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His season so far has seen him average just less than three yellow cards per game, a figure that is low compared with many referees. In 22 games so far he has issued 63 yellow cards and three players have seen red. The first of these was Barnsley goalkeeper Kevin Miller in a 1-0 defeat at Grimsby at the beginning of September. Then in November he sent off Wycombe's Steve Brown in a 1-1 draw at Tranmere and Stockport's Ali Gibb in their only home win so far this season, 2-1 against Norwich.
John Brandwood hasn't been to the Turf in the past five seasons but has taken charge of four away games. There were the defeats at Blackpool and Millwall during the Waddle season but since Stan took over he has taken charge of just two games which produced far different performances by both the Clarets and the referee.
The first of these was back in the dark days of the 1998/99 season and our 5-0 defeat at Bournemouth. Mr. Brandwood's performance that day was no better than ours and he booked Bournemouth's Richard Hughes and Paul Crichton, Mark Ford, Glen Little, Steve Morgan and John O'Kane of Burnley before sending off Steve Morgan. Crichton picked up his yellow card in his first game for us after signing permanently.
When he next refereed a Burnley game it was so much different as the Clarets, in sparkling form, won 2-0 at Wimbledon in April this year with goals from Gareth Taylor and Ian Moore. It was also a card free night for the referee and he has repeated that just twice since in the First Division games this season, Crewe v Preston and Man City v Wimbledon.
Let's hope nobody has bought him a new whistle and cards for Christmas.
