EFL make official decision ahead of Swansea City vs Portsmouth Championship showdown

The EFL have confirmed that referee Will Finnie will take charge of Portsmouth’s upcoming away clash against Swansea City. Finnie started refereeing at professional level during the 2018-19 season and progressed to EFL competitions the following campaign.

The Luton-born official has taken charge of five Championship matches over the course of his career, with four of those coming this season. In that time, he has produced 22 yellow cards without sending anyone off, giving him an average of 4.4 yellow cards per game, according to WhoScored.com.

Finnie has taken charge of five Portsmouth matches in his career so far and in that time the Blues have recorded three victories and two draws. His most recent game involving Portsmouth came in a 2-2 draw against Derby County at Fratton Park back in April.

Jonathan Hunt and Bhupinder Singh Gill will be the assistant referees for Portsmouth’s trip to the Swansea City.com stadium, with David Rock being placed on fourth official duties. Portsmouth are bottom of the Championship table, four points away from safety, but have two games in hand on a number of teams around them in the relegation battle after the recent postponements of games against Blackburn Rovers and Millwall.

John Mousinho’s side secured a 3-1 home victory against Preston in their last Championship match on Saturday 9 November and will look to continue that momentum in this weekend’s clash in South Wales.

Portsmouth’s upcoming opponents

Swansea City sit 11th in the Championship table after a mixed start which has seen the team win six, draw four and lose seven of their opening 17 matches. Luke Williams’ side are currently five points adrift of the play-off places and seven points clear of the relegation zone at this early stage.

The Swans have recorded three wins from their last five Championship matches, with the most recent of those coming in a 2-1 victory away to Derby County on Wednesday evening.

Zan Vipotnik and Ronald were the heroes on the night as Swansea hung on to secure victory despite a spirited effort from the Rams in the second half. Swansea City boss Williams admitted after the game that there was room for improvement, but was full of praise for his team’s fast start which saw them score twice in the opening 14 minutes.

Williams explained to BBC Sport: "We made it very hard for ourselves. The first 20-25 minutes, I thought we were excellent and from that point we lost a grip of the game and it was a rearguard action from us for an hour or so.

"I thought Derby were excellent in terms of the way they regrouped and the energy they threw at the game. They caused us a lot of problems and we didn’t have an answer particularly for that. We defended the box really well, which we have done time and again, but it would have been a better game for us if we'd been able to control it for longer. We struggled from 2-0 for the rest of the game. We had to stand up to the atmosphere and be strong and the players did that fantastically."