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He's not a bad referee but unfortunately he's not one to let the game flow. He'll think nothing of moving a free kick a couple of feet if he thinks it is being taken in the wrong place and all too often contributes to the game being very stop start.
Oliver is not a heavy card referee either and David Unsworth (twice) was the only Burnley player to receive cards from him last season. Last season he yellow carded 89 players in 33 games which is well short of three per game, and to add to that there were just two red cards, for Norwich City's Darel Russell in a 4-0 defeat at Leicester and Chris Morgan of Sheffield United who was sent off in the last minute as they were beaten 3-1 by Preston at Deepdale.
Interestingly a late rush of yellow cards to away players meant 48 of the 89 went in that direction with 41 to home team players. But for most of the season he'd carded more home players and that's something he's been very consistent with in previous seasons.
On past games I would suggest he won't influence the game tomorrow with a run of bad decisions but we might be able to expect a game that isn't able to flow anything like enough.
He will be assisted by Alf Greenwood(Yorkshire) and Dave Naylor (Nottinghamshire) whilst Nigel Murphy (Nottinghamshire) will be the fourth official.
Previous Burnley games:
Season | Opps | V | Res | Y | R | Burnley players carded |
a | ||||||
2004/05 | QPR | h | 2-0 | 2 | 0 | Bowditch |
2005/06 | Wolves | h | 0-1 | 4 | 0 | McGreal Ricketts |
2006/07 | Wolves | h | 0-1 | 4 | 0 | . |
2007/08 | Grimsby | a | 1-1 | 3 | 0 | Unsworth |
2007/08 | Bristol City | h | 0-1 | 2 | 0 | Unsworth |