Rotherham United travel to Adams Park on Saturday to take on Wycombe Wanderers in the first league game of the new season and in the middle for this game is James Linington from Newport on the Isle of Wight.
James became an Assistant Referee in 2006. In that year he was an Assistant for the FA Vase Final and the League One Play-Off Final between Barnsley and Swansea. He was promoted to the National Group of Referee’s in 2008.
The last time the Millers and Mr Linington met was in January last year at Portman Road which saw a thirty-first minute Will Keane goal give Ipswich Town the one-nil win. Booked for Rotherham that day was ZaK Vyner.
In April 2017 James was in charge of the Millers when Birmingham City were the visitors to the New York Stadium. Kerim Frei put the visitors in front on seventy-three minutes but a Danny Ward goal five minutes from time gave Rotherham a share of the points.
September 2015 was the time before that when James was in the middle for a Rotherham game, on a Tuesday night at the Amex Stadium. Brighton took a two goal lead goals coming from Tomer Hemed and Dale Stephens with a Jonson Clarke-Harris goal twenty minutes from time being a consolation for the travelling Millers fans. David Stockdale from Brighton and Farrend Rawson of Rotherham saw yellow that evening.
The time before when James was in the middle for a Rotherham game was on a trip to Stevenage in League One in November 2013. A first half goal from Ben Pringle plus second half goals from Claude Davis and Michael O’Connor gave the Millers all three points that afternoon.
That same season saw James also in charge of our visit to the Broadfield Stadium when we took on Crawley Town. Matt Sadler, then with Crawley, opened the scoring for the hosts on the quarter of an hour mark but Kieran Agard and David Worrall replied for the visitors and the Millers took all three points back to South Yorkshire.
He was in the middle for our visit to the Memorial Stadium in February 2013 which saw the Millers beat Bristol Rovers by two goals to one. Scoring that evening for Rotherham was Kayode Odejayi and Lee Frecklington with Joe Anyinsah getting the consolation goal for the Pirates.
Bonfire Night 2011 saw Rotherham entertain Aldershot at Don Valley in a game which saw first half goals from Lewis Grabban and Chris Holroyd give the hosts the win which also saw Shot’s ‘keeper Ross Worner sent off ten minutes into the second half.
In the past James has been in charge of our games with Dagenham and Redbridge and Bristol Rovers. The first of those against the Daggers was in March 2010 at the London Borough of Barking & Dagenham Stadium where a goal from Adam Le Fondre just after the hour mark gave the Millers all three points. He was also the referee in charge of our visit to Wembley at the end of May which saw the Daggers win three-two.
This is the first game James has been in the middle for this season.
Running the lines at Adams Park we have Wade Smith and Matthew Jones with Matthew Donohue as Fourth Official.
