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Stoke City yellow card amnesty explained as midfielder picks up fourth booking
Jordan Thompson picked up his fourth booking of the season late in the draw with Bristol City - but he isn't quite walking a yellow card tightrope just yet.
Championship players face an automatic one game ban if they are cautioned five times in the first 19 games of the season but cards are now competition specific and one of 27-year-old Thompson's yellows came in a Carabao Cup win over Fleetwood Town last month.
He is one of three Stoke players now on three league bookings, however, alongside Wouter Burger and Andrew Moran, who was also put into Gavin Ward's notepad on Tuesday. Ben Wilmot is on four. It is still a long way to go up to a trip to Sunderland away on December 7 to avoid a ban
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The next bookmark after five yellows is after 37 games - which for Stoke will be at home against Blackburn Rovers on March 11. If a player picks up 10 yellow cards up to and including that match, they will be banned for two matches.
A player will be banned for three matches if they pick up 15 yellow cards over 46 matches, the regular season prior to the play-off games. A player who picks up 20 yellow cards up to and including the last day will have a punishment determined by a regulatory commission.
Five players in the Championship have already been suspended for yellow cards: Preston's Ben Whiteman, Leeds United's Junior Firpo, Sheffield United's Vinicius Souza and Bristol City's Mark Sykes while Bristol City's Joe Williams picked up his fifth of the season against Stoke.
Preston have picked up the most yellows with 36 followed by Norwich and Portsmouth (both 31) and Stoke (29). Middlesbrough have been shown 16.
