If his recent appointments are any guide, Wednesday’s referee, Craig Pawson from Sheffield, is the Football League’s top-performing official this season.

Just over a month ago he was given a taster of life in the top flight when he refereed the Premier League game between Swansea and Newcastle.

As it happened, that was a fairly mundane encounter, but he followed it up with a potentially more volatile match at the Amex Stadium where Brighton defeated local rivals Crystal Palace, 3-0.

Craig then had a busy Easter weekend, refereeing bury v Crewe on Good Friday and Cardiff v Blackburn on Easter Monday. On Sunday, he was fourth official at Newcastle v Fulham.

Now in his fifth season as a league referee, Mr Pawson’s first game at this level was Dale’s visit to Grimsby on the opening day of the 2008/09 campaign.

We have seen him on four other occasions since then, as shown in this list of Dale appointments:

Aug 2008 Grimsby v Rochdale, D 0-0

Sep 2009 Rochdale v Hereford W 4-1

Jan 2010 Rochdale v Port Vale D 0-0

Oct 2010 Bristol R v Rochdale L 1-2

Apr 2012 Chesterfield v Rochdale L 1-2

Craig ended last season by refereeing the League Two play-off final at Wembley between Crewe and Cheltenham, while this term he has overseen 32 matches, showing 88 yellow cards and three red.

Photo: Action Images

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