Dean has the whistle at the Palace

It was the third time the Wirral referee had taken charge of an East Lancs derby. The previous two, at home, were the FA Cup tie of 2005 and the Premier League fixture in 2010 when he was conned by the cheating Martin Olsson.

That Premier League game was one of four Burnley games he refereed that season, the others being both Tottenham games and the home draw against Arsenal.

Other than that penalty incident against Blackburn, his more disappointing games refereeing Burnley came some years ago, the most notable being the 2-2 draw at Bradford when he sent off two home players and they came back to draw with nine men.

More recently his performances have shown just why he's rated as one of the country's best referees. That's why, other than Neil Swarbrick who has refereed us just once, he sits right up there in our RATE THE REF Table with a rating of 85.60 out of 100 and that's a rating achieved from ten games, including the penalty game against Blackburn.

He even had to deal with loose chickens at Ewood but the performance I always point to as one of the best refereeing performances I've seen in some considerable time was the FA Cup tie at West Brom in 2009, a master class on keeping a game flowing and wonderful use of advantage.

He's no stranger to games against Crystal Palace either. He refereed the Turf Moor League Cup leg against them in 2000 and in 2006 was in charge of the home 0-0 draw against them.

What you tend not to get with Dean is a card free game. Last season, in 38 games, he showed 131 yellow cards and seven red cards. This season, in just three games, there have been 14 yellow cards and the dismissal of Newcastle's Mike Williamson in their 0-0 draw at Villa.

Eight of the yellow cards have gone to home team players and six to away team players in those games, all of which have been in the Premier League. The last of them was Southampton's 3-1 win against West Ham at the Boleyn Ground two weeks ago tomorrow. Aaron Cresswell and Joey O'Brien (West Ham) were shown yellow as was Southampton's Graziano Pelle.

The assistant referees are Simon Long (Cornwall) and Adam Nunn (Wiltshire). The fourth official is Bobby Madley (Ossett) whose last Burnley game was the 2-0 home win against Derby last season.

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