Man in the Middle: Kevin Friend
16th September
First team
Kevin Friend will be the man in the middle when Swansea City go to Stoke City on Tuesday night (8pm).
Premier League official Friend, from Leicestershire, took charge of the Swans on three occasions last season – and they lost all three games.
He refereed the 5-0 thrashing at Liverpool on Boxing Day last year, the FA Cup defeat to Tottenham and the 1-0 loss at Bournemouth on the penultimate weekend of 2017-18.
Friend has been in charge of a host of Swans games stretching back to a fourth-tier win at Cambridge back in 2004, with the 2013 Capital One Cup final and the 3-2 win at Anfield in January 2017 among them.
He will be assisted on Tuesday by Matthew Wilkes and Derek Eaton, while Peter Bankes will be the fourth official.