2010 League Cup Final On 28 February 2010 Dowd refereed the
League Cup final between
Manchester United and
Aston Villa at
Wembley Stadium. In the fifth minute of the match, Dowd deemed Manchester United's
Nemanja Vidić to have fouled Aston Villa's
Gabriel Agbonlahor in the penalty area. Whilst Dowd did award Villa a
penalty kick, he elected not to punish Vidić; some commentators felt the offence qualified as a
professional foul and therefore warranted a
red card. United overturned Villa's early penalty to ultimately win the match, and trophy, 2–1.
2011 FA Community Shield Dowd officiated the
2011 FA Community Shield on 7 August 2011 between
Manchester City and
Manchester United, also the 160th
Manchester derby, at London's
Wembley Stadium. United won the match 3–2 with a last-minute winner courtesy of
Nani. Dowd issued seven yellow cards during the course of the game.
2012 FA Cup Final Dowd refereed the
2012 FA Cup Final between
Chelsea and
Liverpool, at Wembley Stadium on 5 May 2012. He was assisted by Stuart Burt and Andrew Garratt and
Mike Jones was the fourth official. Dowd described his appointment to the Cup final as an "honour and privilege". The fixture took place on the third anniversary of the death of his father, whom Dowd said had always hoped to see his son referee a final of the FA Cup. ==Card statistics==