RUFC – Whistleblower v The Owls

The man chosen to officiate our Carling Cup first round tie v Sheffield Wednesday at Hillsborough on Tuesday night is…

MR NIGEL S MILLER from WITTON GILBERT, COUNTY DURHAM


Nigel was born on March 5th 1960 and began refereeing in 1989.
He made the Football League assistant referees list in 1999 and was promoted to the National list of Referees in 2003.

His first ever Football League appointment as a Referee was on August 9th 2003.
He took charge of the opening day game between Huddersfield and Cambridge at the Alfred McAlpine Stadium.
He handed out his first caution after 33 minutes to Cambridge’s Fred Murray for Persistant infringements.
Nigel’s first ever red card was issued during his 10th First class game, and it was given to Macclesfield’s Colin Little, 44 minutes into their 2-2 draw at Hull City.
The offence was violent conduct and earned Little a straight red after he elbowed Hull captain and current Rotherham player Marc Joseph for an off the ball incident.

This will be Nigel’s 5th time in charge of a Millers first team game, the others are as follows.
19th February 2005….Championship….Rotherham 1 Derby County 3
1 yellow card….Jamal Campbell-Ryce (Rotherham)

31st March 2007….League 1….Rotherham 0 Bournemouth 3
2 yellow cards….Ian Henderson (Rotherham) Josh Gowling (Bournemouth)

9th October 2007….JPTrophy….Rotherham 1 Grimsby 1 (Grimsby won on pens)
0 cards

23rd February 2008….League 2….Rotherham 3 Lincoln City 2
1 yellow card….Shane Clarke (Lincoln)
1 Red….Mark Stallard (Lincoln)

Nigel has officiated at 2 Play-Off Semi Finals.
2005-06 Cheltenham 0 Wycombe 0
2006-07 Yeovil 0 Nottm Forest 2
He has also taken charge of 2 FL Trophy Northern Finals.
2005-06 Carlisle 2 Macclesfield 1
2007-08 Morecambe 0 Grimsby 1 (1 yellow card for former Miller David Artell.

Nigel’s seasonal record is…(not including JP Trophy games)
2003-2004 Games 26 Yellows 57 Reds 4
2004-2005 Games 35 Yellows 102 Reds 6
2005-2006 Games 39 Yellows 79 Reds 9
2006-2007 Games 38 Yellows 101 Reds 10
2007-2008 Games 34 Yellows 63 Reds 8

Totals Games 172 Yellows 402 (2.33 per game) Reds 37 (1 every 4.64 games)

Nigel had a very busy start to this season when he refereed the game between Oldham and Millwall at Boundary Park on Saturday.
6 players saw the yellow card, including Oldham debutant and former Miller Chris O’Grady.
But with the score standing at 3-1 to Millwall, the course of the game was changed when Millwall captain Paul Robinson was sent off.
Robinson saw red when he dragged Lee Hughes to the ground – denying a clear goal scoring opportunity – and conceding a penalty which Liddell sent into the bottom left-hand corner despite Forde diving the right way.
This gave Oldham the incentive and they went on to win the game 4-3.


Mr Miller will be assisted at Hillsborough by….

David I Storrie from West Yorkshire
David Unsworth from Greater Manchester

The Fourth Official is…

David K Benton from South Yorkshire