Williamson is referee

Last updated : 22 August 2008 By Tony Scholes
That was the last time the Berkshire official took charge of a Burnley game and to this day I cannot work out how on earth he missed the penalty incident when a Gifton Noel-Williams shot was handled on the line. We were a goal down at the time but well on top of a game and had he given it he would have also had to send off the Barnsley player.

It was his fourth Burnley game and after starting with two decent games he then had two very disappointing performances, the other being the home game against Sunderland when he sent off Ade Akinbiyi just over two minutes into his Burnley debut. I don't think anyone of sound mind would criticise him for that decision although all round he had a very poor game that night.

We can expect cards, there's not much doubt about that. Until last season he'd soared into three figures in terms of yellow cards. His total last season was seventy yellow cards and five red cards but that was down to the fact that he was out injured until November.

Of those cards 29 went to home team players and 41 to away team players whilst all but one of the red cards went to away team players. This will be his second game of the 2008/09 season, last week he refereed the Watford v Charlton game in which he sent off Charlton's Kelly Youga and yellow carded four Watford players including Jon Harley.

Tomorrow at Selhurst Park he will be assisted by Barry Holderness (Essex) and Michael McCoy (West Sussex) whilst fourth official will be Gary Young (Bedfordshire).

Previous Burnley games:

Season

Opps

V

Res

Y

R

Burnley players carded

a

2003/04

West Ham

a

2-2

5

0

Camara Grant

2004/05

Leicester

a

1-0

2

1

Duff Sinclair

2004/05

Sunderland

h

0-2

2

1

Roche Akinbiyi(R)

2006/07

Barnsley

a

0-1

3

0

Duff Hyde