poor decision. He also yellow carded Armand Traore in the incident and a later second yellow which meant he was sent off.

That is the only red card this season from Oliver, in fact his first since he wrongly dismissed Norwich's Grant Holt at Reading in November last year. In terms of yellow cards this season, it's 28 in those 8 games, of which 14 have gone to home team players and 14 to away team players.

His last game was the Premier League game between Wolves and Swansea last Saturday at Molineux. There were just two yellow cards in that game, Richard Stearman and Jamie O'Hara (both Wolves).

He is currently in 19th place in the RATE THE REF table

Michael Oliver built up a poor reputation early in his time as a referee and it still concerns that he does seem to get too many big decisions wrong. Hopefully that won't be the case tomorrow.

The assistant referees tomorrow are David Bryan (Lincolnshire) and Darren Bond (Lancashire). The fourth official is Eddie Ilderton (Tyne & Wear). Ilderton is making his second Turf Moor appearance of the season having refereed our 5-1 home win against Nottingham Forest.

Previous Burnley Games

Season Opponents V Res Y R Burnley Players Carded
             
2007/08 Scunthorpe United h 2-0 2 0
2008/09 Plymouth Argyle h 0-0 2 1 n Eagles n Eagles
2008/09 Swansea City h 0-2 2 1 n Elliott n Duff