County Durham official Geoff Eltringham is the man in the middle for QPR’s Tuesday night voyage to Barnsley.
Referee >>> Geoff Eltringham (County Durham), ninth season on the Football League list.
Assistants >>> James Mainwaring (Lancashire) and Nick Greenhalgh (Lancashire), Mainwaring also ran the line for Eltringham in his last QPR appointment at Derby.
Fourth Official >>> Oliver Langford (West Midlands)
Derby County 1 QPR 0, Friday March 31, 2017, Championship
A tough night for Furlong should have been capped with a booking for an off the ball shove on Russell with a quarter of an hour to go. Shortly afterwards he was put out of his misery, replaced by Idrissa Sylla leading to a sort of lopsided 4-4-2 as Rangers went in search of an equaliser.
Geoff Eltringham did go to his pocket after a rash challenge from Freeman on Bradley Johnson. As great as Freeman has been to watch recently he is developing a bit of a propensity for poor challenges. Then again, if he had to chop anyone down…
Derby: Carson 6; Baird 7, Keogh 6, Pearce 6, Olsson 7; Ince 7 (Hughes 80, -), Johnson 6, Bryson 6, Russell 7, Vydra 7 (Anya 79, -); Nugent 6 (Bent 86, -)
Subs not used: Christie, Butterfield, Camara, Mitchell
Goals: Vydra 70 (unassisted)
QPR: Smithies 4; Furlong 4 (Sylla 76, -), Onuoha 6, Perch 5, Bidwell 5; Manning 5, Hall 6, Freeman 4; Wszolek 4 (Goss 59, 5), Smith 5 Washington 5 (Ngbakoto 69, -)
Subs not used: Mackie, Ingram, Robinson, Petrasso
Yellow Cards: Freeman 78 (foul)
Referee — Geoff Eltringham (Wearside) 7 Like all good Victorian schoolchildren he was seen and not heard. A fairly easy game to referee, he was probably a bit too shy to get his cards out - Furlong should definitely have gone into the book. No complaints overall.
QPR 1 Burton Albion 2, Saturday January 28, 2017, Championship
QPR: Smithies 6; Furlong 5, Onuoha 4, Lynch 4, Bidwell 4 (Mackie 87, -); Doughty 4 (Manning 74, 6), Hall 6 (Washington 45, 6), Luongo 3; Wszolek 6, Lua Lua 5, Sylla 4
Subs not used: Ingram, Perch, Eze, Shodipo
Goals: Washington 63 (assisted Lua Lua)
Bookings: Luongo 86 (foul)
Burton: McLaughlin 6; Flanagan 6, Brayford — (Mousinho 3, 6), Turner 7; McCrory 6, Chirstensen 7 (Akins 74, 6), Irvine 8, Murphy 7, Palmer 6, Dyer 8; Sordell 6 (Woodrow 87, -)
Subs not used: Williamson, Bywater, Miller, Barker
Goals: Murphy 11 (assisted Dyer), Dyer 52 (assisted Christensen)
Bookings: Christensen 47 (foul), Irvine 79 (kicking ball away)
Referee — Geoff Eltringham (County Durham) 8 As against Villa earlier in the season proved himself to be a friend of the time waster, but overall well refereed. Obvious caveat being QPR were about as strong and intense as church hall orange squash so it wasn’t exactly a tough one to keep hold of.
QPR 0 Aston Villa 1, Sunday December 18, 2016, Championship
Holloway was full of praise for his beaten side at full time. It could have been different had the recalled Pawel Wzsolek connected to a good through ball from Grant Hall, again pressed higher up the field into midfield, early in the first half. Later Wzsolek's cross that seemed destined to be headed in by Conor Washington in the six yard box was diverted away from him at the last minute. Washington had a penalty appeal given as a corner instead, referee Geoff Eltringham deeming the Villa man won the ball.
After quiet beginnings the visitors burst into the game on the half hour when Wzsolek got the wrong side of Kodija in the area and attempted to recover with a clumsy tackle that led to what looked at the time like an obvious penalty. Spot kick duly awarded but no need for panic as Smithies has saved 18 PKs (c Bob Bradley) in his career so far, including five for QPR while a sixth hit the post. Bananaman made light work of Kodija's needlessly poncey run up, diving left to save with relative ease. Perhaps with the former Huddersfield man keeping goal one defensive technique might be to start deliberately giving penalties away.
The final ten minutes were dominated by visiting goalkeeper Mark Bunn reaching new levels of cuntishness — allowing balls returned to him to roll past so he had to go and fetch them again, changing the side of every goal kick, pretending to be injured and basically engaging in clock running the likes of which I haven't seen since Paul Gerrard was keeping goal.
There's an obvious rule change that could help here — goal kicks must be taken from the side the ball goes out, same as corners, so keepers can't do this irritating walk to the opposite side of the six yard box. The rules as they are written should have seen Eltringham take action far, far sooner than a token yellow card for Bunn in injury time. But the most effective solution to this ball ache would have been a shot or two for Bunn to save. Equalise, and he'd have no advantage to protect.
Bunn behaved like an absolute prick, but he didn't have a save to make in the whole game. The easiest clean sheet of his career. In fact, it's getting hard to remember the last serious save made by a visiting keeper at Loftus Road. Eltringham added five minutes to the end of the game, Bunn's antics mean there should have been more, but QPR hadn't had a shot on target in the previous 95 minutes while Villa had tested Smithies seven times so it's a bit rich of them to be arguing the toss over not getting another 60 or 120 seconds.
QPR: Smithies 8; Perch 6, Onuoha 5, Lynch 5, Bidwell 5; Hall 6, Luongo 5, Chery 5 (Mackie 78, 6); Wzsolek 5 (Shodipo 62, 6), Washington 5 (Sylla 46, 6), Ngbakoto 5
Subs not used: Sandro, Borysiuk, Ingram, Polter
Bookings: Luongo 81 (foul)
Villa: Bunn 5; Hutton 6, Chester 6, Baker 6, Amavi 7; Adoma 6, Jedinak 7, Gardner 6 (Westwood 89, -), Bacuna 6; McCormack 5 (Agbonlahor 71, 5), Kodija 8 (Gestede 82, -)
Subs not used: Gollini, Elphick, Ayew, Grealish
Goals: Kodija 75 (assisted Hutton)
Bookings: Jedinak 43 (foul), Chester 63 (foul), Bunn 90+3 (time wasting)
Referee — Geoff Eltringham (Co Durham) 7 Odd one this, I came away thinking he'd got most of the stuff right. Villa's penalty was a penalty at first viewing, Washington's didn't look like one to me albeit from the other end of the ground. Should have clamped down on Bunn's antics a lot sooner, and Mackie did seem to be pushed in the back in that late incident, but that was about it. Lots, including those watching on TV, have said he was terrible and QPR should have had at least one pen.
Back in 2010/11 Eltringham showed 13 red cards in just 30 appointments across the season, but he’s thankfully calmed down a little in more recent times. No reds and 33 yellows in his ten appointments so far this season, seven of which have been in the Championship including Barnsley’s 2-1 home loss to Ipswich in August.
Last season he showed 112 yellows and five reds in 40 games. That was topped up by the eight bookings and one sending off in Villa’s home win against Cardiff where the visitors had Lee Peltier sent off late on and the home side sealed the win with a late penalty. Afterwards Uncle Neil Warnock said the referee had allowed himself to be conned by Villa’s Jack Grealish.
The season before Eltringham showed 93 yellows and eight reds in 37 games, with the six yellows and a red in Chesterfield’s 7 (seven) -1 win against Shrewsbury the season high.
Championship >>> Premier League referee Jon Moss steps down for Nigel Clough’s Burton Albion v Big Racist John and the Boys. Kevin Friend does likewise for Cardiff v Leeds.
League Two >>> Trevor Kettle has Lincoln v Barnet.
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