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Who Is In The Middle Of Our Game At Elland Road?

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The man in the middle for Rotherham United’s trip to Elland Road on Saturday is Robert Jones from Merseyside whose was last in charge of the Millers at Wembley in May which Rotherham won two-one against Shrewsbury Town.

After two years officiating in the National League Robert was promoted to the Football League for the start of the 2016/17 season.

Before the League One Play-Off Final Robert’s last time in the middle of a Millers game was in January this year when Portsmouth were the visitors to the New York Stadium which saw a goal in the last minute of the game from Joe Mattock gave the hosts all three points. Josh Emmanuel was the only player yellow carded during the afternoon.

He was also in the middle earlier in the season, again at the New York Stadium, when, strangely enough, Shrewsbury Town were the visitors. The Millers missed an early penalty with Kieffer Moore’s spot kick being well saved by Shrews’ ‘keeper Dean Henderson. Minutes later Jon Nolan gave the visitors the lead but on the fifty-third minute the Shrews were down to ten men after Abu Ogogo hacked down Shaun Cummings and was sent for an early bath. Richie Towell equalised for the hosts with fifteen minutes to go but in time added on at the end of the game Stefan Payne won the game for the visitors from close range. Apart from the straight red for Ogogo yellow cards went to Richard Wood of the Millers and Town’s Aristote Nsiala.

The first time Robert met the Millers as a referee was in April last season which saw a rare away point for Rotherham with Richie Smallwood scoring on nine minutes at Deepdale. Unfortunately for the Millers Steve May scored four minutes before half-time to give Rochdale a point. Smallwood was the only person to get a yellow card that afternoon.

Of the three games Robert has reffed this season he has shown ten yellow cards.

Shaun Hudson and Mark Russell will be running the line at Elland Road and the Fourth Official will be John Brooks who made headlines in 2013 when he told the Manchester City players to go and thank their fans who had paid extortionate prices to watch them away at Arsenal.

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