Premier League referee gets away with an invisible yellow card

You know that feeling of bottomless horror when you were in school and the teacher would come around to collect the homework you just remembered you forgot to do? Referee Peter Walton had that same feeling in the 40th minute of Wednesday's Premier League match between Everton and Birmingham when he reached in his pocket for his trusty yellow card and it wasn't there.

With Birmingham's Jordan Mutch awaiting his punishment for a bookable offense, Walton found a handful of nothing and realized he left his cards back in the dressing room. But he didn't show his panic. Instead, he coolly held his hand over Mutch like he was actually displaying a card that really exists and moved on. And it worked.

Though the incident is now making the rounds as a bit of comedy, it seems no one in an official capacity is asking many questions about whether the invisible yellow should stand or whether Walton should face any consequences for his forgetfulness. Perhaps because he did such a good job in selling it that they all think they're going insane for not seeing a card in his hand.

Luckily for Walton, the other three yellow cards he had to show in the 1-1 draw all came after halftime when he had a chance to retrieve his missing equipment. But to avoid this ever happening again, I say referees should just color one hand yellow and one hand red so they don't have to worry about filling their pockets.