Bates gets first league game of 2007

Last updated : 12 January 2007 By Tony Scholes

It is over a year since our paths crossed, that was at Leeds last season, and he had a very poor game that night, particularly a period during the second half when it appeared that every decision was going their way.

Prior to that he's not had particularly bad games when refereeing Burnley games, although he did ensure he got Paul Gascoigne's name into his notebook during his debut for us against Bradford City. He's not been a lucky omen though and only once have we won a game with him in charge, that against Plymouth in the last home game of the 2004/05 season.

Bates doesn't hand out too many cards but he does have a reputation for penalising away players much too often when the cards come out. It's not quite so bad this season but in his 23 games so far he's yellow carded 57 players with 21 of those cards going to home players and 36 to away players.

He's not over keen with the red card and there have been just two this season, both in the same incident in the same game. It was in Norwich's 1-0 home win over Cardiff when Paul McVeigh of Norwich and Cardiff's Kerrea Gilbert were sent off in stoppage time.

Overall, he shouldn't cause us too many problems, just as long as we don't get a spell during the game as we did at Leeds last season.

He will be assisted by Andrew Laver (Hampshire) and John Rowbury (Kent) and his fourth official will be Steve Creighton (Berkshire).

Previous Burnley games:

Season	Opps	V	Res	Y	R	Burnley players carded
a
2005/06	Leeds	a	0-2	5	0	Jensen, McGreal, Sinclair
2004/05	Plymouth	h	2-0	4	0	Akinbiyi, Branch, Sinclair
2003/04	Coventry	a	0-4	2	0	Jensen, May
2003/04	Millwall	h	1-1	2	0	West
2002/03	Nott'm Forest	a	0-2	2	0	Ian Moore, McGregor
2002/03	Brighton	h	1-3	3	1	Gonhere(red)
2001/02	Bradford C	h	1-1	3	0	Gascoigne, Thomas
1998/99	York	h	0-1	3	0	Scott, Neil Moore
1997/98	Bristol City	a	1-3	3	0	Barnes, Beresford, Vinnicombe