If Soccerbase is to be believed, he's already taken charge of more Saints games this season than last term. In 2007/08, he only refereed one game involving us - a 1-1 draw at home with Inverness Caley Thistle back in February. Later that season, he sent off Motherwell's Bob Malcolm at Parkhead. Old Firm bias or just an understandable acceptance that Malcolm is a ned?
In our first season back in the SPL Mr Murray again took charge of two of our games, both at Love Street. One was a 1-0 defeat to Kilmarnock and the other a 3-2 loss to Rangers. Unsurprisingly, this saw him favour Rangers with the award of a dodgy free-kick from which they equalised. He also turned down numerous penalty appeals by Saints before awarding one late in the game.
If you go back to the promotion season of 2005/06, Mr Murray was in charge at Love Street on the glorious day in April when we beat Dundee to win the league. That season, he also officiated when we took away wins at St Johnstone (in the League Cup) and at Brechin in Tuesday night matches. The previous season he was at Love Street just once, a 3-2 win over Ross County that saw Charlie Adam score from the halfway line for the visitors.
He was in charge of three Saints games in 2003/04 - the first an opening day draw at Raith Rovers when he gave us a penalty, having just sent off our defender Kirk Broadfoot. Mr Murray was also the referee when we lost to Clyde on a Friday night in one of John Coughlin's final games in charge, and was back in Paisley when we knocked Airdrie United out of the cup. Going by Soccerbase, that season was the first time he encountered the Buddies in a refereeing capacity.
In terms of Dundee United games, he has only refereed one in the last two and a half seasons - a narrow 1-0 win over Aberdeen at Pittodrie this season. Before that his last game was in 2005/06, a draw at Inverness Caley Thistle. You then have to go back to March 2004 for another United game he was given - a comfortable home win over Kilmarnock. And, according to Soccerbase, that's all the games he's done involving the Arabs.
So, what can we draw from this? It would seem, unsurprisingly, he favours the Old Firm. He may have punished us earlier this season at Tynecastle, but Tonet deserved his red card. He does seem to like showing lots of cards, regardless of the colour, and it will be interesting to see if he takes this approach on Saturday.