Huddersfield Town have their fair share of tough tacklers in midfield and defence.

And with some Championship referees dishing out extra three yellow cards per game on average than their fellow match officials, their fate in each game could vary wildly.


English Football League rules are changing for the upcoming season, with players set to be given reds for using abusive language towards referees and yellow cards for confronting them.

This could lead to a dramatic rise in the number of bookings and sendings off, in the short term at least.

With this in mind, the Examiner has taken a look at last season’s records to see who are the division’s most card-happy match officials.

Peter Bankes dished out an average of 4.7 yellow cards per game last season according to figures taken from Opta.

That’s more per game than any other referee who took charge of at least 10 games in the division in 2015-16.

He also gave a yellow card once every 4.8 fouls on average, more frequently than any other referee.

However, Oliver Langford, who sent off Jonathan Hogg in the FA Cup replay with Reading, is close to the bottom of the list.

Video Loading


Darren Drysdale was the least card-happy referee last season.

He gave out just 1.4 yellows per game, fewer than any other referee to have taken charge of at least 10 matches. He also dished out a yellow just once every 13.9 fouls on average.


Name: Average Yellows per Game
Peter Bankes: 4.7
Graham Scott: 4.3
Keith Stroud: 4.3
Andy Davies: 4.0
Keith Hill: 3.6
David Coote: 3.4
Fred Graham: 3.2
Darren Bond: 3.2
Tim Robinson: 3.1
Jeremy Simpson: 3.0
Chris Kavanagh: 2.9
Paul Tierney: 2.9
Iain Williamson: 2.8
Darren Deadman: 2.8
Dean Whitestone: 2.7
Stuart Attwell: 2.6
Andy Madley: 2.5
Andy Woolmer: 2.4
Charles Breakspear: 2.4
Tony Harrington: 2.3
Simon Hooper: 2.2
Scott Duncan: 2.1
Geoff Eltringham: 2.0
James Adcock: 1.9
Oliver Langford: 1.8
Eddie Ilderton: 1.8
Steve Martin: 1.6
Darren Drysdale: 1.4