Booth starts Turf Moor year

He had a quiet enough day that afternoon, but that seems to be the pattern with this referee. I can't recall any manager having much to say about him and he's certainly not over the top with cards. In his two and a half seasons in the league so far he's averaged around three yellow cards per game.

This season he's totalled 52 yellow and 3 red cards in 20 games, so that's below his average in previous seasons, and he warmed up for this game at Spotland on Saturday when there were no cards at all.

Of those yellow cards 25 of them have gone to home team players whilst the other 27 have been collected by away team players. Two of the three red cards have gone to away players including one in the game between our opponents today Stoke and Darlington in the Carling Cup at Stoke.

Darlington's Craig James was sent off after just twelve minutes for an elbow, a decision that then Darlington boss David Hodgson fully supported him on. Even so Darlington went on to win the game 2-1.

I've only seen him the once and he was fine, his record suggests that we should have no problems. Mind you, we didn't have any from Graham Laws on Saturday, my only complaint was he perhaps was too lenient early in the game and should have got his cards out earlier.

Today Booth will be assisted by Russell Green (Lancashire) and Paul Varley (Yorkshire) whilst the fourth official duties will be carried out by John Hay (Lancashire).

Previous Burnley games:

Season	Opps	V	Res	Y	R	Burnley players carded
a
2005/06	Luton	h	1-1	2	0	.