Foy should be well enough for Reading

Last updated : 05 January 2007 By Tony Scholes

But it was Peter Walton in charge, and he went on to have something of a nightmare in a game the Clarets lost 1-0, our first away defeat of the season. St Helens referee Chris Foy had been taken ill at the eleventh hour and Walton, who was fourth official at the Arsenal v Liverpool game on the following day, stepped in.

We haven't had too long to wait for Foy to be allocated another Burnley game, we were destined for a Premiership referee for our FA Cup 3^rd round tie because of being drawn against Reading who are a Premiership club.

He's already refereed the Clarets this season, he was the man with the whistle when a first minute Andy Gray goal gave us a 1-0 win at Stoke in September. There were no problems at all with him that day, and his poor Burnley games are now a while ago.

He'll certainly be remembered at Stoke more recently when he handed out no fewer than ten yellow cards when they lost to Sheffield Wednesday on Boxing Day. It could have been a busier day for him and it still takes some believing that he didn't send off Lee Hendrie and Wayne Andrews following a bad foul by the Stoke man.

That game has certainly boosted his card count. At the time of the Cardiff game he'd handed out 36 yellow cards in 14 games but that's now gone up to 71 in 24 games whilst his red card count has doubled from one to two. He's certainly hit the away players harder too recently and of those yellow cards 28 have gone to home players with the other 43 to away players.

Barnsley's Paul Heckingbottom was the player he had sent off earlier in the season, in their 2-1 defeat at Sheffield Wednesday, the second red card went to Paul Konchesky of West Ham in their goalless draw at Fulham on the Saturday before Christmas.

We can now only hope that he's not taken ill this afternoon, and that we don't get Walton stepping in again at the last minute.

He will be assisted by Guy Beale (Somerset) and Adam Watts (Worcestershire) whilst the fourth official will be Flood Warden Andy Hall (West Midlands), a referee we haven't seen for almost three years. His last Burnley game was the 5-3 home defeat against Norwich in April 2004.

Previous Burnley games:

Season	Opps	V	Res	Y	R	Burnley players carded
a
2006/07	Stoke	a	1-0	3	0	Elliott Harley
2004/05	Aston Villa	h	3-1	1	0	Grant
2004/05	Rotherham	a	0-0	1	0	Duff
2003/04	Wolves	a	0-2	2	0	Branch
2003/04	Crystal Palace	h	2-3	4	2	Gnohere Weller
2002/03	Rotherham	h	2-6	5	0	Blake Davis Little
2000/01	West Brom	h	1-1	2	0	Thomas
1999/2000	Notts County	a	0-2	5	0	Branch Little Mullin West
1999/2000	Oldham	a	1-0	3	0	Cook
1998/99	Bury	h	1-4	2	0	Little
1997/98	Lincoln	h	2-1	5	1	Blatherwick Winstanley