DUDLEY referee Oliver Langford made his Premier League debut in bizarre circumstances on Sunday.
He was due to be the fourth official for Chelsea's game against Leicester City at Stamford Bridge but stepped up at short notice to take charge of the contest after Graham Scott got caught up in traffic ahead of kick-off.
Langford is not in the Select Group of match officials but is on the Group Two list and trained in VAR, which means he is qualified to take charge of an elite league match.
Scott, from Oxfordshire, was caught up in the aftermath of a crash on the M40 and only arrived at the ground at around 4pm, too late to take part in the pre-match warm-up. He did take on fourth official duties, though.
It was Langford's first ever run out at Premier League level, having refereed two Championship games this season, most recently the 1-1 draw between Birmingham and Bristol City eight days ago where he dished out five yellow cards.
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