|
Not as though we should complain too much for this referee, always under criticism from managers, created a storm recently when he sent off West Ham’s Matthew Etherington for placing the ball inches outside the quadrant when taking a corner.
Having already yellow carded him earlier in the Hammers 1-1 draw at Norwich he waved a second yellow card right in front of the all standing home end at Carrow Road.
It was last season when he came under attack from Stan after he had sent off Mark McGregor in our 2-1 defeat at Watford. Stan said, "It will probably be after my time but the incompetence and lack of professionalism of referees needs to improve because they are a constant headache."
Olivier has not been over zealous with the cards this season and apart from Etherington has sent off just three other players in his 21 games so far. Two came in one game when he dismissed Sunderland’s Julio Arca and Jason De Vos of Wigan in their 1-1 draw at the Stadium of Light, the fourth was Rochdale’s Gary Jones in a 3-1 defeat at Northampton.
He is just under the three per game average for yellow cards with 59. For much of the season he had carded more home players than away players but he has reversed that in the last couple of months with a five to one ratio against the away teams. Of those 59 yellow cards 25 have now gone to home players and 34 to away players in total.
Hopefully tonight he will have a quieter game and let the players get on with playing.
He will be assisted by Steve Castle (West Midlands) and David Hine (Worcestershire).
Previous Burnley games:
Season | Opps | V | Res | Y | R | Burnley players carded |
a | ||||||
2003/04 | Rotherham | h | 1-1 | 2 | 0 | Chaplow May |
2002/03 | Watford | a | 1-2 | 3 | 1 | Gnohere Little McGregor(red) |
2000/01 | QPR | a | 1-0 | 3 | 0 | Mellon |