Friend is at the Amex
Kevin Friend, who turned in a horror show when he refereed our home game against Norwich City earlier this season, will referee us for the first time since tomorrow at the Amex Stadium when we take on Brighton & Hove Albion.
He should have refereed our game at Leeds back in early January but was replaced at the last minute with Paul Tierney having had to stand in as an assistant referee at Arsenal on the previous day but tomorrow he will referee a game between Brighton and ourselves for the first time.
Alongside yellow carding five Burnley players, two of which led to subsequent suspensions, he was deemed by Burnley fans to have missed a number of clear penalties. Maybe they weren’t all penalties, I’m sure they weren’t but quite how on earth his corner decision wasn’t overturned when Norwich goalkeeper Tim Krul punched Matěj Vydra remains hard to fathom, then again, it was Craig Pawson on VAR.
Friend refereed games in League One and the Championship after that performance, which says much, and he’s just returned to the Premier League again last week after what was deemed another poor performance at Crystal Palace last month.
This season he’s now refereed seventeen games of which just nine have been in the Premier League. In those games, he’s already reached seventy yellow cards although there has been just the one red card. Of those yellows, 41 have been shown to home team players with just 29 to away team players. The one player he’s sent off is Watford’s Juraj Kucka in their 1-0 defeat at Arsenal in November.
He refereed Wolves’ 2-0 win at Spurs last Sunday on his return to the Premier League. Spurs had Rodrigo Bentancur, Lucas Moura and Dejan Kulusevski yellow carded along with Rayan Ait Nouri of Wolves.
Friend currently sits 15th in RATE THE REF with a rating of 60.18 out of 100 and tomorrow he will have Dean Whitestone acting as fourth official and Peter Bankes on VAR duty. This season’s League Cup tie against Spurs was the last time Bankes refereed us but for Whitestone we have to go back to our 3-2 win against Fulham in March 2016.
Match Officials
Referee: Kevin Friend
Assistant Referees: Adrian Holmes & Simon Beck
Fourth Official: Dean Whitestone
VAR: Peter Bankes
Assistant VAR: Ian Hussin
Previous Burnley Games – Kevin Friend
| Season | Opponents | V | Res | Y | R | Burnley Players Carded |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2004/05 | West Ham | h | 0-1 | 3 | 0 | Y: Camara |
| 2006/07 | Wolves | a | 1-2 | 2 | 0 | Y: Duff, Gudjonsson |
| 2007/08 | Watford | a | 2-1 | 1 | 0 | Y: Akinbiyi |
| 2007/08 | QPR | a | 4-2 | 1 | 0 | Y: Varga |
| 2007/08 | Crystal Palace | a | 0-5 | 1 | 1 | Y: Alexander R: Carlisle |
| 2008/09 | Reading | a | 1-3 | 4 | 1 | Y: Caldwell, Jordan, Paterson R: Jordan |
| 2008/09 | Norwich | a | 1-1 | 1 | 0 | Y: Duff |
| 2009/10 | Birmingham | h | 2-1 | 3 | 0 | |
| 2010/11 | Preston | h | 4-3 | 4 | 1 | Y: Elliott |
| 2014/15 | West Ham | h | 1-3 | 1 | 0 | |
| 2014/15 | Manchester City | a | 2-2 | 5 | 0 | Y: Mee |
| 2014/15 | Manchester United | a | 1-3 | 7 | 0 | Y: Kightly, Mee, Arfield |
| 2015/16 | Leeds | a | 1-1 | 3 | 0 | Y: Arfield, Kightly |
| 2015/16 | Preston | h | 0-2 | 5 | 0 | Y: Barton, Lowton |
| 2015/16 | Preston | a | 1-0 | 8 | 0 | Y: Marney, Lowton, Gray, Barton, Mee |
| 2016/17 | Tottenham | a | 1-2 | 3 | 0 | Y: Barnes, Lowton |
| 2016/17 | Chelsea | h | 1-1 | 5 | 0 | Y: Westwood, Lowton, Barton |
| 2016/17 | Stoke | h | 1-0 | 5 | 0 | Y: Ward, Barton, Boyd |
| 2018/19 | Arsenal | a | 1-3 | 7 | 0 | Y: Barnes, Wood, Mee, Cork, Westwood |
| 2018/19 | Chelsea | a | 2-2 | 3 | 0 | Y: Heaton |
| 2019/20 | West Ham | h | 3-0 | 3 | 0 | Y: Mee, Westwood |
| 2019/20 | Tottenham | a | 0-5 | 1 | 0 | Y: Lowton |
| 2019/20 | Chelsea | a | 0-3 | 3 | 0 | Y: McNeil, Westwood, Lennon |
| 2019/20 | Norwich | a | 2-0 | 0 | 2 | |
| 2020/21 | Crystal Palace | h | 1-0 | 2 | 0 | Y: Rodriguez, Lowton |
| 2020/21 | Manchester United | h | 0-1 | 3 | 0 | Y: Westwood |
| 2020/21 | Tottenham | a | 0-4 | 0 | 0 | |
| 2020/21 | Sheffield United | a | 0-1 | 4 | 0 | Y: Dunne |
| 2021/22 | Norwich | h | 0-0 | 7 | 0 | Y: Tarkowski, Wood, Lowton, Brownhill, Rodriguez |
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