It was his second visit to the Turf having previously refereed our Carling Cup tie against Burton earlier in the season when he triggered a goal rush by giving a poor penalty decision, but it was his one Burnley away game where he was very much the centre of attention.
That was just before last Christmas when, at the Amex, he sent off two Brighton players in a game that we eventually won 1-0 with a Kieran Tripper goal. Some will say the Craig Pawson from South Yorkshire got it all right, but I suspect Gus Poyet is not one who would be in that group.
Pawson joined the Football League ahead of the 2008/09 season, refereeing his first game at Grimsby in August 2008. He got his one and only Championship game of that first season at Coventry in January.
He's continued to referee mainly in the lower divisions and just nine of his 35 games last season were at Championship level. This season has seen something of a change and tomorrow will be his fourth Championship game in what will be his seventh game of the season.
In the six games so far he's yellow carded 21 players and sent off one. Of those 21 yellow cards, a total of 13 have gone to home team players and just eight to away team players. The player he sent off was Accrington's Michael Liddle in their 4-3 defeat at Chesterfield a week last Tuesday.
Pawson was on Capital One Cup duty this week, refereeing West Ham's 4-1 home defeat to Wigan. The only player carded in this game was Wigan captain Gary Caldwell.
The assistant referees tomorrow are David Storrie (West Yorkshire) and William Smallwood (Cheshire). The fourth official is Andy Scregg (Liverpool).
Previous Burnley Games
Season Opponents V Res Y R Burnley Players Carded 2011/12 Burton Albion h 6-3 4 0 n Grant Elliott 2011/12 Brighton & Hove A a 1-0 3 2 n Edgar, PatersonSource: FOOTYMAD
