Graham Poll will referee his second game this week in the North West as we play Middlesbrough on Wednesday night at Anfield.

On Sunday he was at Wigan for the 3-3 draw against Tottenham Hotspur.

The 43-year old is one of the Premiership's most experienced officials, with only Dermot Gallagher of the current crop of referees having more years under his belt. Poll is the only current official in the Premiership to have appeared in both World Cup and European Nations Cup tournaments. He was in Japan for the World Cup, and two years previously he was in the middle for the Euro2000 tournament. However he will always be remembered for giving Croatia's Josip Simunic three yellow cards in their final group match against Australia. He never refereed another game in the tournament despite being one of the pre-tournament favourites to referee the final itself.

Poll has gone on record to say that he will never referee another tournament again, but was in Poland for their EURO2008 qualifier against Serbia in September and later on that month he was in Spain for Real Madrid's 5-1 win against Dynamo Kiev, then he was in Greece for Olympiacos against Roma. Finally earlier this month he was in Italy for Lille's 2-0 win at Milan.

Two seasons ago he was the referee for the UEFA Cup Final between Sporting Lisbon and CSKA Moscow in Portugal, this was his first European final appointment. Domestically he has refereed both FA Cup and League Cup finals.

Controversy is always pretty close to the Tring referee, only in August this year local official James Tattan appeared in The Mirror saying that Poll can virtually pick and chose his games and that he is "very unpopular" amongst his fellow officials.
This season has already been a traumatic one for the ‘Thing from Tring' as allegations about favouritism when being appointed to games, and several Premiership managers have questioned his ability of late. Just the other week he was accused of helping Charlton Athletic after he gave Charlton's manager Alan Pardew a sign to say that midfielder Alex Song was close to getting sent-off in their match against Reading. Song was immediately substituted.

This will be his fourth time in charge of a Liverpool game this season, and his second at Anfield. He has refereed Middlesbrough once in the Premiership and once in the FA Cup this season.

Poll has already amassed 137 yellow cards and 7 red ones in his 40 games so far this season.

His assistants for the game are Dave Babski and Roger East with Phil Joslin as the fourth official.

A few memorable matches involving Liverpool and Graham Poll.

17th December 1995 - Two Robbie Fowler goals give us a 2-0 win over Manchester United at Anfield.

10th April 1998 - Michael Owen is sent off 4 minutes after scoring the equaliser at Old Trafford.

21st August 2000 - Poll sends off Gary McAllister, Dietmar Hamann and Patrik Vieira at Highbury as we lose 2-0. Hamann's red was later rescinded.

18th February 2001 - Markus Babbel scores his only FA Cup goal for Liverpool during a 4-2 win against Manchester City.

31st March 2001 - Danny Murphy sees red but Liverpool hold on to beat Manchester United 2-0 with goals from Gerrard and Fowler.

27th August 2001 - Sander Westerveld plays his last game for Liverpool as we lose 2-1 at Bolton Wanderers.

2nd September 2002 - Abel Xavier plays his last Premiership game for Liverpool during a 2-2 draw with Newcastle United at Anfield.

24th January 2004 - Bruno Cheyrou scores both goals as we knock out Newcastle United of the FA Cup at Anfield.

28th December 2005 - Goals from Crouch, Gerrard and Cisse give us a 3-1 win at Goodison Park against Everton who have Phil Neville and Arteta sent off.

14th February 2006 - Luis Garcia scores a late winner against Arsenal after Lehmann had saved a Gerrard penalty earlier in the game.

22nd April 2006 - Goals from John Arne Riise and Luis Garcia give us a 2-1 FA Cup Semi-Final victory over Chelsea.

7th May 2006 - Djibril Cisse scores in his last Premiership appearance for Liverpool, also playing for the last time was Fernando Morientes. Robbie Fowler and Peter Crouch score the other goals in a 3-1 win at Portsmouth.

1st January 2007- Liverpool open the year with a 3-0 win against Bolton Wanderers at Anfield.