Phil Dowd of Staffordshire will referee our next Premiership match as Manchester City visit Anfield for the early Saturday afternoon kick-off.

The 46-year old has been refereeing for 25 years now and took up the whistle after taking charge of a local game when the original referee did not turn up. He was told by both managers that he was poor, so he decided to prove them both wrong and went on a refereeing course.

Three years after receiving his certificate he was officiating in the Staffordshire Senior League. In 1992 he was promoted to the Football League as a linesman. He spent five seasons with the flag before finally been given the chance in the middle of the park. Four years later he finally made the big jump to the Premiership.

He has now been refereeing in the top flight for 9 seasons, and his relatively late start as a referee has probably prevented any promotion to European football.

Phil twice opened up our season this year, he was in charge of our pre-season friendly against Club Atlético de Madrid at Anfield, and the following week began our Premiership campaign at Tottenham Hotspur.

Dowd refereed Manchester City's visit to Anfield last season back in February when Dirk Kuyt equalised an earlier Craig Bellamy effort that had been deflected past Reina by Álvaro Arbeloa.

So far this season he has refereed 11 Premiership games, which is currently the most amongst the Select Group of officials.
His assistants for the game are Nigel Bannister and John Flynn with Andre Marriner as the fourth official.

Some memorable matches involving Liverpool and Phil Dowd.
6th November 2002 - Liverpool beat Southampton 3-1 in a Worthington Cup tie. The game saw the debut of John Otsemobor and Patrik Berger's last Liverpool goal.
5th February 2003 - Crystal Palace shock Liverpool by winning 2-0 in a FA Cup 4th round reply, they even had Dougie Freedman sent off for elbowing Sami Hyypiä.
13th November 2004 - Milan Baroš scores his only Liverpool hat-trick including two penalties - one of them in the last minute to beat Crystal Palace 3-2.
25th October 2005 - Crystal Palace knock us out of the Carling Cup with a 2-1 win at Selhurst Park.
30th November 2005 - Momo Sissoko is sent off in a 2-0 win at Sunderland.
25th March 2006 - 10 yellows and 2 reds as Everton are defeated 3-1 at Anfield with goals from a Phil Neville (og), García and Harry Kewell.
23rd December 2006 - Craig Bellamy scores his last Liverpool goal in a 2-0 home win over Watford.
26th January 2008 - A Benayoun hat-trick sees off a spirited performance by Havant & Waterlooville in the FA Cup.
2nd March 2008 - Aurélio scores his first Liverpool goal in a 3-1 win at Bolton.
5th April 2008 - Plessis makes his Liverpool debut in a 1-1 draw at Arsenal.
1st November 2008 - Kuyt's early goal is not enough as Spurs come back to win 2-1 in front of their biggest home crowd for 3 years.
3rd May 2009 - Lucas scores his first Premiership goal during a 3-0 win against Newcastle United. It was also Arbeloa's last appearance at Anfield.
16th August 2009 - Glen Johnson makes his full Liverpool debut along with Daniel Ayala who comes off the bench to replace Škrtel in a 2-1 defeat at Tottenham. Fernando Torres also plays in his 50th Premiership match.