Oliver wants more of Burnley v Blackpool

Oliver became a Football League referee ahead of the 2007/08 season and his first Burnley game came in January of that season when he refereed, and refereed well, our home game against Scunthorpe.

He'd been ear marked for the top and by the start of the 2010/11 season he was elevated to the select group and got his first Premier League game when he refereed Birmingham's 2-1 home win against Blackburn in August 2010.

Another two years on and he's very much a Premier League referee, and his first four games this season were all in the top division. He's not been without his controversy and recently Wigan boss Roberto Martinez landed himself in trouble with the FA following his comments at the end of their 4-0 defeat at Manchester United.

In particular, Martinez was angry at the early penalty given to the home side when Danny Welbeck had clearly not been touched. He too often gets big decisions wrong and we've been on the wrong end of that.

Back in January 2009, Martinez benefited from the Michael Duff red card in the home defeat against Swansea, yet last season only he will know how Blackpool ended the game with all eleven on the pitch. It was leniency in the extreme.

Tomorrow will be his seventh domestic game of the season; he also refereed the Europa League clash between Rosenborg and Bayer Leverkusen.

In those domestic games there have been 12 yellow cards and just the one red card, that of Aston Villa's Ciaran Clark in their 3-1 home defeat against Everton. Of the yellows, six have gone to both home and away players.

HIs last domestic game was his only other Championship  game this season, Hull's 3-1 home defeat against Peterborough. The two players yellow carded were George Boyd and Emile Sinclair (both Peterborough).

Michael Oliver currently sits in 34th place in the RATE THE REF Table with a rating of 63.57 out of 100.

The assistant referees tomorrow are David Richardson (West Yorkshire) and Darren England (South Yorkshire). The fourth official is Football League referee Paul Tierney (Lancashire).

Previous Burnley Games