Meet the officials | Blackburn Rovers

2nd August
First team

Stephen Martin will be the man in the middle when Swansea City host Blackburn Rovers at the Swansea.com Stadium for their first home match of the new season.

Staffordshire-born Martin has officiating in his blood with his father and grandfather blowing the whistle in the Football League. He first took up refereeing in 2002 and had made it to step five of the football pyramid within six years.

He joined the National List of Referees ahead of the 2012-13 season and took charge of his first Championship match in January of that campaign. In 2015, he was included in the list of Select Group 2 officials.

This will be the twelfth time he has taken charge of a Swans games. Nine of the previous contests were league matches and the most recent of these was Swans last home match against Queens Park Rangers.

On that occasion, Martin didn’t hand out any bookings to either team. That was a bit of a rarity for the official however as it was was just the second time in 34 matches that he didn’t show a card, with the other being an opening day draw between Cardiff City and Barnsley.

Saturday will be the first time he has overseen a match in the 2022-23 season.

He will be assisted by Craig Taylor and Lee Venamore. Ollie Yates will be the fourth official.