Oliver's last three Burnley games have all been against Blackpool. He also refereed the home game against them in 2011/12 and his last Burnley game was our 1-0 win at Bloomfield Road at Easter, the win that left us on the brink of promotion.
Tonight will be the first time he's refereed us in the Premier League. When we were last there in 2009/10 he hadn't been promoted to the select group.
The now 29-year-old Oliver first refereed in the Football League in August 2007 but three years later he was given his first Premier League game when he refereed the fixture between Birmingham and Blackburn, thus becoming the youngest ever Premier League referee at the age of 25 years and 182 days, beating a record set by Stuart Attwell.
I think his promotion came possibly too early. He had some poor games but there is no doubt his refereeing today is far, far better than it was then. He didn't have a particularly good game at Bloomfield Road at Easter, or in the first of the two home clashes against them, and I won't comment on his performance in the Swansea game in our first promotion season of 2008/09.
Looking back at that 2012/13 Blackpool fixture, when he had a very good game, it is clear why he was elevated to the Premier League. All referees make mistakes, and he is prone to getting too many big decisions wrong, but when he has a good game you can see just why he is so highly rated.
Oliver has also refereed at international level after becoming a FIFA listed official in 2012 and most recently he was given the 2014/15 season curtain raiser, the FA Community Shield game at Wembley which Arsenal won against Man City in which Fernando became the first player, and to date only player, he has yellow carded this season.
He currently sits in 6th place in the new Premier League Rate the Ref Table with a rating of 69.97 out of 100.
The assistant referees tonight are Stuart Burt (Northamptonshire) and Darren Cann (Norfolk). The fourth official is Mike Dean (Wirral) who last refereed us in our 2-1 win at Blackburn last season.
Previous Burnley Games
| Season | Opponents | V | Res | Y | R | Burnley Players Carded |
| 2007/08 | SCUNTHORPE | h | 2-0 | 2 | 0 | |
| 2008/09 | PLYMOUTH | h | 0-0 | 2 | 1 | n Eagles n Eagles |
| 2008/09 | SWANSEA | h | 0-2 | 2 | 1 | n Elliott n Duff |
| 2011/12 | BLACKPOOL | h | 3-1 | 2 | 0 | |
| 2012/13 | BLACKPOOL | h | 1-0 | 4 | 0 | n Mee, Paterson |
| 2013/14 | BLACKPOOL | a | 1-0 | 5 | 0 | n Marney, Jones, Duff |