On the footballing side of things, Mr McCurry is an extremely experienced official who has refereed international games and matches in European competitions. He has attracted a lot of controversy, partly because he keeps getting decisions wrong and is supposedly biased towards Rangers. It's certainly an accusation Dundee United manager Craig Levein aimed at him last season when he had an amusing rant following some dodgy decisions in a defeat at Ibrox.
To be honest, it's something I find hard to agree with. My first memory of Mr McCurry is when he officiated our first ever live SPL game against Rangers in August 2000. Saints were playing well before Rangers received a rather dodgy penalty that he seemed to take ages to give and went on to win 3-1.
On to the Soccerbase stats then. This will be the first Saints game Mr McCurry has been involved in this season. Last year he was in charge of five games, one of which was a 3-2 defeat to Hearts which doesn't bode well! The other games were draws with Motherwell and Dundee United, a defeat to Rangers (when we were denied a penalty) and a defeat to Aberdeen. Interestingly he only showed one red card all last season yet has already managed three this year.
In our first season back in the SPL in 2006/07 he was in charge of four of our games - draws against Aberdeen and Kilmarnock and home defeats to Dundee United and Dunfermline. You have to go back to our last season of first division football for the last time he was in charge of a Saints win, a win at Love Street over Airdrie United in which Brian McPhee was correctly sent off. Other games that season were wins over Queen of the South, Ross County and Clyde - the latter controversial as the first Saints goal was partly down to Charlie Adam's unnoticed handball!
A quick glance at the rest of the Saints games he has refereed this millenium turns up nothing controversial (aside from the aforementioned Rangers incident), the most exciting game being the 5-3 defeat to Queens in the League Challenge Cup in 2002. I would go into his Hearts games, but to be honest every referee seems to annoy their chairman these days so it's not worth it!
The only worry - aside from his usual incompetence - is that in his four SPL games this season he has dished out three red cards. What chance four in five after Saturday?