East became a Football League referee in the 2007/08 season, starting with a League Two 3-3 draw between Macclesfield and MK Franchise in August 2007. He won himself two Championship games in that first season, at Bristol City and Leicester, but it was some time before he was given a Burnley game.
That came in February 2011 and a 1-1 draw in what was our first ever visit to the new ground at Cardiff. He carded both Dean Marney and Danny Fox but overall had a decent game.
His only other Burnley game was all but a year ago, on 6th October 2012 and our 4-3 defeat at Crystal Palace. Again there were no problems with him. The only problems we had that afternoon could be seen with our defending.
East was elevated to the Premier League just over a month before that Palace game. He refereed a 2-2 draw between Swansea and Sunderland at the Liberty Stadium and made his mark, showing a red card to Swansea's Chico.
It was one of just five Premier League games in 44 games last season when he hit the headlines with 147 yellow cards, the most by any referee who officiated in the Premier League last season.
He's got off to a quiet season this season in every sense of the word. Tonight will be only his fifth game of the season and in the previous four there have been just seven yellow cards of which all but one have gone to away team players.
His last game was the Capital One Cup tie between West Ham and Cardiff at the Boleyn Ground a week ago. West Ham won 3-2 but neither side had a player carded.
The assistant referees are Gary Beswick (County Durham) and Ian Hussin (Liverpool). The fourth official is Football League referee James Adcock (Nottinghamshire) whose last Burnley game was the 3-1 home win against Bristol City last season.
Previous Burnley Games
| Season | Opponents | V | Res | Y | R | Burnley Players Carded |
| 2010/11 | CARDIFF | a | 1-1 | 3 | 0 | n Marney, Fox |
| 2012/13 | CRYSTAL PALACE | a | 3-4 | 2 | 0 | n Edgar, Trippier |