Whitestone is the Blackpool referee

It's difficult to determine what we are going to get from him. He's refereed us four times previously, had two decent games but also had two very poor games in the home games against Watford five seasons ago and against Crystal Palace last season when all the major decisions were given by his assistants.

Whitestone is another in a long line of police officers who have become Football League referees. Although from Northamptonshire, he's a PC in the Met and was on duty on the night of the Tottenham riots during 2011.

It was in 2005 that he first got the opportunity to referee in the league, and for the 2006/07 season was promoted onto the regular league list. He was appointed a Championship game early in that season, at Barnsley, and it was a busy season with a total of twelve red cards including nine in his last twelve games of the season.

He's still used more in the lower divisions but has refereed ten times in the Championship this season which has seen him take charge of a total of 34 games. He's reached three figures with 107 yellow cards although this season his red card count is down with just three.

Home yellow cards have reached 47 in those games with 60 having been shown to away players. All three players sent off have been from away teams. One of those was in a Championship match. It was at Barnsley with Cardiff's Simon Lappin sent off near the end of a 2-1 win for the league leaders.

His most recent game was last Saturday, the 1-1 draw between Walsall and Sheffield United at the Bescot. Walsall's Febian Brandy and Andy Butler were yellow carded as was Matthew Hill of Sheffield United.

Whitestone's performance at Leicester lifted his RATE THE REF position to 45th and his total to 54.63 out of 100.

The assistant referees tomorrow are Mark Jones (Nottinghamshire) and Ross Joyce (Cleveland). The fourth official is Paul Marsden (Lancashire).

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