Steve Tanner began refereeing in 1987, starting in the Southern League and was promoted to the list of Football League assistant referees in 1998.
In 2003 he progressed to the National List of Football League referees, taking control of his first match on 9 August 2003 in a Third Division match between Kidderminster and Mansfield.
He took charge of the Championship play-off semi-final second leg between Watford and
He was promoted to the Select Group of referees at the start of the 2007/08 after refereeing three Premier League games in the previous season as 'trial' matches, the first of which was the encounter between Reading and Everton on 23 December 2006, although one of the three matches was abandoned after ten minutes
On 13 May 2007 he refereed the first leg Championship play-off semi-final between Wolves and
So far this season he has taken charge of 23 matches producing 68 yellow and 6 red cards. The first red card of the season was for Alex Bruce in their 2-0 defeat at Portman Road against Wolves.
His last match was in the Premier League at the Reebok on 21 February as Bolton beat West Ham 2-1.
His assistants against
Steve Tanner and
25/08/07 - PNE 0
07/04/07 - C.Palace 3 PNE 0 - (Bookings: Alexander / Pugh).
03/02/07 -
27/10/06 -
24/09/05 - C.Palace 1 PNE 1 - (Goal: Lucketti - Bookings: Jones / Lucketti / Nowland / Sedgwick - Sent Off: Dichio /Davis)
05/03/05 - West Ham 1 PNE 2 - (Goals: Nugent /Agyemang - Bookings: Alexander / Sedgwick