Bristol Rovers host Lincoln City at The Memorial Stadium in League One today, with a kick-off time of 15:00.
Referee: Lewis Smith.
Assistants Referees: Justin Amey and Paul Stonier.
Fourth Official: Declan O’Shea.
QUIZ: How much can you remember about last season’s match between Bristol Rovers at Lincoln City at The Memorial Stadium? Have a go at our quiz here or further down the page!
You can discuss this refereeing appointment here, or in the comments at the bottom as well as get involved with our pre-match discussion, and many other topics on our 100% Imps forum!
Match Thread: Bristol Rovers v Lincoln City
This will be the first time Lewis Smith has been the man in the middle for a match involving Bristol Rovers, and only his second match in charge of a game involving Lincoln City.
He made his Football League debut as referee in October 2022, for the match between Stockport County and Shrewsbury Town (1-0) in the EFL Trophy, showing 2 yellow cards.
Smith was officially promoted to the National Group (League One & League Two) ahead of the current season, having officiated several EFL matches last season.
The only Lincoln City match he has overseen was the 1-0 win at home versus Oxford United in League One last season. He showed 2 yellow cards that afternoon, both of which were shown to U’s players.
He received an average rating of 8.16 following the 1-0 win against Oxford United last season. Some of the comments can be found below:
sedgleyimp: “Wasn’t too difficult a match to referee, but he did well. No disputes over our penalty and didn’t fall for the nonsensical fall to the ground holding his face exploits of their Number 5 when Poole’s boot was closer to me in the upper 1 than his head!!
8.”
johnolbe: “8. Pretty good with nothing really contentious. Not often a penalty is accepted with no protests from players or managers though Joey Barton would have called it a dive no doubt. Shirt was nice and bright and smoothly ironed too so on reflection I’ll up his mark to 8.5”
Chartist: “9. He wasn’t fooled by either side’s fakery. Oddly, man sat by me, who curses refs every game, also abused this one- despite a sensible, professional performance. I guess some people expect the worst and don’t give credit where it’s due.”
Lewis Smith oversaw a total of 34 matches during the 2022/23 season, showing 107 yellow cards and 1 red card. He was most card-happy in the Conference match between Boreham Wood and Torquay United (0-1) when he showed 7 yellow cards, including a booking for former Imp Chris Bush.
So far this season, Smith has refereed 6 matches, showing 30 yellow cards and no red cards. Two of these matches have been in League One: Northampton Town 0-1 Stevenage (5 yellow cards) and Peterborough United 2-4 Derby County (3 yellow cards).
Sources: English Football League & Soccer Base.
– @Official_BRFC (a): Today's Match Officials:https://t.co/lDYzDrUa8a#UTG #BristolRovers #WeAreImps
— Vital Lincoln City (@VitalLincoln) September 2, 2023
