Source: FOOTYMAD
Attwell at Villa Park
When Burnley won their only point on the road this season the referee was the hapless Stuart Attwell and the Nuneaton official will take charge when we play Aston Villa at Villa Park tomorrow. The start of this season was a quieter one for him, sort of, for a referee who Keith Hackett opted to persevere with him despite all the problems but he's certainly had his moments.In an early game this season in League Two between Morecambe and Bradford City, he sent off City's Gareth Evans. But after the game both managers, Sammy McIlroy and Stuart McCall, claimed he wasn't fit to referee.He made a right mess of the Everton v Wolves game, incredibly allowing Tim Howard to stay on the field after throwing Wolves forward Stefan Maierhofer to the ground and then controversially dismissing the Austrian later in the game.His performance at the City of Manchester Stadium for our game was erratic at best and it currently leaves him bottom of the table of Premier League referees in our Rate the Ref Table.There has been just one red card since, that of Accrington's Darran Kempson in their FA Cup defeat to Fulham, but he's on form with the yellow cards at the moment with nine in his last game (Sunderland v Wigan) and no less than twenty in his last three games.To add to those three red cards, he's handed out a total of 68 yellow cards in 19 games. Of those, 27 have gone to home team players and 41 to away team players.Am I concerned with this official? Hopefully he'll have a decent game, but looking at his record there is every just reason to be concerned.The assistant referees tomorrow are Mike Mullarkey (Devon) and Stuart Burt (Northamptonshire). The fourth official is Premier League referee Martin Atkinson (Leeds) who last refereed us in January in the biblical encounter at Horwich.line. Previous Burnley games:SeasonOppsVResYRBurnley players cardeda2009/10Man Citya3-340Bikey Mears Carlisle
