As Newcastle United prepare for a trip to Turf Moor to play Burnley, Eddie Howe may well have one potential problem in the back of his mind — and there’s nothing he can do about it.
Newcastle need a good showing on Tuesday night to wash away the bad taste from that defeat against Man United on Boxing Day.
Our predicted XI vs Burnley! What changes would you make?
Obviously, picking the Newcastle United XI to win the game will be at the forefront of Eddie Howe’s mind, as will his task of motivating the players to end the year on a high.
However, the referee for the game has been revealed, and he’s been causing issues for a few managers this season already.
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Referee for Newcastle United vs Burnley revealed
The game at Turf Moor will be refereed by Rob Jones. His assistants will be Neil Davies and Nick Greenhalgh, with Paul Tierney as fourth official.
We will have Nick Hopton in the VAR room, with Sian Massey-Ellis as his assistant on the night.
Jones has been in charge of two games for Newcastle in the Premier League this season, but the Magpies have won neither of them. Most recently it was the 3-1 defeat at West Ham, while Jones was also in the middle for the 0-0 draw with Bournemouth.
However, he did officiate the 3-0 win away at Leicester towards the end of last season. In the 15 games he’s been involved in with the Magpies over the years, he has shown just one red card, and has an average of 1.93 yellow cards per game.
If Newcastle United don’t beat Burnley, were would you stand on Eddie Howe’s future?
Rob Jones has a history of angering Premier League managers
Jones may not cause much of a stir in Newcastle matches, but he has seriously wound up Sean Dyche and Nottingham Forest this month.
Dyche branded Jones’ refereeing performance as ‘unacceptable’ in the defeat to Man City last week. The Nottingham Forest manager was particularly unhappy with the nature of City’s goals, believing his player was fouled in the build-up.
He said: “Everyone can see it, there’s plenty of people here, there’s TV cameras here – everyone can see their performance today. Miles off it. It’s unacceptable in my opinion, because it affects the game massively.
“The goal: Morgan Gibbs-White, he’s pushed to the floor. And then the same player tries to get up to block it, and it goes through his body because he can’t get in position to block it.
“When I was a player, if you kicked the ball away you got booked. He [Gvardiol] does it, then falls on the floor injured, apparently. Nothing happens. I just find it bizarre. These are easy things to referee.”
This wasn’t the first time Jones fell foul of Forest’s wrath either. Back in 2023, Jones showed Willy Boly a red card in controversial circumstances. It was such a heated situation, in fact, that Forest tried to get Jones banned from refereeing their matches.
Let’s hope Eddie Howe isn’t feeling the same after Tuesday night’s game.
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