Turf Moor debut for Thorpe

That saw us go a goal behind and just a few minutes later we were denied a penalty of our own with probably the second strongest claim in our long run without one when Gifton Noel-Williams was pulled back.

He's not card mad although you wouldn't think so to look at his recent record. In his last match between Bristol Rovers and Notts County he kept his cards in his pocket throughout the ninety minutes, but in his previous seven games there had been at least five cards in each game.

Overall, in 30 games this season he has handed out 87 yellow cards with 37 of them going to home team players and 50 to away team players. To add to that there have been four red cards and all to away team players. He sent off Grimsby's Gary Jones in a 2-0 defeat at Peterborough and then ended Farsley Celtic's chances of a cup upset in a replay at Franchise when he sent off both Simeon Bambrook and Roy Stamer.

More recently he was involved in a controversial game between Southampton and Barnsley at St Mary's and sent off Daniel Nardiello as the visitors crashed to a 5-2 defeat which also saw Ryan Kidd sent from the dug out after the first of two rather dubious looking penalties awarded to the home side.

We've been refereed by Mike Thorpe twice previously and there's been some consistency in his two performances. He is not a referee who encourages the game to flow, he has blown his whistle in those two games at every opportunity and playing an advantage is something that has never entered his head. Now we will wait to see if things do even themselves up.

He will be assisted by Michael Oliver (Northumberland) and Jock Waugh (Yorkshire) and the fourth official will be Paul Tierney (Lancashire).

Previous Burnley games:

Season	Opps	V	Res	Y	R	Burnley players carded
a
2006/07	Coventry	a	0-1	4	0	Harley J O'Connor McCann
2005/06	Crystal Palace	a	0-2	4	0	G O'Connor McCann