Jones to referee Burnley for first time since Leeds
Burnley’s game against Nottingham Forest tomorrow will be refereed by Robert Jones, his first Burnley game since that catastrophic performance at Leeds in December 2020 when he made a bigger contribution to the result than anyone else on the pitch.
He astonishingly awarded a penalty to Leeds against Nick Pope who had clearly made contact with the ball before Patrick Bamford ran into him. Quite how on earth Michael Oliver, on VAR, didn’t overturn this ridiculous decision took some understanding but there was nothing Oliver could do when Jones awarded Leeds a free kick against Ben Mee for being fouled by home goalkeeper Illan Meslier. Ashley Barnes scored but because Jones was too eager to blow too quickly, it ruled out a VAR intervention which would have had no alternative but to award us a goal.
That game came in his first season as a Select Group official after he’d been fast tracked having only become a Football League referee in 2016. He’s now an established referee at the top level and already this season has also refereed Europa Conference League games and an international game. His four domestic games have all come in the Premier League in which there have been twenty yellow cards, but no reds; the last player he red carded in a Premier League game was back in April 2021 was Southampton’s Jannik Vestegaard in a 1-1 home draw against Leicester. His only red card since was shown to West Brom’s Cédric Kipré in a home FA Cup defeat against Brighton in January 2022.
Back to this season and those twenty yellow cards and we need to be aware; only five have gone to home team players with fifteen to the visiting teams. His most recent game was Crystal Palace’s 3-2 home win against Wolves. There were just four yellows; Palace had Joel Ward carded with Wolves collecting three for Rayan Aït-Nouri, Nelson Semedo and João Gomes.
The fourth official at Forest will be Thomas Bramall; he’s refereed Burnley twice, most recently in last season’s 0-0 draw at Blackpool. Darren England will be on VAR duty; we don’t have to look back too far for his last Burnley game as referee, it came in our most recent game against Spurs.
Match Officials
Referee: Robert Jones
Assistant Referees: Ian Hussin & Wade Smith
Fourth Official: Thomas Bramall
VAR: Darren England
Assistant VAR: Adrian Holmes
Previous Burnley Games – Robert Jones
| Season | Opponents | V | Res | Y | R | Burnley Players Carded |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018/19 | Burton | a | 1-2 | 3 | 0 | Y: Defour, Long |
| 2019/20 | Peterborough | h | 4-2 | 1 | 0 | |
| 2020/21 | Leeds | a | 0-1 | 3 | 0 | Y: Tarkowski, Westwood, Barnes |
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