Our Manchester Friend is back

Generally, he's refereed ok in previous Burnley games, with a couple of exceptions, both of which were away wins in 2007/08. He had particularly poor games at Watford and QPR that season.

Preston's then manager Darren Ferguson wasn't happy when he gave Billy Jones a second yellow at the Turf back in 2010 with them leading 3-1 in a game we went on to win 4-3. Having said that, when did a Ferguson ever not moan about a referee after a defeat?

He's also sent two Burnley players off. Clarke Carlisle was dismissed early at Palace on the last day of the 2007/08 season. We could have no complaints at that although the two yellow cards he gave Stephen Jordan at Reading in the next season were a bit harsh.

He's refereed a total of 21 games this season with 15 of them in the Premier League and just four in the Championship along with two cup ties. In those games he's given out 89 yellow cards and three red cards.

Of the yellows, 41 have gone to home team players and 48 to away team players. The last player he sent off was Everton's Antolin Alcaraz in their New Year's Day defeat at Hull.

Friend's last game was the Newcastle v Stoke game on Sunday which ended 1-1. Both Jack Colback and Ayoze Perez of Newcastle were yellow carded while four Stoke players, Marc Muniesa, Glenn Whelan, Stephen Ireland and Victor Moses, also received yellow cards.

The assistant referees tonight are Andy Garratt (West Midlands) and Constantine Hatzidakis (Kent). The fourth official is Phil Dowd (Stoke) whose last Burnley game was the 3-2 home defeat against Crystal Palace.

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