Speaking to TheFA.com the Hampshire official says that The FA Cup Final is the biggest day in the football calendar and is proud to be representing his fellow referees.

"When I got the phone call the first thing I thought about was the honour," he reveals. "It's the pinnacle of any referee's career - domestically there is no greater honour.

"There's also a sense of responsibility that you carry for all referees. It is the showpiece match in the football calendar and it's a major day as far as the refereeing world is concerned, too.

"You feel a great deal of responsibility to do the best for yourself and every other referee. But I'm really looking forward to it.

"The FA Cup is such a great occasion. What I hope, and I'm sure everyone else does as well, is that when I blow the final whistle, the match is remembered as a game that befits the occasion of The FA Cup Final."

Now in his fifth season as a top-flight referee, Styles feels that his season has gone very well and taking the middle for The Final will cap it off perfectly.

"I hoped that my name would be under consideration for the appointment," he admits.

"With the help and support of my fellow officials, I've been really pleased with the season I've had. I've refereed a lot of matches and I think my performances have been generally well received.

"I looked at some of the games I'd taken; the Fifth Round tie between Everton and Manchester United was quite a high profile match and I'd received an appointment in each Round between the Third Round and the Quarter-Final so, having not received an appointment for the Semis, you hope that your name is in the hat for The Final, as indeed many of my colleagues would have done, I'm sure."

But rather than taking it as praise for his own season, Styles is keen to stress how much team-work goes into officiating at the top level.

"I'm a great believer in it being a team effort," he says. "For starters I have a lot of people to thank for getting to this stage in refereeing. The FA, the PGMO (Professional Game Match Officials Board) really get behind referees in coaching them and helping them to develop.

"From now until the 21 May there'll be another team making sure that we get to The Final fit and healthy to referee the game.

"On the day itself we'll be a team, too, my assistants and fourth official, who I'm delighted to be working with, they are all good friends of mine."

But it was another close friend and former FA Cup Final official who got him into refereeing.

Mick Pierce, who was on the line as Wimbledon beat Liverpool in the 1988 Final at Wembley, urged Styles to turn to the whistle back in 1987. He soon qualified as a referee in Portsmouth and Styles began to progress through local football and semi-professional leagues to the Football League as a linesman, before his first match in the Premier League in August 2000 - a 1-0 win for Leicester City at West Ham.

"I used to play football and would occasionally run the line if I was a sub," says Styles.

"Mick was a great friend of mine, we used to play cricket together, and as a top class referee at the time we'd always chat about football and he talked me in to taking the referees' course.

"Alan Robinson was in my referee society, too, he was in charge of the 1986 Final between Liverpool and Everton, so as soon as I started myself, I had two role-models who had been officials at a Cup Final. It gave my career a great kick-start," he says.

"Now I'm at the other end, part of what we do on a regular basis in the county is to keep an eye on referees coming through. There is a couple of referees I'm watching closely, so hopefully they will continue to progress, too."

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