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The Impossible Job Inside the World of Premier League referees by William Rollston.

6 minutes into referee Darren England's fourth Premier League match of the season, he found himself with the decision to make.

A fuller midfielder, Nathaniel Chalibur, had made a late challenge and caught a new castful player who fell to the ground with a yelp so loud it cut through the noise of the Jordi away fans.

That's fucking red, an old time acceded in front of me, yelp.

It was a moment that could determine the course of the match and Darren England's season.

Competition among elite domestic referees is fierce.

Their performances are meticulously dissected, reviewed and ranked by their bosses at professional game match officials limited, PG-MOL, the body that runs officiating an English professional football.

Among the 19 referees who work predominantly in the Premier League, the best performers are appointed most often, and they are the ones who get the most sought after matches.

Those between the top six clubs, which officials call Golden Games.

If, as senior PG-MOL figures like to say, the Premier League officials are the 21st team in the division, then its star players are Anthony Taylor and Michael Oliver, who are appointed to most of the big matches.

Just like Liverpool will always play, Virgil Van Dyke in a big game, will appoint our big hitters, Martin Atkinson,

a former referee who now works as a coach for PG-MOL told me.

England was just starting his third season in the Premier League, and at 36 he was among the youngest referees in the division.

He hadn't yet been assigned a Golden Game, but his target this season was to get himself in contention.

He knew that major mistakes could lead him to being temporarily demoted to lower leagues and might set him back months, even years.

For a moment England allowed the Newcastle attack to unfold before stopping play.

To warrant a red card, according to the laws of the game, Chalibur's tackle would need to have endangered the safety of the Newcastle player, or to have been made with excessive force or brutality.

Sending off a full-and-player this early would hand Newcastle a huge advantage, and England was conscious he hadn't been in the right position to judge.

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