'Shambolic ref' gets Watford praise

The official Burnley website may well have considered it a "shambolic performance" by match ref Dean Whitestone but Watford boss Aidy Boothroyd has nothing but praise for the Northampton official!

The Clarets were incensed by a handful of Whitestone`s decisions during the tough fought 2-2 draw at Turf Moor and insisted in their online match report that he "completely lost of control of proceedings" but that`s not the Watford view.

Far from it in fact as Hornets gaffer Aidy Boothroyd heaped praise on the performance of the inexperienced Whitestone stating "It`s only his sixth game [in the Championship], but I thought he [Whitestone] was great today and did very well. I`m the first one to bang on the door and tell them when they get it wrong but I thought he did okay..."

Whitestone kept up his impressive card waving antics in booking 4 - of which 3 were Burnley players - and that in turn showed the ref marshaled the game well and kept things tight and tidy…according to the Watford boss anyway!

Boothroyd added "I think we saw passion, 2 teams, 2 managers and 2 staffs that want to win. Sometimes it boils over but I have to say that I thought the ref dealt with it very very well… It could have spilled over but it didn`t".