Source: FOOTYMAD
Atkinson has the whistle
Martin Atkinson, from Leeds, will referee our Premier League game at Hull this afternoon and this will be his third Burnley game of the season. He hasn't been in the middle at the Turf but he took charge of our away games against two other of the teams near the bottom of the league. The first of them was at Wolves in December when incredibly he and his assistant missed the two blatant penalties on Steven Fletcher. He was faced with an angry Burnley manager at the end of that game as he tried to leave the pitch.There were no complaints from the said manager when he refereed his next Burnley game. That was the defeat at Bolton on a night when Wade Elliott was perhaps fortunate to stay on after a bad challenge.Although he's not over active with his red card, just five in 42 games this season, he's running away with the yellow card count and has already reached a staggering total of 161.His first red card didn't come until January when he sent off Blackburn's Chris Samba in their 6-4 Carling Cup defeat at Aston Villa. In February, both sides were reduced to ten men as Liverpool won the Merseyside derby 1-0. First to go was Liverpool's Sotiros Kyrgiakos and he was followed by Steven Pienaar of Everton.He also sent off Hull's Craig Fagan in a 3-0 hammering at West Ham in February and finally last month he dismissed Thomas Vermaelen of Arsenal as they beat West Ham 2-0.Of his 42 games, eight have come in European competitions or World Cup qualifiers. That leaves him with 123 yellow cards in just 34 domestic games of which 58 have gone to home players and 65 to away players.His last game was last Sunday's 1-1 draw between Birmingham and Liverpool at St. Andrew's. There were three yellow cards in that game, Keith Fahey and Craig Gardner (Birmingham) and Lucas (Liverpool).The assistant referees this afternoon are Nigel Bannister (East Yorkshire) and Rob Lewis (Shropshire). The fourth official is Bolton based Premier League referee Lee Mason. Previous Burnley games:SeasonOppsVResYRBurnley players cardeda2004/05Crewea1-110Whittingham2004/05Sheffield Utda1-220Cahill2006/07Norwichh2-020Caldwell2008/09Tottenhama1-410Duff2008/09Readingh1-011.2009/10Wolvesa0-230Gudjonsson2009/10Boltona0-150Elliott McDonald
