Coach to caddy to man in the middle: Former AFC Telford United man aiming to become top official

Former Coventry City, MK Dons and Portsmouth forward Carl Baker spent 14 months at the New Bucks Head, having arrived at the club as assistant boss to former manager Paul Carden in November 2021.

Baker featured 22 times as a player for the Bucks and scored one goal, before going on to finish his playing days at fellow non-league outfit Quorn.

The 42-year-old, who climbed for non-league and went on to win the League Two title with Portsmouth, is now making a move into refereeing, having been selected as one of ten ex-professionals to be part of the 'Player to Match Official' programme, a three year joint venture between the PGMOL and the PFA.

Baker and his fellow 'students', have to attend regular three day camps, as well as study clips, complete coursework and referee games.

The ex-Buck discussed how he fell out of love with the game, before the chance to enrol in the new programme came around, in an interview with Sky Sports at a recent refereeing camp.

Baker, who found himself caddying for his friend and professional golfer Robert Rock at last year's US Open, described how leaving football took its toll on him, before a new opportunity emerged.

He said: "I had a really difficult six to nine months where I was struggling to get out of bed.

"I didn't know what to do. I was waking up and I didn't have any purpose, I didn't have a job.

"I'd always been told where to be, what time to be there, what kit to wear, what to eat and then to have that to go to absolutely nothing, I would wake up in the morning and think 'what am I going to do now?' I didn't know what my next step was.

"When this opportunity came up (it meant) I was still involved in football. It was the perfect timing for me and it's given me a new lease of life."

The forward, who played over 160 times for Coventry and even had a spell playing in India, has thrown himself into the new programme, and insists he has watched 1,000 games.

For over a month he has been refereeing three matches a week at academy level and the occasional game for West Brom Women.

The ex-Bucks man is looking to gain as much experience as possible during his time on the programme - and has expressed that he has lofty ambitions of climbing the levels.

He added: "I've got that hunger to learn and want to do well.

"I'd love to get as high as possible, exactly the same as I was when I was a player," he says.

"I'll put 100 per cent into my fitness, my learning and doing the games, then see how it goes. I've not really set myself a target in terms of I want to get there and I want to do that, but I just want to get as high as possible.

"I'd love to referee a professional game, but I understand it's a difficult and long process and we've got a lot of work to do before that.

"The education, the knowledge and the time and effort the PGMOL and the PFA are putting into us is fantastic. They're treating us exactly the same as they are with their top guys and we're doing sessions with their top guys. I'm just trying to pick up little golden nuggets from their experiences.

"I absolutely love it - and a lot more than I thought I would."