Very soon he showed his potential to be a leading referee and picked up a fair number of top division games. His progress was accelerated by FIFA's decision to reduce its retirement age for referees to forty five. This provided new opportunities for a number of younger officials and Don was one of five promoted to the FIFA List in 1992. His appointment to that year's FA Cup Final between Liverpool and Sunderland marked him out as a leader amongst the new crop of English international referees and he was to hold that status over the next few years.