Mason to blow the year’s first whistle
Burnley’s game against Manchester City at the Etihad this afternoon will be refereed by Lee Mason from Bolton, his second Burnley game of the season having previously been in charge of our 2-0 home win against Liverpool.
I wrote back in August, prior to the Liverpool game, that the mere mention of his name will always have Burnley fans recalling the game in 2007 when his nightmare of a game virtually handed bottom of the league Preston the points. One season on, in the same fixture, he was almost as bad but this time with the key decisions going in our favour.
Other than that, and the gale force farce at Blackpool in the 2008/09 season, we haven’t actually had too many problems with him, and that’s been in a number of games since with today’s being his twelfth Burnley game.
The 45-year-old Mason has been a Football League referee since the 2002/03 season and he refereed for the first time in the Premier League in February 2006 when he took charge of Aston Villa’s 4-0 away win at Middlesbrough.
He’s now almost exclusively used in the top league. He’s refereed 11 games in total this season with all but one of them in the Premier League, the exception being the Championship game between Fulham and QPR in October.
He’s shown 41 yellow cards in those games along with one red card. Of those yellow cards, 19 have gone to home team players and to 22 away team players . His one red card was Sunderland’s defender Papy Djilobodji in their 3-0 home win against Hull.
He’s come in for some criticism following his handling of the game between Manchester United and Middlesbrough on New Year’s Eve with Keith Hackett, once a shocking referee and then head of PGMOL, calling for him to be demoted because he disallowed a Zlatan Ibrahimovic goal because of a raised foot. Hackett, whose thoughts really shouldn’t be tolerated, has said that Mason should be stood down from the Premier League on a permanent basis, that he is past his sell by date.
There were just two yellow cards in that game; they were United’s Daly Blind and Calum Chambers of Middlesbrough who must still be unable to believe he got off the pitch at Burnley on Boxing Day without a card.
He’s certainly not one of the better Premier League referees and is more than capable of having a controversial game, hopefully that won’t be the case tomorrow.
Lee Mason is currently 12th in RATE THE REF with a rating of 62.57 out of 100.
The assistant referees are Mick McDonough (Northumberland) and Matthew Wilkes (Northumberland). The fourth official is Andy Madley (West Yorkshire) whose last Burnley game was our home win against Nottingham Forest last season.
Previous Burnley Games – Lee Mason
| Season | Opponents | V | Res | Y | R | Burnley Players Carded |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2007/08 | Preston | h | 2-3 | 2 | 2 | Y: Elliott R: McCann, Gudjonsson |
| 2008/09 | Preston | h | 3-1 | 4 | 1 | |
| 2008/09 | Blackpool | a | 1-0 | 5 | 0 | Y: Kalvenes, McDonald |
| 2009/10 | Liverpool | a | 0-4 | 2 | 0 | Y: Jordan, Eagles |
| 2009/10 | Wigan | h | 1-3 | 2 | 0 | Y: Carlisle, Alexander |
| 2011/12 | Barnsley | a | 0-2 | 1 | 0 | |
| 2012/13 | Blackburn | h | 1-1 | 2 | 0 | Y: Duff |
| 2014/15 | Sunderland | a | 0-2 | 4 | 0 | Y: Marney |
| 2014/15 | Liverpool | a | 0-2 | 1 | 0 | Y: Mee |
| 2015/16 | Leeds | h | 1-0 | 2 | 0 | Y: Barton |
| 2016/17 | Liverpool | h | 2-0 | 1 | 0 |
Share this page :