Jones to referee Villa clash

27 October 2010 09:44
Chester referee Mike Jones is the man in the middle tonight when we play Aston Villa in the fourth round of the Carling Cup at Villa Park. Jones is the first Select Group referee we've had this season and he is a referee who took charge of three of our Premier League games last season - the home games against Hull and Fulham along with the away fixture at Wigan.He's certainly had his moments refereeing Burnley games over the years but I think if there were any complaints last season it would surely have come from the first of those three opponents Hull City. Indeed the complaints did come from their then manager Phil Brown who was far from happy, and with just reason, with Jones' performance.He somewhat controversially sent off Geovanni that day, the fourth time he's used his red card at Turf Moor. One other was somewhat controversial too, that of Paul McShane playing for West Brom. He knocked James O'Connor out cold with a clash of heads but was sent off for elbowing.He's also sent off Michael Duff, but his first ever Turf Moor red card is one to remember, that of Craig Hignett playing for Coventry in the 2002/03 season for a gesture made at the linesman.Jones has a bit of a reputation for being a homer but this season his card count doesn't suggest that. In eight games so far, all but one in the Premier League, he's yellow carded 26 players with 15 of them home players and 11 of them away players. The only red card was to Blackpool's Ian Evatt in their 6-0 defeat at Arsenal.Jones' last game was at White Hart Lane last Saturday for Tottenham's 1-1 draw against Everton. There were four yellow cards in that game, for Wilson Palacios, Sandro and Rafael van der Vaart (Spurs) and Everton's former Burnley trialist Seamus Coleman.He's refereed eight Burnley games since the introduction of our RATE THE REF feature, more than any other referee. He's currently in 18th place with a rating of 68.31 out of 100.The assistant referees are Ron Ganfield (Somerset) and Simon Long (Suffolk). The fourth official is Football League and former Premier League referee Steve Tanner (Somerset) who refereed our game at Swansea earlier this season and sent off both Darren Pratley and Tyrone Mears. Previous Burnley games:SeasonOppsVResYRBurnley players cardeda1997/98Brentfordh1-120Payton1998/99Chesterfielda0-130Cooke1999/2000Bristol Citya0-030Mullin2000/02Wolvesa0-120Cooke Weller2001/02Wimbledonh3-250[A]Moore2002/03Coventryh3-111.2003/04Walsallh3-130.2003/04Cardiffa0-240Branch Grant Jensen2004/05Stokeh2-221Duff(Y/R)2004/05Readingh0-010.2005/06Derbya1-240Akinbiyi Sinclair2005/06Readingh0-310[J]O'Connor2006/07West Bromh3-251Djemba-Djemba Harley Elliott2007/08Norwichh2-130Alexander Unsworth2007/08Stokeh0-040Mahon McCann2008/09Fulhamh1-010.2008/09West Bromh3-110Caldwell2008/09Southamptona2-270Paterson Alexander Caldwell2009/10Hullh2-041Elliott2009/10Fulhamh1-110.2009/10Wigana0-140McDonald Duff Mears

Source: FOOTYMAD