Darren Cann is the most experienced match official in Premier League history – and he has a simple strategy for coping with the verbal abuse that inevitably comes his way at times.
The 55-year-old from Norfolk, who overtook Mike Dean’s record of officiating at 562 top-flight games last month, has refereed and run the line for two decades in front of 50,000-plus crowds – often impassioned by decisions against their team.
Cann, who was assistant referee at both the Champions League final and World Cup final in 2010, imagines himself back at some of the less high-profile Norfolk venues where he began his career as a match official.
“Usually they’re not saying particularly pleasant things. I started refereeing in Norfolk and I remember the very same, so I take things [from that] into every Premier League game now,” Cann told BBC Radio Norfolk.
“I pretend I’m at Eaton Park or Sloughbottom or somewhere around Norfolk where it’s simply 11 against 11 on a green pitch. If you can block out the noise, you can focus and hopefully get decisions correct more often than not.
“There’s a lot more scrutiny these days and I make mistakes the same as everybody else but you can’t dwell on it. You’ll get the next decision wrong as well if you think too much about it.
“It’s a bit like a centre-forward who misses an open goal, if you dwell on it you’ll miss the next chance as well. You can’t change the decision, the most important thing is to get the next one right.”
Cann, a former youth team player at Norwich City and Crystal Palace, has officiated at more than 1,000 professional games since he began in 1991, moving on to the English Football League list in 2001 and the Premier League four years later.
He is currently one of three assistant referees from Norfolk on the Premier League list, along with Lee Betts and Dan Robathan, and wants to help more budding officials to progress through the county pathway.
“There are only 30 Premier League assistant referees in the country and we have three of them in Norfolk but it would be great to have others coming into the Premier League in future,” Cann added.
“Norfolk FA run regular referee courses and I’d recommend it to anyone who’s interested.
“I still love doing it and I’m lucky to have the best seat in the house but, when time allows and I do finally hang up the flag, it’d be great to give something back to local referees.”