Bell gets first QPR game at Southampton – Referee Tuesday, 22nd Aug 2023 12:33 by Clive Whittingham A new referee for both Southampton and QPR this weekend at St Mary’s with young Sheffield official James Bell in charge.
Referee >>> James Bell (Sheffield), second year on the Championship list.
Assistants >>> Ian Cooper (Kent) and George Byrne (Suffolk)
Fourth Official >>> Oliver Langford (West Mids), has been involved in three of QPR’s first four league games either as referee or fourth official.
History
First QPR appointment.
Stats
Bell was promoted onto the league list for the 2020/21 campaign and after two campaigns in League One and Two was upped into the Championship for the start of the 2022/23 campaign. He did 17 matches last year, nine of them at this level, with 58 yellows and three reds shown.
Two of those red cards came in Plymouth matches – one for Argyle in injury time at Portsmouth as they conceded in the last minute to draw 2-2, and another for Accrington when the Green Army won 2-0 up in Lancashire. He has a chequered past with Plymouth. In May 2021 he sent off Jerome Opoku in a 3-1 home loss to Sunderland in League One. After the game manager Ryan Lowe went to town on the young official, saying that before the match he’d been laughing and joking about how, as a Sheff Wed fan, he used to sing Lowe’s name from the terrace when he played for the Owls, but then afterwards he’d refused to meet and speak about the red card decision. This would come back to haunt Bell at the end of the 22/23 campaign when he was appointed to referee Ipswich v Charlton, until Town fans discovered the old Lowe quotes online and kicked up a stink about him doing the game given how Ipswich and Sheff Wed were locked in a promotion battle. He was replaced for the fixture. He later issued a red card to Lowe, by now Preston manager, in a game against Birmingham.
One game in each competition so far this year: MK Dons 0 Wycombe 2 in the League Cup; Burton 0 Derby 3 in League One; and Stoke 1 Watford 0 in the Championship last weekend. A dozen yellows and no reds to date. Neither QPR nor Southampton have ever had a match with this referee.
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Blogs 31 bloggersKnees-up Mother Brown #19 by wessex_exile February, and the U’s enter the most pivotal month of the season. Six games in just four weeks, with four of them against sides also in the bottom six. By March we should be either well clear of danger, or even deeper in the sh*t. With Danny Cowley’s U’s still unbeaten, and looking stronger game on game, I’m sure it’ll be the former, but first we have to do our bit to consign Steve ‘Sour Grapes’ Cotterill’s FGR back to non-league. After our shambolic 5-0 defeat at New Lawn, nothing would give me greater pleasure, even if it meant losing one of my closest awaydays in the process. What’s the excuse going to be today Steve – shocking pitch, faking head injuries, Mexican banditry or some other bit of sour-grapery bullsh*t? AFC Bournemouth Polls |