Dowd to earn his spurs

Phil Dowd began refereeing in local leagues in 1984, eventually officiating in the Staffordshire Senior League and Midland Football Alliance. In 1992 he was appointed to the Football League assistant referees list in 1992, before joining the League's full list of referees five years later in 1997, aged 34.

He was promoted to the Premier League list in 2001, and is now in his 9th year as a Select Group Referee His first Premier League game was a 2-0 victory for Fulham over Everton on 8 December 2001 with Hayles scoring a brace. It was an eventful match as seven were booked and both sides reduced to ten men with the dismissals for Boa Morte for Fulham and Weir for Everton,

He was the fourth official at the 2006 FA Cup Final.

Phil Dowd - referring record (since 1998/99):

Mr. Dowd's last game was on Saturday when Hull lost 1-0 at home to Birmingham. His previous Tottenham game was on the opening weekend of the season when Spurs beat Liverpool 2-1 at White Hart Lane. There were six yellow cards produced with Assou-Ekotto, Gomes and Lennon receiving bookings for Tottenham. His one previos Championship match was the match at St. James Park between Newcastle and Sheffield Wednesday.

His assistants for the Cup tie are Scott Ledger from South Yorkshire and Trevor Massey from Cheshire.

The fourth official is Tony Bates from Staffordshire, his last PNE game was the 1-1 draw at Bristol City on 4 April 2009, whilst his last game at Deepdale was on 27 August 2005 with a 0-0 draw against Brighton..

Phil Dowd and Preston (Since 1998/99)