Penton but no helicopter at Nottingham Forest

Last updated : 12 September 2008 By Tony Scholes
The Sussex referee is not one we see too often. This is his eighth season as a Football League referee and this will be only his fifth Burnley game, and all of the previous four, like tomorrow's game, have been away from home.

He missed a penalty a blatant penalty at Millwall at the end of the 2005/06 season but prior to that game at Leicester last season he'd not really given us any problems. But that day he turned in something of a shocker, the sort of performance when the home side seem to get every advantage and every decision going.

In an incredible five minute spell in the second half he yellow carded three Burnley players, to add to two in the first half, and you'd be hard pushed to support him on any of the decisions. "You're not fit to referee," was blasting out from the away end as Steve Davis' Claret & Blue Army won it with a goal from Andy Gray.

At least it was our first win with Penton whose performance earned him a rating of just 43.43 in our 'Rate the Ref' feature on the message board which currently sees him low down in the table.

He ended last season with 90 yellow cards and just two red cards in 30 games. This season so far in five games he's handed out fifteen yellow cards, the same 3 per game average. Of those cards six have gone to home players and nine to away players. He's also used his red card once, sending off Macclesfield's Izak Reid in their 4-1 Carling Cup defeat at West Ham.

His assistant referees will be Andrew Smith (West Yorkshire) and Gary Sutton (Lincolnshire) whilst the fourth official duties will be in the hands of Ian Smedley (Derbyshire).

Previous Burnley games:

Season

Opps

V

Res

Y

R

Burnley players carded

a

2003/04

Norwich

a

0-2

5

0

Camara Chadwick Grant Roche

2005/06

Norwich

a

1-2

3

0

.

2005/06

Millwall

a

0-1

3

0

Branch Spicer

2007/08

Leicester

a

1-0

6

0

Alexander Elliott Lafferty Mahon Spicer