Halsey spent 12 years playing non-League football as a goalkeeper with teams such as Cambridge City[3] and Hertford Town before he started refereeing in 1989.

[6] Also in 2002, he was appointed as fourth official to Mike Riley for the FA Cup final at the Millennium Stadium, where Arsenal defeated Chelsea 2–0.

The news came months after Halsey's wife was diagnosed with leukaemia; she will require drugs courses for the rest of her life to treat the disease.

[10] On 9 August 2010, following his officiating of a friendly at Everton,[11] it was confirmed that Halsey was to return to the Premier League starting with the opening-day fixture, five days later, between Wigan Athletic and Blackpool.

[12] In September 2012, Halsey made a formal complaint to the police after two abusive messages were posted to him on Twitter that referred to his treatment for cancer.

The crowd at the game gave Halsey what he described as a "great reception" and added that he hoped his comeback after his illness had been an "inspiration" to other cancer sufferers.

[citation needed] He subsequently joined the pundit crew on BT Sport's television coverage to provide analysis of refereeing decisions during Premier League matches and now writes a regular column for caughtoffside.com.