Meet the officials | Sunderland

Gavin Ward will be the man in the middle when Swansea City host Sunderland at the Swansea.com Stadium on Saturday.

This will be the Surrey-based official’s second trip to SA1 this term having taken charge when the Swans hosted Millwall in August. On that occasion, he handed out five bookings with Ryan Manning and Michael Obafemi carded for the Swans.

Ward took charge of his first EFL match in 2007 - a League Two encounter between Barnet and Hereford – and, after 10 years working primarily in the lower leagues, he was added to Select Group 2 ahead of the 2018-19 season.

Saturday will be the 13th time Ward has overseen a Swans match since first blowing the whistle in SA1 in February 2010.

So far this term, Ward has taken charge of nine matches – mostly in the Championship – handing out 27 yellow cards and no reds.

On the weekend, he will be assisted by Andrew Dallison and Bhupinder Gill. Coincidentally – as was the case for the Millwall game last month – Ollie Yates will be the fourth official.