Source: FOOTYMAD
It's Linington at the Palace
The referee will be coming over on the ferry tomorrow with Isle Of Wight referee James Linington taking charge of our game at Selhurst Park against Crystal Palace. It is a second Burnley game for Linington but it will be the first time I will see him. The previous occasion was our 3-0 defeat at Watford in January 2009 and I spent the entire ninety minutes of the game stranded in a coach on the M1 just north of Northampton.That was his first Championship game in what was his first season as a Football League referee and proved to be his only Championship game that season. I can't comment on his performance other than to say there were two yellow cards, one for each team.Last season he refereed no less than eleven Championship games including his first visit to Selhurst Park for Palace's 1-0 home win against Middlesbrough last November, to date his only game there before tomorrow.He's hardly been a card happy referee. In his first (2008/09) season he handed out 58 yellow cards and three red cards in 20 games. Last season he refereed 75 games and there were just 33 yellow cards and two red cards.This season that red card count has been equalled already with two in six games. To add to that there have been nineteen yellow cards with nine going to home team players and ten to away team players.He sent off Charlton's Christian Dailly for a second bookable offence in their 3-1 win at Leyton Orient last month and he had a busy day in his last game two weeks ago. Stevenage drew at home against Crewe but had Stacy Long sent off, also for a second bookable offence. Long was one of six players to receive yellow cards, the others were Robert Sinclair, Ron Henry and Michael Bostwick (Stevenage) and Shaun Miller and Ashley Westwood (Crewe).Linington currently sits in eighth place in the Rate The Ref table.The assistant referees tomorrow are Richard Kendall (Bedfordshire) and Oleksandr Saliy (Middlesex) and the fourth official is Ian Cooper (Kent). Previous Burnley games:SeasonOppsVResYRBurnley players cardeda2008/09Watforda0-320Kalvenes
