Barring any late changes, Andy D’Urso of Essex will be in the middle for Blues’ game against Huddersfield Town at the St Andrews on Saturday. Here is a look at his stats.

Season Performance

Mr D’Urso has taken charge of eight games so far this season and in those games he has shown fifteen yellow cards. Of those eight games three have been in the Championship and in those he has shown eight yellow cards. Last season Mr D’Urso took charge of forty-three games, showing one hundred and fourteen yellow cards and sending off eight players. Of those. sixteen were in the Championship and in those games he handed out forty-three cautions and gave six players their marching orders.

Last Blues Game Refereed

The last Blues game that Mr D’Urso was in the middle for was the 1-1 draw with Cardiff City at St Andrews on March 25 of this year. Mr D’Urso didn’t hand out a single card in that game and I didn’t mention him in my match reflections which I take to be a positive.

Last Championship Game Refereed

The last game at this level refereed by Mr D’Urso was the 22 September game between Leeds United and Nottingham Forest which finished as a 2-1 to the home side. Mr D’Urso handed out four yellow cards in that game – to Tom Lees, Jason Pearce and El Hadji Diouf of Leeds United and Simon Cox of Nottingham Forest. Forest manager Sean O’Driscoll was critical of D’Urso’s performance whilst the Yorkshire Evening Post were much more circumspect.

Unfortunately Mr D’Urso has a bit of a poor reputation having been dumped by the Premier League some years back for showing two yellow cards to Barry Ferguson (who was with Blackburn Rovers at the time) and failing to send him off. That incident tarnished his career and despite fighting and winning his case to not be dropped from the Select Group of referees he hasn’t reffed a top flight game since December 2005.

All stats from Soccerbase

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