A professional referee was left red-faced last night after he forgot his yellow card for a Premier League clash.
Peter Walton was officiating the Everton v Birmingham match at Goodison Park when Wolves youngster Jordan Mutch fouled striker Louis Saha.
The 51-year-old ref deemed the challenge worthy of a booking but when he went to his pocket there was no yellow card.
An embarrassed Walton then had to take his hand out of his pocket and MIME the action.
He remembered to bring his cards out for the second-half, successfully booking two further Birmingham stars and one Everton player.
The match ended 1-1 with Everton’s Johnny Heitinga cancelling out Jean Beausejour’s opener.
Walton is the latest referee to hit the news for the wrong reason with officials having a particularly tough time at the moment.
In Tuesday’s Champions League clash between Barcelona and Arsenal, Massimo Busacca sent off striker Robin Van Persie for kicking the ball away – one second after the whistle blew in a deafening stadium of 95,000 fans.
At the other end of the footballing spectrum, Dorchester Town’s player-manager Ashley Vickers was sent off on Monday night after he rugby tackled a mankini-wearing streaker during the club’s Conference South clash against Havant and Waterlooville.
And last week an Argentinian ref sent off 36 players and officials after a mass brawl broke out.
Everton were playing Birmingham City, not Wolves.. O_o