Thomas Bramall, a 32-year-old from Sheffield, is in charge of QPR for the third time already this season as the R’s face West Brom at home tomorrow.
Referee >>> Thomas Bramall (Sheffield), despite only joining the EFL list in 2018/19, Bramall has been promoted to the Premier League list for the first time this season.
Assistants >>> Derek Eaton (Gloucestershire) and Steven Meredith (Nottinghamshire)
Fourth Official >>> Lee Swabey (Devon)
QPR 2 Reading 1, Friday October 7, 2022, Championship
Carroll’s opener was a blow, not least because while newly promoted Premier League referee Thomas Bramall was closer to the incident than Joao’s sock ties and showed eyes like a shit house rat to spot the contact and award the kick immediately, he’d only a few moments prior to that committed the cardinal refereeing sin of not looking through the play towards a linesman and been punished by missing a hand ball in the Reading box from Sam Hutchinson so blatant they were appealing for it on the International Space Station. Arm stretched out from his body, nobody around, Iroegbunam’s back post header collected, pulled into the body, and pushed out for a corner, all with a sweeping motion of the left arm. I just… I can’t speyk.
Thereafter, in front of the Sky cameras, of course, Bramall did that contrary referee thing of trying to show that he wouldn’t be bullied or cowed by a home crowd and the fact he’d given one penalty to the away team while missing a really fucking obvious one for the home. Carroll took a turn in absolutely rattling through the shins of Tyler Roberts close to the touchline on the stroke of half time and was given the benefit of the doubt with a yellow card four inches thick produced from the top pocket almost before the silly old cunt had hit the ground. Benefit of doubt was metered out almost as haphazardly as the advantage rule. Here goes Ilias Chair look, past one bloke that’s fouled him but he's kept it so we’re playing on, and then around another who’s fouled him too, but we’re playing on still, even though he’s now lost the ball almost immediately, and sorry mate I’d stay to give you an explanation for why that is but I think a Reading player might have been fouled over here now so I’m going to charge across and give a big, fuck off, free kick to them just to show how authoritative and in control of the game I am. Total, total penarse. Honestly, every week I’m sitting through things like this. I’m just going to leave the engine running one night. No funeral.
QPR: Dieng 7; Laird 6 (Kakay 26, 6), Dunne 7, Clarke-Salter 7, Paal 6; Iroegbunam 7, Field 6 (Dickie 69, 6), Johansen 6 (Dozzell 74, 6); Roberts 6 (Amos 74, 6), Dykes 7, Chair 7
Subs not used: Archer, Adomah, Shodipo
Goals: Dykes 33 (assisted Kakay), 84 (penalty, won Iroegbunam)
Bookings: Iroegbunam 53 (foul)
Reading: Lumley 7; Yiadom 5, Hutchinson 5 (Hoilett 39, 6), Holmes 5, McIntyre 6, Guinness-Walker 7; Hendrick 5, Loum 4, Fornah 6 (Ejaria 70, 5); Carroll 7, Joao 6 (Ince 75, 6)
Subs not used: Meite, Bouzanis, Mbengue, Abbey
Goals: Carroll 30 (penalty, won Joao)
Bookings: Hutchinson 25 (foul), Carroll 45 (foul), Holmes 83 (being a knob)
Referee — Thomas Bramall (Sheffield) 5 A depressing experience. Despite a slew of retirements from the likes of Mike Dean, Kevin Friend and Jon Moss last season this guy was the only EFL referee they deemed worthy and capable of being promoted into the top flight. I look at this performance in that context and just despair. If you want to tell me that Carroll rattling through Roberts’ shins is ok, and a yellow card, rather than a red, then ok, fair enough, I usually like to go lenient cards wise too, so perhaps. Likewise the Reading penalty, which I’ve already discussed. But for Hutchinson to be able to stand in the Reading penalty box, with nobody anywhere near him, stick his arm out and bat the ball out for a corner, look guilty as fuck, and neither a Premier League referee nor either Premier League linesman sees it or does a thing about it is just scandalous really. I’ve a dead grandmother, six foot under the ground, 200 miles away at the other end of the country, who could see that was a fucking penalty. Exasperating. It is absolutely not as difficult as these people make it look, I’m sorry.
Blackburn 1 QPR 0, Saturday July 30, 2022, Championship
Let’s blow the dust of this old chestnut as well, while we’re here. How nice are QPR? What a lovely, lovely group of young men we are. Beaten all ends up by Ilias Chair after ten minutes, John Buckley chopped him down and took his yellow medicine from referee Thomas Bramall. Quarter of an hour later, Rangers well on top at this point, Buckley was done again, this time by Mide Shodipo, and to stop him accelerating away into space he deliberately pulled him back by the shirt. Now, come on, what are we doing here? I’ve sat here and tapped away that QPR players getting booked for shit like that in the middle of the park could consider themselves unfortunate, the decision harsh, and been told categorically ‘no — if you’re beaten, and you deliberately pull that player back, you can expect a yellow no complaints at all’. Here, a warning on the run. And nobody is saying anything. Not one of our players, captain or otherwise, doing a damn thing about it. We should be screaming for this stuff. On the hour, Sam Gallagher, last seen booting our goalkeeper out of the second half of last season, put a horrible tackle in on Sam Field — clear yellow. Again, word on the run. Again, we just accept that. Later at QPR free kicks Gallagher started with the picking-the-ball-up-and-running-off-with-it shit again, and sitting down pretending to be injured delaying the restart — did somebody mention a clamp down on clock running? I see no clamp down here. But more to the point, I see and hear no QPR complaints about it either. I’m not asking for the Matt Mills Bank Holiday Parade of Cuntery, people surrounding officials and screaming in their face about every little thing, but we just let this shit happen to us. Footballers are never going to care about this as much as we do in the stand, they come and go and play for many clubs, we are the constant and are way too emotionally invested in the outcome. Marc Bircham, Kevin Gallen, Lee Cook, when you get these people at your club it’s a rare and beautiful thing. I don’t expect Stefan Johansen to be as cross about it as I am, but I do expect him to be a little bit cross all the same. Get mad for fuck’s sake, get mad. He's screwing your wife and you’re standing there waiting to hand him a towel.
Blackburn: Kaminski 6; Brittain 6, Ayala 6, S Wharton 6, Pickering 6; Travis 7, Buckley 6; Gallagher 5, Hedges 6, Brereton-Diaz 7; Vale 5 (Dolan 64, 7)
Subs not used: Edun, Pears, Markanday, Dack, Barnes, A Wharton
Goals: Travis 34 (unassisted)
Bookings: Buckley 11 (foul)
QPR: Dieng 5; Kakay 6, Dickie 6, Clarke-Salter 6, Paal 5; Dozzell 5 (Thomas 64, 5), Johansen 5 (Armstrong 77, 5), Field 6; Chair 5 (Richards 77, 6), Dykes 5 (Bonne 77, 5), Shodipo 6 (Adomah 65, 5)
Subs not used: Walsh, Dunne
Bookings: Dykes 12 (foul)
Referee - Thomas Bramall (Sheffield) 5 Interesting one. QPR strike me as a very easy team to referee at the moment, particularly once we’re behind in a game. The heads go down, the team goes quiet, nobody’s smashing anybody, nobody’s complaining about things — a referee can pretty much cruise through our matches, and I think that’s what this new Premier League referee attempted to do here, settling for a word on the run when many would have produced yellow cards. Usually I much prefer that approach, but I personally don’t see how Buckley was allowed to commit the deliberate pull back on Shodipo on 27 minutes, after being booked, without being sent off — nor why QPR are so happy to just meekly accept that this is going on. A really bad tackle by Sam Gallagher was also let off without a card just before the hour mark. Gallagher then started engaging in all the running off with the ball at QPR free kicks, and sitting down pretending he’s injured when he’s not, clock running stuff that we’re told there’s a clampdown on this season — again, no cards, and no complaints. QPR should be, nee need to be, screaming for this stuff. Why does an early yellow card give Buckley immunity for the rest of the game? Why are you letting Gallagher do that? I think I’m as pissed off with us as I am with the referee to be honest. Waaaaaaaaay too nice.
Bramall, 32, stepped out of the National League and into the EFL for the 2018/19 season where he took charge of a chunky 44 games and showed a lenient 102 yellows and three reds, mostly in League Two. His 2019/20 season was restricted to five outings by an ACL rupture that threatened his career. Coming back from that, and the Covid break, he refereed 33 games showing 78 yellows and four reds in 2020/21, a season that included his Championship debut in Luton’s 1-0 win at Preston, and a League Two play-off semi-final between Morecambe and Tranmere.
Last season, his first as a regular Championship official, he booked 105 and sent six off in 33 games — totals boosted substantially by three red cards shown in West Brom’s 1-1 draw with Cardiff. Two of those red cards came in a brawl after the final whistle when West Brom felt they had a stone wall penalty but the referee chose to blow for full time instead. He finished the season with the MK Dons v Wycombe League One play-off semi-final, and the FA Trophy final between Bromley and Wrexham. Despite a slew of retirements among Premier League referees, Bramall is the only one to be promoted from the EFL last season with assistants Natalie Aspinall, Nick Greenhalgh and Steve Meredith also stepping up.
This season he’s shown 34 yellows and one red in ten games, including his first Premier League games Fulham 2-1 Brighton, Bournemouth 0-0 Brentford and Wolves 1-0 Forest which came with all manner of VAR penalty problems. He refereed West Brom’s 1-1 draw at Norwich last month. West Brom are 1-2-0 from three appointments with him, QPR are 1-0-1 from two.
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