Waugh joined the Football League list at the start of the 2009/10 season. He refereed 22 games that season. Two of them involved non-league clubs in the FA Cup and the rest were all in Leagues One and Two with his debut league game coming at Vale Park in the League Two clash between Port Vale and Rochdale in August 2009.
October 2010 saw him given his first Championship game, Preston's 1-1 home draw against Reading. In a controversial game in which Keith Treacy scored for North End, Darel Russell was sent off with six other players yellow carded.
A month later Waugh was slated by both managers after an FA Cup game between Darlington and Bristol Rovers. That was at the beginning of November and he didn't referee again until April.
This season he's refereed six games to date, three in League One, two in League Two and one in the Carling Cup, and now comes his second opportunity at Championship level.
Since joining the league he's refereed a total of 43 games during which he's handed out a total of 116 yellow cards and 9 red cards. This season, in the six games, the card total is 17 yellow and 1 red, the red card going to Accrington's Kevin McIntyre in their 2-1 home defeat against Southend. Of those cards, 11 have gone to home team players with 6 (including his last four) to away team players.
Waugh's last game was the 0-0 draw between Tranmere and Yeovil at Prenton Park two weeks ago. There were just two yellow cards in that game, to Luke Ayling and Max Ehmer of Yeovil.
The assistant referees are Mark Jones (Nottinghamshire) and Steve Rubery (Essex) and the fourth official at London Road is Mathew Buonassisi (Northamptonshire).