Dowd, from Stoke, will celebrate his 52nd birthday later this month, and is one of the most experienced referees in the league having become a Football League referee in 1997 after three years on the line.
His performance earlier this season at Leicester wasn't good, but he had a much better game at the Turf last month when he refereed Alan Pardew's last visit to our ground with Newcastle.
It's just over 13 years since he first refereed in the Premier League and he made his mark with two red cards for Luis Boa Morte of Fulham and Everton's David Weir.
Now one of the senior referees, he's only refereed one Football League game this season, and that was in August. Added to that is one game in each of the two cup competitions and 15 Premier League games.
Those 18 games have yielded the grand total of 75 yellow cards along with four red cards. Of those, 33 have gone to home team players and 42 to away team players.
Between his two previous Burnley games this season he'd sent off Chelsea's Bransilav Ivanovic in their 1-1 draw at Man United, and Palace's Mile Jedinak in a 3-1 home loss to Sunderland.
His two red cards since came in the same game between Hull and Leicester. He sent off Leicester's Paul Konchesky two minutes from the end as they won 1-0 with Hull's Stephen Quinn sent off in stoppage time.
There were five yellow cards in his last game, Southampton's 1-0 win at Man United last Sunday. They were Michael Carrick and Robin van Persie from United and Southampton's Ryan Bertrand, Graziano Pelle and Dusan Tadic.
His cards per game ratio has come down since he last refereed us but it would be a surprise if we were to get through tomorrow's game without any yellow cards given Dowd's record. I just hope he has a game similar to that against Newcastle and not the Leicester game.
The assistant referees are Mick McDonough (Northumberland) and Dave Bryan (Lincolnshire). The fourth official is Lee Probert (Wiltshire) whose last Burnley game was our 2-1 win at Leeds last season.
Previous Burnley Games
| Season | Opponents | V | Res | Y | R | Burnley Players Carded |
| 1998/99 | LINCOLN | h | 1-1 | 5 | 1 | n Ford, Reid n Reid |
| 2000/01 | GRIMSBY | h | 1-1 | 1 | 0 | |
| 2000/01 | GILLINGHAM | a | 0-0 | 1 | 0 | n Branch |
| 2001/02 | SHEFFIELD WED | a | 2-0 | 5 | 0 | n A Moore, Briscoe, West, Weller |
| 2002/03 | FULHAM | h | 3-0 | 2 | 1 | n I Moore |
| 2002/03 | WATFORD | h | 4-7 | 2 | 0 | n McGregor |
| 2003/04 | WEST HAM | h | 1-1 | 5 | 0 | n Blake, Branch, West |
| 2004/05 | LEEDS | a | 2-1 | 4 | 0 | n Duff, Sinclair |
| 2004/05 | BOURNEMOUTH | h | 2-0 | 4 | 0 | n McGreal, Sinclair |
| 2004/05 | DERBY | a | 1-1 | 4 | 0 | n Grant, Valois |
| 2005/06 | HULL | h | 1-0 | 3 | 0 | n Harley |
| 2006/07 | LEEDS | h | 2-1 | 3 | 1 | n Hyde |
| 2007/08 | IPSWICH | a | 0-0 | 3 | 1 | n Alexander, Elliott, J O'Connor n Spicer |
| 2008/09 | SOUTHAMPTON | h | 3-2 | 6 | 0 | n Carlisle, Thompson |
| 2009/10 | EVERTON | h | 1-0 | 1 | 0 | n Elliott |
| 2009/10 | PORTSMOUTH | a | 0-2 | 6 | 0 | n Bikey, Mears |
| 2009/10 | CHELSEA | h | 1-2 | 2 | 0 | n Bikey |
| 2009/10 | LIVERPOOL | h | 0-4 | 3 | 0 | n Duff, Cork |
| 2014/15 | LEICESTER | a | 2-2 | 4 | 0 | n Ward, Arfield |
| 2014/15 | NEWCASTLE | h | 1-1 | 4 | 0 | n Keane, Arfield |