Malone in charge at the Palace

12 August 2011 18:52
Brendan Malone, from Wiltshire, will referee our Championship game at Crystal Palace tomorrow and, like Tuesday's referee Craig Pawson, he will be refereeing Burnley for the first time. The 43-year-old is just starting his second season in the Football League and this will be just his second game in the Championship, with the first coming last season when he took charge of Portsmouth's home game against our opponents tomorrow Crystal Palace. In that first season he refereed a total of 26 games in which he handed out a total of 77 yellow cards and six red cards. Of those yellows, 29 of them went to home team players and 48 to away team players whilst all but one of the red cards went the way of the away teams. He didn't have a game last Saturday so his 2011/12 season got underway on Tuesday night at the Amex Stadium where Brighton beat Gillingham 1-0 in the Carling Cup, and he had a very busy night. It was something of a controversial night with Brighton's winner coming from the penalty spot. Of the decision, Gills' boss Andy Hessenthaler said: "I've just seen the ref and he said that he's disappointed in the decision." Hessenthaler admitted that one his players, Stefan Payne, should have been sent off for a two-footed jump at Romain Vincelot but it was one of an incredible nine yellow cards on the night. The players carded were Lewis Dunk, Casper Ankergren and Marcos Painter who were joined by Gillingham players Barry Fuller, Matt Lawrence, Joe Martin, Jack Payne, Stefan Payne and Danny Kedwell. The assistant referees tomorrow are Adrian Sannerude (Suffolk) and Harry Lennard (East Sussex). The fourth official is Elliott Kaye (Essex).

Source: FOOTYMAD