Tierney has only twice previously refereed a Burnley game and both were cup ties. The first of them was the FA Cup defeat at Barnsley in January 2013 when he sent off Brian Stock for two yellow cards, the first of those cards having mistaken him for Michael Duff.
Later in the year he was the referee for our 2-0 Capital One Cup victory against Preston when Kieran Trippier and Danny Ings scored the goals. His performance in that game was better but it would have been difficult for it not to be given his performance at Barnsley that was dreadful.
Tierney became a Football League referee for the 2009/10 season, his first game coming at Macclesfield on 15th August. and by the end of the season he'd refereed twice in the Championship with his first of them proving to be a busy one for him. Crystal Palace won 2-1 at Scunthorpe in a game that had eight yellow cards and a straight red for Scunthorpe's Marcus Williams.
Although he remains a national group referee, he has refereed Premier League games. The first was at Swansea in August of last year and he's added three more top flight games this season.
He's refereed a total of 21 games this season in which there have been 66 yellow cards and two red cards. Of the yellows, 29 of them have gone to home team players with 37 to away team players. Both red cards have come in Championship games, the first of them coming in the 0-0 draw between Blackburn and Bolton at Ewood Park. There were eight yellow cards in that game along with the dismissal of Bolton's Dorian Dervite.
His last game was Tuesday of this week when he refereed the 2-2 draw between QPR and Brighton at Loftus Road. QPR had all of Nedum Onuoha, Alejandro Faurlin and Gabriele Angella yellow carded with Brighton's Lewis Dunk receiving two yellow cards and becoming the second player he's sent off this season.
Paul Tierney is currently 65th in RATE THE REF with a rating of 43.33 out of 100.
The assistant referees are Alf Greenwood (North Yorkshire) and Duncan Street (West Yorkshire). The fourth official is Football League referee Darren Deadman (Cambridgeshire) who, mercifully, hasn't refereed a Burnley game for almost four years.
Previous Burnley Games
| Season | Opponents | V | Res | Y | R | Burnley Players Carded |
| 2012/13 | BARNSLEY | a | 0-3 | 4 | 1 | n Stock, Marney n Stock |
| 2013/14 | PRESTON | h | 2-0 | 3 | 0 | n Trippier, Shackell |