Chris Foy became something of a cult hero to QPR fans last season for his performance in the home game with Chelsea, and he’s back at Loftus Road this weekend.
Referee >>> Chris Foy (St Helens), upset Harry Redknapp by allowing a West Brom goal that looked like a foul on goalkeeper Robert Green and turning down a blatant late QPR penalty when the R’s lost to the Baggies on Boxing Day.
Assistants >>> Stephen Child (Kent) and Ron Ganfield (Somerset)
Fourth Official >>> Anthony Taylor (Cheshire), Premier League referee who was also fourth official for QPR’s recent home draw with Wigan.
QPR 1 West Brom 2, Wednesday December 26, 2012, Premier League
I doubt a desire to see Chris Foy referee again was high on Harry Redknapp’s list of reasons to return to football and take on such a difficult job at Queens Park Rangers.
A year ago Redknapp was warned by the Football Association for his post-match reaction to Foy’s eccentric performance in Tottenham’s 2-1 defeat at Stoke. On Saturday Foy was back in Redknapp’s sights for the first time since he returned to management at Loftus Road, but as much as things change they stay the same and having been beaten 2-1 again, this time by West Bromwich Albion, the QPR boss again accused the official of making “blatant errors” that cost his team the points.
Rangers were angered by two incidents at either end of the field, and the second could scarcely have been more clear cut. Liam Ridgewell, a QPR fan as a boy but a player who has developed a curious fascination with trying to cheat the R’s out of points for both the Baggies and Birmingham, was kidding nobody when he wiped his face pretending an injury time header from Samba Diakite had struck his nose rather than, in actual fact, the palm of his hand stretched high above his head in the penalty area. The interpretation of the deliberate handball rule has grown into penalising players whose hands are in unnatural positions and short of pulling his right arm out of its socket and waving it around in the air with his left it’s hard to know how much more of an unnatural position Ridgewell could have achieved. The linesman on that side, Harry Lennard, was mere yards from the incident and looking straight at it but lied to Redknapp afterwards and said he couldn’t see because it was dark. Redknapp said the official should have “gone to Specsavers.”
But the earlier incident that so infuriated the home team was more debateable. Whether Robert Green’s farcical own goal should have been allowed to stand or not was a real bone of contention. The goalkeeper, terribly accident prone since a summer move from West Ham, flapped the ball into his his own net under heavy pressure from Marc-Antoine Fortune and claimed a foul. Foy, dreadfully positioned and peering through a crowd of players, was nonplussed and allowed the goal to stand. Redknapp was perplexed.
The resulting corner was headed up into the air by Traore and from that moment on Green had a problem. His starting position, two yards behind his own line, put him at a disadvantage and he found his path back to safety blocked by Marc-Antoine Fortune. This marking of a goalkeeper is not a new thing that West Brom came up with for this match – they’ve been doing it all season – but Rangers didn’t think to mark him with a man of their own and so he was free to stand his ground on the line and prevent Green from making a clean contact with the ball. Nine times out of ten you’ll see a foul awarded in this situation but Green was banking on that throughout the incident, rather than keeping goal properly and dealing with the situation himself. He flapped the ball into the net and then chased Chris Foy down the pitch to remonstrate with him. Personally I didn’t think Fortune did too much – he didn’t push Green, he didn’t back into him greatly, he didn’t jump with him, he just stood where he’d been standing throughout the incident and did nothing. Green has only himself to blame and Foy was within his rights to award the goal.
Steve Clarke sent on Shane Long for Lukaku to give QPR something different to concern themselves with and the Baggies set about turning the game into a slow, stop-start, niggly affair. Foster’s time wasting was flagrant and unchecked by Foy and the six minutes after the substitution were taken up exclusively by corners – four for West Brom and then one for QPR which Mbia headed down and wide. As frustration grew Mbia dived in midfield looking for a free kick that never came, and then snapped back at Long and was booked. Down on the touchline Redknapp had to restrain his assistant Kevin Bond when the West Brom coaching staff also started to take their time returning the ball to the field after yet another stoppage.
QPR: Green 4, Fabio 5 (Hoilett 64, 6), Ferdinand 5, Hill 6, Traore 5, Mackie 5, Faurlin 4 (Diakite 64, 6), Mbia 6, Wright-Phillips 6, Taarabt 5, Cisse 6
Subs not used: Cesar, Derry, Granero, Dyer, Ehmer
Goals: Cisse 68 (assisted Mbia)
Bookings: Mbia 83 (foul)
West Brom: Foster 7, Jones 6, McAuley 6, Olsson 6, Popov 6 (Ridgewell 35, 6), Morrison 7 (Tamas 86, -), Mulumbu 8, Gera 6, Fortune 6, Brunt 7, Lukaku 6 (Long 76, 6)
Subs not used: Myhill, Dorrans, Rosenberg, Odemwingie
Goals: Brunt 29 (unassisted), Green og (assisted Brunt)
Referee – Chris Foy (St Helens) 4 Could easily have given a foul for the second goal, but personally I think it was fair enough and more to do with poor goalkeeping than anything illegal Fortune was doing. That was a 50/50 call, but the late penalty was absolutely blatant and could be seen clearly from all over the ground. Throw in the failure to clamp down on the time wasting and this was a poor display from the official.
Man City 3 QPR 1, Saturday September 1, 2012, Premier League
The difficulty for teams like QPR in this situation is the attacks they do launch merely leave space for City to exploit on the counter attack. A foul on Park after the half hour set up a promising free kick for the visitors but when Hart punched it clear the R’s needed Silva to delay his shot and Fabio to execute a tremendous recovery tackle to prevent them falling two goals behind. Ten minutes before half time Granero, used to being on the winning team in such situations, was caught in possession and had Ryan Nelsen not deliberately hauled Tevez to the ground in back play (referee Chris Foy rightly played advantage initially) then the Argentinean would have been able to get on the end of a loose ball in the penalty area after Silva saw another shot charged down. As it was Nelsen was free to clear the ball unchallenged, and he escaped a booking as well.
Nelsen chopped Dzeko to the ground five minutes before half time but Foy played on again, and then waved away handball appeals after Nasri’s shot was blocked in the area. Imagine how thrilled the home crowd were when the first yellow card of the game subsequently went to Kolorov in first half stoppage time for fouling Wright-Phillips as he counter attacked down field after another decent tackle from Fabio. Granero shot over the bar in one minute of first half stoppage time.
Chris Foy incurred the wrath of the home faithful again 17 minutes from time when he first failed to award Yaya Toure a free kick for what looked like a foul on the edge of the QPR penalty area, then booked Jack Rodwell for chopping Granero as Rangers broke away down field.
Mancini responded by taking off Silva for the more pragmatic Milner but Tevez showed that attack is the best form of defence in such situations by marauding forward with the ball despite persistent attention, and at least three fouls, from a back tracking Bobby Zamora. The striker was, rightly, retrospectively booked by Foy when the play came to an end.
Hughes sent on Djibril Cisse for Granero – I’d have been tempted to put him on for Park ten minutes earlier – and Mancini engaged in clock running by introducing Abdul Razak (number 63 can you believe) for Samir Nasri. The departing City players dragged their departures out to the absolute extreme which irritated Foy into adding five extra minutes at the end of the game but ultimately the time proved more use to the hosts as Tevez got the goal his all round play deserved when he diverted Dzeko’s poor shot into the net after QPR had become overwhelmed by the weight of numbers committed to the attack.
Man City: Hart 7, Zabaletta 8 (K Toure 74, 6), Kompany 7, Lescott 6, Kolarov 7, Silva 7 (Milner 81, -), Rodwell 6, Y Toure 8, Nasri 6 (Razak 89, -), Tevez 8, Dzeko 6
Subs: Pantilimon, Clichy, Sinclair, Balotelli
Goals: Y Toure 16 (unassisted), Dzeko 61 (assisted Tevez), Tevez 90+2 (assisted Dzeko)
Yellows: Kolarov 44 (foul), Rodwell 73 (foul)
QPR: Green 6, Bosingwa 6, Nelsen 7, Ferdinand 5 (Onuoha 67, 6), Fabio 6, Park 6, Faurlin 6 (Dyer 72, 6), Granero 7 (Cisse 85, -) Wright-Phillips 5, Johnson 6, Zamora 6
Subs: Murphy, Derry, Mackie, Hoilett
Goals: Zamora 59 (assisted Johnson)
Yellows: Zamora 84 (foul)
Referee – Chris Foy 7 Not a lot to referee here. Seemed to be rather kind to QPR on a couple of occasions to the audible anger of the home fans but there were few big decisions to get wrong and he allowed the game to flow well with excellent use of the advantage rule throughout. All the bookings were justified but Nelsen can count himself fortunate not to receive on himself for two cynical fouls in the first half, and Kompany was also lucky to escape further punishment for a second half foul on Park.
Newcastle 1 QPR 0, Sunday January 15, 2012, Premier League
After miscontrolling a routine ball in the middle of his own half Derry then attempted to retrieve the situation in what can only be described as a fool’s mission. He lunged, wildly, on Newcastle’s French midfielder Yohan Cabaye as he stole in to retake possession for his team. Derry caught his man flush on the ankle, sending him flying into the air, and although Cabaye initially bounced straight up to attempt to start fighting Derry over the challenge it quickly became apparent that something was wrong and he slumped to the ground before being removed from the field on a stretcher – pointing and swearing at a non-plussed Derry as he went.
Cabaye had every right to be furious. This was a dreadful tackle, far worse than the Vincent Kompany and Glen Johnson efforts that attracted so much publicity last week, and actually caused a serious injury. Referee Chris Foy sent Kompany off in the Manchester derby last week for cleanly winning the ball with two feet because it could have caused injury had it been mistimed, and yet only showed a yellow here to Derry because he went in with one boot despite him being wild, reckless out of control and actually causing an injury. The law, and Foy, is an ass. Kompany’s was never a red card in a month of Sundays and Derry was extremely fortunate to stay on the field here.
Of immediate concern to Hughes was keeping 11 men on the field. Immediately after being booked Derry was penalised again for a foul on Gutierrez, although not for the first or last time on the day the Argentinean’s keenness to fall to ground the second any meagre contact was made was obvious to all expect the match officials. He was down again 30 seconds later, although this time there clearly had been a foul by Danny Gabbidon. Ryan Taylor planted the set piece onto Gutierrez’s head in the six yard box but he guided the ball over the bar.
Anger turned back onto the match officials moments later when Clint Hill was shown a yellow card for nothing more than a routine trip on Danny Simpson tight to the touchline. Given that Foy wasn’t initially going to award a free kick only to then belatedly change his mind on the advice of his assistant on that side of the field one has to wonder how he then reached the decision that it was a yellow card.
Ben Arfa took hold of the resulting set piece after Newcastle worked the ball to the edge of the area and curled a low shot to the far corner which seemed to miss the base of the post unaided with Kenny struggling to get across but Foy, guessing, awarded a corner all the same.
Rangers weren’t happy about that decision, and appealed for both handball and offside when Newcastle then took the lead ten minutes before half time. Both shouts, rightly, fell on deaf ears and Leon Best was left to toast his first goal in 12 appearances after picking up Shola Ameobi’s chest control, turning Luke Young inside out and then finishing into the far corner with Kenny already committed in the other direction.
As happened in the first half, Chris Foy forced himself on the game for ten minutes or so before growing weary and disappearing from view again. First he refused Danny Guthrie’s free kick appeal on the edge of the area despite the former Bolton man writhing in apparent agony. When play finally stopped Guthrie refused treatment, got straight to his feet and was magically ok again.
Then Foy allowed play to go on when first Macheda and then Gutierrez appeared to be fouled – a situation that bred frustration and immediately produced another foul from Macheda who was booked. Had Foy done his job properly and awarded the first foul it would never have happened.
Newcastle: Krul 7, Simpson 6, Coloccini 7, Williamson 6, Santon 6, Ryan Taylor 6 (Gosling 81. -), Guthrie 6, Cabaye 6 (Ben Arfa 25, 7), Gutierrez 7, Best 7 (Perch 76, 6), Shola Ameobi 5
Subs Not Used: Elliot, Abeid, Obertan, Ferguson
Goals: Best 37 (assisted Ameobi)
QPR: Kenny 7, Young 6, Gabbidon 6, Ferdinand 7, Hill 6, Wright-Phillips 5, Derry 6, Buzsaky 6 (Macheda 76, 6), Mackie 5, Helguson 6 (Smith 64, 6), Bothroyd 6
Subs Not Used: Cerny, Orr, Hall, Campbell, Ephraim
Booked: Derry (foul), Hill (foul), Bothroyd (foul), Macheda (foul)
Referee: Chris Foy (Merseyside) 6 No major decisions wrong, but for two separate ten minute spells either side of half time he descended into a confused, mushy mess. Shaun Derry was lucky not to be sent off, Clint Hill was unfortunate to even be penalised, Federico Macheda was booked in a situation created by the officials and so on. Just seems to lose the plot quite easily, and frequently.
QPR 1 Chelsea 0, Saturday October 22, 2011, Premiership
Helguson v David Luiz and John Terry is a modern day heart-warming tale from the writers who brought you Leroy Griffiths v Marcel Dessaily. For all the intricacies of the modern game, and Warnock's QPR side, it was a goal right out the Championship manual of route one football that gave QPR the lead ten minutes into this match. Paddy Kenny, rotund and resplendent in yellow, launched a drop kick down the field which Helguson manoeuvred himself onto in the penalty area and then hit the deck under a moronic challenge from David Luiz. It seems that while your talented Brazilian centre back costs you £20m these days, the brain is an optional extra that Chelsea scrimped on. Did Helguson make the most of the push in the small of his back? Absolutely. The trick, as Luiz should know full well, is not to give him the opportunity.
The now traditional row between Adel Taarabt and everybody else over who was to take the crucial spot kick ended with Helguson stepping up and finding the top corner with a shot that Peter Cech in the Chelsea goal got a strong hand to and probably should have done better with.
Much is said and written about Adel Taarabt, most of it unhelpful and much of it his own fault, but Neil Warnock may well resolve after this game that his partnership with Shaun Wright Phillips is worth having him on the field for more often than not. Their link up play against Newcastle on this ground earlier in the season was more than the still unbeaten Magpies could handle and although both have been quiet of late they combined wonderfully on the half hour to set up the second of three key moments in the first half. Taarabt's through ball was out of the top drawer and Wright Phillips had the awareness to position himself inside Chelsea fullback Bosingwa and the pace to accelerate away from him. He was felled, quite clearly, on his way to goal – Chelsea appeals that John Terry was coming round to cover are ludicrous unless the use of high-powered motorcycles has suddenly been legalised for England international defenders in tough situations. Referee Chris Foy swooped in, awarded the free kick and sent Bosingwa off. The cheer from the Loft will have been heard in the Chelsea heartlands of Surrey and Sussex. Sadly Taarabt's salt rubbing exercise found only the hands of Cech as he curled the resulting free kick around the wall.
Perhaps Andre Villas Boas' plan was to go in at half time, have a quick reminder of who everybody actually was, and then come out and return to business as usual. If it was, then a minute before the breakit had to be torn up and re-written. Drogba, completely dominated by Anton Ferdinand playing the game of his life, miscontrolled a ball on the QPR side of the halfway line and in a foolhardy attempt to retrieve it launched into a vile two footed lunge on Adel Taarabt. It could kindly be described as a striker's tackle. More accurately it was an obvious straight red card and for all Chelsea 's protestations Chris Foy had almost no option.
That said, presentable chances came and went. Luke Young, highlighting the profit to be made from dwelling in wide areas, accelerated into the penalty are but dragged a poor right footed shot across the goal and wide. And Chelsea were by no means perfect, their indiscipline permeating every facet of their game throughout the second half. Mikel was shown a yellow card for a hack at Taarabt which gave Faurlin a shooting chance with a free kick but he could only find the Chelsea wall. Ivanovic took a turn at chopping the Moroccan down five minutes later and was booked, as was Luiz for tripped Ferdinand as he marauded forward from the back. Then, in a moment that only QPR could conjure, Taarabt was worked into a prime shooting position on the edge of the penalty area only to be tackled brilliantly by Luke Young. Farce.
There were cards too for Shaun Derry and Joey Barton who both fulfilled the dreams of many in the stands by kicking Frank Lampard but it was Chelsea drawing Chris Foy’s attention more often than not.
Chelsea's post match fury was directed almost entirely in the direction of the match officials – as you would expect from a side reduced to nine men and losing to a disputed penalty. But somewhere deep within the bowels of Stamford Bridge must be an acknowledgement that the discipline required of a team in this situation was almost completely lacking. John Terry became the latest Chelsea player booked when he got embroiled in an argument with Paddy Kenny who objected to being deliberately taken out after he'd claimed a high cross. Our former England captain, the son of a drug dealing father and a shoplifting mother, reduced to deliberately knocking a fat goalkeeper to the ground and forced after the game to deny he’d racially abused QPR defenderAnton Ferdinand. This is England.
Elsewhere David Luiz continued his giant hairy wrecking ball act with an obvious elbow on Clint Hill as the pair waited for a loose ball to fall from the sky. Had Foy not already dismissed two visiting players I'm convinced Luiz, already booked remember, would have walked.
Chelsea will be fined £25,000 for totting up seven yellow cards and two reds in this match and they have little grounds for complaint in any of the nine cases. But the hackles of manager Andre Villas Boas (quite a young fella apparently) were justifiably raised by two quickfire penalty decisions that should have gone their way. First Frank Lampard, full of self pity and sporting the seemingly fixed expression of a man who believes he’s terribly hard done to, fell in the area under significant contact from Fitz Hall. The ball would probably have run through to Kenny anyway but that’s not strictly relevant, this looked like a penalty to me. As did Heidar Helguson’s overly familiar wrestle with David Luiz under a cross from the opposite flank minutes later. Again the Chelsea fans and players appealed, again Foy showed no interest – they have every right to feel aggrieved on both counts and Meireles was booked for his protests.
Barton crashed to the earth leaving the already carded Cole facing the prospect of an increasingly crowded early bath but Foy took pity on him and blew for full time instead. Cole, reprieved, spent the immediate post match squaring up to any QPR player he could get within shouting distance of, adding further doubt to Ray Wilkins’ assertion during a commentary earlier this season that he is a “wonderful man”.
QPR: Kenny 7, Young 7, Ferdinand 9, Hall 8, Hill 8, Derry 7 (Mackie 81, -), Faurlin 7, Wright-Phillips 7, Barton 7, Taarabt 7 (Smith 61, 6), Helguson 8
Subs Not Used: Murphy, Orr, Bothroyd, Buzsaky, Puncheon
Booked: Derry (foul), Barton (foul)
Goals: Helguson 10 (penalty, won Helguson)
Chelsea: Cech 6, Bosingwa 5, Terry 6, Luiz 5, Cole 6, Mikel 6, Meireles 7 (Malouda 72, 6), Lampard 7, Sturridge 6 (Ivanovic 36, 6), Drogba 5, Mata 6 (Anelka 45, 7)
Subs Not Used: Turnbull, Romeu, McEachran, Kalou
Sent Off: Bosingwa (33), Drogba (41)
Booked: Mikel (foul), Lampard (foul), Ivanovic (foul), Luiz (repetitive fouling), Meireles (dissent), Cole (foul), Terry (ungentlemanly conduct)
Referee: Chris Foy (Merseyside) 5 Chelsea are clearly fuming with the officials, as you would expect them to be given the circumstances. I can’t imagine Neil Warnock and the QPR fans bemoaning their own ill-discipline had the roles been reversed – a witch hunt is more likely. Obviously as a QPR fan I’m very happy with the decisions Mr Foy made on Sunday and the three biggest ones of all I think he got right – the penalty was a penalty, the first red card was an obvious goalscoring opportunity, the Didier Drogba tackle was one out of the Alan Hutton house of horrors. But there were other big calls he got wrong. Having awarded Heidar Helguson a penalty it then seemed odd that he waved away appeals from first Lampard and then Luiz in very similar circumstances. Both looked like penalties to me. Similarly having sent off Drogba and Bosingwa correctly why was first Luiz and then right at the end Cole allowed to escape without reds when they clearly deserved them? I thought he deserved credit for being brave in the face of huge pressure and dissent but it’s impossible to mark a referee too highly when, in my opinion, four big decisions in the game were wrong.
Reading 0 QPR 0, Saturday October 25, 2008, Championship
QPR’s only booking of the match went to Daniel Parejo, seemingly for kicking the ball away after a foul although it was difficult to tell and looked harsh. The Spaniard was possibly lucky to avoid a sending off having been booked because within seconds he was theatrically collapsing in the penalty area as the ball ran out for a goal kick, Bikey was in close attendance and Parejo obviously wanted to buy a penalty from him but Foy was in an excellent position to judge the amount of contact and there was none. Parejo was withdrawn a short time after that for Balanta who had little time to do anything other than win a time wasting free kick in injury time.
Reading: Hahnemann 6, Rosenior 6, Bikey 5, Ingimarsson 7, Armstrong 6, Kebe 7 (Long 80, -), Gunnarsson 6 (Harper 73, 6), Karacan 6 (Cisse 73, 6), Stephen Hunt 6, Noel Hunt 6, Doyle 6
Subs Not Used: Andersen, Kelly
Booked: Rosenior (foul)
QPR: Cerny 8, Leigertwood 8, Stewart 8, Hall 7, Connolly 7, Buzsaky 6, Mahon 7, Rowlands 7, Cook 5, Di Carmine 5 (Blackstock 60, 7), Parejo 6 (Balanta 86, -)
Subs Not Used: Delaney, Tommasi, Cole
Booked: Parejo (kicking the ball away)
Referee: Chris Foy (Merseyside) 7 Pretty decent overall. One or two decisions I would question and I think Reading probably should have had a penalty for the Mahon handball although that was more a linesman’s call than Foy’s – his past record shows that if there’s a penalty to be given he normally gives it so we were fortunate there. Other than that hard to argue with much he did.
Watford 2 QPR 4, Saturday December 29, 2008
Youngster Angelo Balanta had made a nervy start to his full QPR debut, but he showed the touch and confidence of a seasoned professional in the 13th minute when he cut in from the left wing onto his right foot and curled a beautiful 30 yard pass into the path of Dexter Blackstock running into the area. The ball cut between Matt Jackson and Jordan Stewart perfectly and when the latter tried to recover the situation with a robust body check on Blackstock there was only one decision the referee could make and Chris Foy rightly pointed straight to the spot.
The last time Rangers had a penalty Martin Rowlands almost uprooted the post at Charlton Athletic but he made no mistake this time, firing an equally powerful shot into the corner with Lee diving the wrong way.
Plenty of QPR eyes will have been on Watford right back Lloyd Doyley who has been strongly linked with a move to W12 this transfer window. Boothroyd said last week that we couldn't afford him, not sure he's even convincing himself with that one, but he looked decent enough to me. Certainly better than anything we have in that position at the moment. He's got a handy long throw to go with his solid defence and overlapping runs. Not the greatest crosser of the ball though.
He was involved in one of the more bizarre moments I've seen this season midway through the first half. QPR cleared yet another Watford free kick down the field and Doyley, left back as the last man, was left to turn and chase as the ball bounced over the halfway line. He then inexplicably picked the ball up, presumably thinking he'd heard a whistle from the referee. After a stunned moment of silence where players, officials and supporters wondered what the hell was going on Foy whistled and awarded QPR a free kick, Doyley then realised that Bolder and Blackstock were keen to get a quick free kick taken that would have left QPR with three players steaming through on goal unchecked so he threw the ball away and picked up a booking for his troubles.
It was important having gone 3-0 up to see that through until half time. With QPR developing a taste this season for conceding goals in injury time there were a few groans and grumbles when Foy added four minutes onto the end of the first period - presumably for the treatment required by Ainsworth and by Watford keeper Richard Lee who had earlier rolled around theatrically trying to get Dexter Blackstock booked after they'd both challenged for a through ball - needless to say he was soon up on his feet and fine again.
Watford: Lee 5, Doyley 6 (O'Toole 79, -), DeMerit 4, Jackson 3 (Shittu 46, 7), Stewart 5, Smith 6, Williamson 6, Francis 6, McAnuff 6, Darius Henderson 6, Ellington 5 (King 68, 6)
Subs Not Used: Mariappa, Ainsworth
Booked: Doyley (throwing the ball away), Smith (foul)
Goals: Camp og 52, Shittu 84 (assisted Henderson)
QPR: Camp 7, Barker 7, Rehman 7, Stewart 8, Malcolm 7, Bolder 7, Rowlands 9, Ainsworth 6 (Vine 64, 6), Balanta 6 (Buzsaky 73, 7), Nygaard 6 (Walton 90, -), Blackstock 6
Subs Not Used: Cole, Moore
Booked: Nygaard (foul), Barker (foul)
Goals: Rowlands 13 pen, Stewart 29 (assisted Rowlands), Rowlands 40 (assisted Balanta), Buzsaky 80 (assisted Rowlands)
Referee - Chris Foy (St Helens) 7 - Refereed the game calmly and sensibly, though a couple of the cards were harsh and once or twice he awarded Watford soft free kicks but overall he allowed the game to flow as best he could and got the big decisions right. Pretty decent all in all.
QPR 0 Wolves 1, Saturday December 16, 2006
QPR: Royce 8, Bignot 5, Rehman 6, Mancienne 8, Milanese 8, Rowlands 5, Smith 4, Bircham 6 (Furlong 66, 4), Gallen 4, Ray Jones 5, Blackstock 4.
Subs Not Used: Cole, Ward, Baidoo, Bailey.
Wolverhampton: Murray 8, Little 7, Breen 7, Craddock 7, McNamara 7,Kightly 8, Olofinjana 7, Potter 8, McIndoe 8, Bothroyd 7,Craig Davies 7 (Clarke 76, 6).
Subs Not Used: Oakes, Edwards, Johnson, Ricketts.
Booked: Breen, Bothroyd.
Goals: Kightly 49.
Referee: C Foy (Merseyside) 5 - Overly fussy over the placing of free kicks and throw ins, never played the advantage rule, failed to clamp down on time wasting. All in all and irritating official.
Prior to that Foy was the man in the middle for the memorable 1-0 home win against Swindon at the end of the 2003/04 promotion season that kept Rangers on course for the Championship. Two years previously he’d been in charge of a 0-0 West London derby between the R’s and Brentford at Loftus Road. In our relegation season from this division, 2000/01, he was in the middle for a 1-1 draw at Sheff Utd when that rare and beautiful thing – a Sammy Koejoe goal – occurred. A 2-1 QPR win at home to Walsall, 3-1 win at Portsmouth (both in 1999/00) and 1-0 loss at Grimsby a year earlier complete a QPR profile that overall boasts four Rangers wins, four draws and just two defeats.
Chelsea were angered by Foy yet again last week when he turned down their penalty appeals, and failed to send Sergio Aguero off for a bad late tackle on David Luiz in the FA Cup semi final. But that was in keeping with a very lenient approach from this referee this season – just 60 yellows and two reds in 29 games suggests he prefers to handle matches through man management rather than handing out cards. His biggest haul in a single game is six yellows at Spurs v Man Utd and he has gone through a whole game without use of his notebook on five occasions.
QPR’s game against Chelsea was just one of several highly controversial fixtures Foy was involved with last season. He ridiculously sent off Vincent Kompany in the FA Cup Third Round tie between the two Manchester clubs, and then let Ryan Giggs off without even a yellow card for a much worse tackle a minute later. He also denied both teams blatant second half penalties. He didn’t fare much better at Stoke v Spurs, a performance that left Harry Redknapp justifiably fuming after the game. The nine yellows and two reds at QPR v Chelsea (understandably his biggest haul of the year) contributed to 86 yellows and eight reds in 35 matches – (2.45 yellows per match on average).
The season before he showed 89 yellows (2.61 a game) and four reds in 34 games. Something seemed to change in him in February last season – up to February 1 he had shown 46 yellows and no reds in 21 matches, then in the remaining 13 appointments he showed 43 yellows and four reds.
His only Newcastle appointment so far this season was at Man City where they lost 3-1 and the hosts were awarded two penalty kicks.
FA Cup >>> This year’s final between Wigan and Man City will be refereed by Andre Marriner.
Premier League >>> Lee Mason is obviously impressing somebody somewhere as he has Spurs v Man City this weekend while Kevin Friend takes the other big one at Liverpool v Chelsea.
Championship >>> Stuart Attwell has a televised clash between Burnley and Cardiff.
League One >>> Most bizarre appointment of the weekend sees Howard Web take Colchester v Shrewsbury.
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