The 45-year-old Premier League official, from Cowplain, has announced his retirement from the game with immediate effect.

It brings the curtain down on a career in which he spent nine years refereeing in the top flight and took charge of the 2005 FA Cup final between Manchester United and Arsenal.

Now he will concentrate on his role as a director at Waterlooville-based Oakwood Groundworks, a company he helped found in the late 1980s.
He said: 'I have completely retired from refereeing and will never do it again.

'I have made the decision to call time on my footballing career.

'The time, effort, energy, the whole package involved in being a full-time domestic and international referee was not returning what I was giving.

'And I cannot carry on without that buzz, commitment and job satisfaction.

'It seems very callous but in a 280-day 40-week football season I spend 110 days of those away from home.

'That's down to travelling, refereeing, attending bi-weekly training camps, those kind of things.

'Given that kind of commitment, it has to give you back and it had stopped doing that for me.

'There is no way I wanted to carry on but lose motivation and commitment, that wouldn't have been fair.

'At 45 I can look back at my career with pride and am at the stage where I can go out with loads of happy memories, job satisfaction and fulfilment.

'I did not want to carry on refereeing and not feel committed or motivated.

'That wouldn't have been doing the general public any favours.'