Darren Cann is the most experienced match official in Premier League history – and the 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.