|
In charge is 44 year-old Steve Tomlin from Lewes in East Sussex and he is in just his third season as a Football League referee. Unlike to ridiculous red card antics of Knight Tomlin has shown just eight red cards in his almost three seasons.
This season there have been just two alongside sixty yellow cards in twenty-five games. The two to have seen red are Shrewsbry's Matthew Redmile in a 2-1 defeat at Torquay and Steve Redmond of Bury as they lost 3-0 at Queens Park Rangers. As s always the case more away players have been booked than home players and with Tomlin this season it is 25 for home players and 35 for away players.
It won't be his first visit to Fratton Park this season, he was in charge of the Portsmouth v Crewe game in December. Crewe won that one 4-2.
As for the Clarets he has refereed just one game and that was the 1-1 draw at Millwall in the 1999/2000 season. That was a game when many Burnley fans didn't arrive until half time with the Clarets 1-0 up. He issued five yellow cards and three went to Burnley players Paul Cook, Glen Little and Dean West. I don't recall there being too much comment about the referee after the game though.