Meet The Ref – Bournemouth

Tuesday night’s man in the middle is James Linington who will take charge of his first Swans match of the season when we travel to Bournemouth.  It will be his first Swans game since the 1-1 draw with Millwall last June.

Linington has overseen 19 Championship fixtures so far this season, issuing 41 yellow cards and 3 red cards in them.

Swans fans with longer memories will remember Linington sending off three of our players back in a match in 2009 when we exited the Carling Cup against Scunthorpe (read the match report from that game here) in a game that saw us end with just 7 men – including an injured Besian Idrizaj on the pitch to prevent abandonment of the game.

After the game Swans manager Paulo Sousa said “There were very bad events that happened. Of course I don’t appreciate it. I appreciate football completely different without the things. But I don’t like to speak about this as we have ways to do this.

“We have our opportunity to write to the FA about the referee’s performance but at this moment we do not know what offences the players have committed.

“I never wanted the match abandoned but Idrizaj should not have gone back on the field but as we were then down to only six players the referee put pressure on us to get him back on.”

The FA defended their man after the game with their statement that said “The referee advised [Swansea manager] Paulo Sousa for the injured player to return to the field so the game could be concluded

“The Swansea management could have refused to send the player back on but it was in the best interests of everyone involved in the game for it to have a conclusion.

“Discussing what punishment Swansea would have faced if they did not comply with the referee’s advice and any subsequent abandonment would be hypothetical because the player returned to the field.

“But should the game have been abandoned, there would clearly have been an investigation.”

Let’s hope for a quieter evening at Bournemouth tomorrow night!

Linington will be assisted by Daniel Leach and Lee Venamore while Keith Stroud is the 4th official.