Rob Styles of Portsmouth will referee his second Liverpool game of the season as we head to the Midlands to face West Bromwich Albion.

The 40-year old from Hampshire began refereeing in 1987 and has had a fairly rapid rise since. He became a Football League linesman in 1994, and finally made the Premiership list of referees in 2000. Two years later FIFA installed him on their list of officials.

He earned a reputation of not being backward in getting the cards out of his pocket, with only Mike Dean ahead of him in giving out cautions and dismissals. Last season Styles amassed a total of 123 yellows and 16 reds in only 37 games. This season he started to appear to have kept those cards in his pocket but a run of 19 cautions and 3 dismissals in his last 6 games has put paid to that idea.

This will be his ninth time in charge of the reds since he became a select group official, we have won 4 and drawn 3 of the previous 8 games with the only defeat coming at Charlton Athletic last season.

His assistants on Saturday will be Glenn Turner and Robert Lewis, and the fourth official is Howard Webb.

A few memorable matches involving Liverpool and Rob Styles.
29th December 2001- Michael Owen scores his 100th Liverpool goal in a 1-1 draw at West Ham United
14th August 2002 ? Milan Baroš scores his first Liverpool goals in a 3-2 win at Bolton Wanderers.
26th January 2003 ? Chris Kirkland’s season is over as he suffers a serious leg injury during the FA Cup 4th round match at Crystal Palace.
2nd November 2003 ? A late Danny Murphy penalty gives us a 2-1 win at Fulham. Luis Boa Morte was earlier sent-off for the hosts.
30th October 2004 ? Djibril Cissé’s season is over following his broken leg during the 2-2 draw at Blackburn Rovers.