Graham in charge of Bank Holiday City clash
Sunday, 2nd Jan 2011 16:08 by Clive Whittingham

Fred Graham from Essex is the man in the middle for Monday’s clash between QPR and Bristol City at Loftus Road.

Referee >>> Fred Graham (Essex), joined the league list in 2004, has three previous QPR appointments to his name

Assistants >>> Geoff Russell (Northampton) and Ashley Slaughter (Sussex)

Fourth Official >>> Rob Whitton (Essex)

Previously

QPR 1 Ipswich 2, Tuesday February 9, 2010

Ipswich cannot be too high on confidence themselves bearing in mind their league position and recent results. The goal seemed to make them a little nervous and they started to engage in some pretty cynical time wasting tactics, particularly Lee-Barrett in goal. They also picked up two quick bookings – Norris and Walters both saw yellow for cynical fouls on Adel Taarabt who, while clearly still pagging weight, was much more like his old self in the second half here.

QPR: Ikeme 6, Connolly 4, Stewart 3, Gorkss 4, Hill 2, Ephraim 4 (Buzsaky 46, 6), Quashie 2 (Taarabt 46, 6), Faurlin 4, Cook 6, Bent - (Vine 10, 4), Simpson 6

Subs Not Used: Cerny, Balanta, Borrowdale, German

Booked: Connolly (foul)

Goals: Simpson 66 (assisted Cook)

Ipswich: Lee-Barrett 6, Peters 7, Delaney 7, McAuley 7, Colback 7, Walters 6, Leadbitter 8, Norris 8, Garvan 7 (Rosenior 65, 6), Counago 6 (Healy 65, 6), Daryl Murphy 7 (Stead 85, -)

Subs Not Used: Brian Murphy, Balkestein, Edwards, Quinn

Booked: Norris (foul), Walters (foul)

Goals Norris 8 (assisted Walters), Daryl Murphy 38 (assisted Colback)

Referee: Fred Graham (Essex) 8 Apart from one 30 second period late in the second half when he got caught up with some play acting from Taarabt and Rosenior I thought he controlled the game brilliantly only producing cards when necessary, allowing play to flow, not being too fussy and generally showing a lot of common sense. Allowed some physical contact which is a good thing, and ignored most of the diving and cheating that went on with a smile on his face which quickly saw it come to a stop.

QPR 2 Forest 0, Saturday October 18, 2008

Blackstock then picked up the first booking of the game from referee Fred Graham in confusing circumstances – Nottingham Forest broke down the field on the counter attack and Blackstock wrestled with one of the runners in back play. The attack ended when Cerny flicked the ball away from Tyson with his finger tips after good build up by Anderson and Cohen. The ball stayed in play and didn’t go dead for several minutes until a foul by Bennett on Buzsaky. The referee then returned to book Blackstock for his previous indiscretion, a good decision but one that mystified most people in the ground at the time because most hadn’t seen the offence and those that had had long since forgotten about it.

QPR didn’t appear to be in any great trouble to me and looked all set to cruise through to full time until, with eight minutes still to play, Sam Di Carmine was harshly punished for turning Cohen illegally on the penalty area and Forest were given a route back into the game. The free kick looked ideally placed for a left footed inswinger but sub Lewis McGugan caught everybody off guard with a right footed shot that cleared the wall and ripped into the back of the net.

I personally thought the wall could have done more, certainly two or three of them in there didn’t even jump, and Damien Delaney let Blackstock know in no uncertain terms what he thought of his efforts, shoving his team mate in the chest at one stage. As Forest returned to the halfway line Lee Cook was shown a yellow card, presumably for telling the referee exactly what he thought of the original decision – bloody stupid booking that one.

QPR: Cerny 8, Ramage 6, Stewart 7, Hall 7 (Connolly 65, 7), Delaney 6, Buzsaky 8 (Mahon 90, -), Leigertwood 6, Rowlands 6, Cook 6, Balanta 7 (Di Carmine 76, 6), Blackstock 6

Subs Not Used: Camp, Ledesma

Booked: Blackstock (foul), Cook (dissent)

Goals: Balanta 48 (assisted Delaney), Buzsaky 60 (assisted Hall)

Forest: Smith 5, Wilson 6, Bennett 6 (Lynch 46, 5), Chambers 6, Morgan 6, Fletcher 7 (McGugan 73, 7), Anderson 7 (Davies 73, 6), Cohen 6, Cole 6, McCleary 6, Tyson 7

Subs Not Used: Martin, Thornhill

Booked: McCleary (foul), Tyson (repetitive fouling)

Goals: McGugan 84 (assisted Cohen)

Referee: Fred Graham (Essex) 8 Very decent overall I thought. Hard to argue with any of the bookings, the game was allowed to flow and he played lots of advantage. An unfussy official who doesn’t want to be the centre of attention – rarely spends a lot of time speaking the players and allows a bit of physical contact which is a good thing.

QPR 0 Wolves 0, Saturday December 15, 2007

In between the attempts from Rowlands Blackstock should have given QPR the lead when Ainsworth toasted Gray for the umpteenth time in the half, got to the byline and hammered the ball low into the six yard box. Somehow Blackstock contrived to fire wide from a matter of yards out at the near post. Not since Watford's Jermaine Darlington played at Loftus Road for the Hornets has a full back been given quite such a torrid time by Gareth Ainsworth. He absolutely slaughtered him in the first half with the ball, and thanks to some very lenient refereeing he beat him up a few times as well.

Some robust and at times dangerous tackles were allowed to play on by referee Fred Graham and Ainsworth made the most of this by gleefully flying into Gray at every opportunity. The former Sunderland man looked thoroughly fed up by half time and he can't really have appreciated Ainsworth sledging him off the ball all the time as well - no doubt telling him there'd be more punishment coming his way soon. Mick McCarthy didn't seem to appreciate the way the referee was handling the first half, and he was furious when Ainsworth got away with shovelling Gray into the West Paddock as the ball went out for a throw in. We all like to see a game allowed to flow, but Graham was letting some ridiculous behaviour go unpunished.

Ainsworth thought he'd got his reward for a superb first half display when he tapped home from close range five minutes in but Graham, suddenly remembering he had a whistle in his hand, decided to award a free kick for a push by Blackstock at the back post. Considering some of the assaults he'd allowed to go unpunished in the first half to penalise Blackstock for a debatable climbing offence seemed a little strange to me.

He only got stranger though because within seconds Wolves had broken down the other end and won a free kick of their own for a foul on Jay Bothroyd. He'd become exasperated with the lack of protection received from the officials in the first half but when they finally did get a chance to deliver the ball into the box from a set piece they were denied an attempt on goal by a fantastic defensive header from Zesh Rehman. The ball flew into the Lower Loft off Rehman and the referee awarded a goal kick, overruling his assistant who had correctly pointed for a corner. One of numerous extraordinary decisions on the day.

The final action of the half saw Buzsaky crudely chopped down on the edge of the area but Graham again waved play on and Wolves broke downfield with a move that culminated with a shot by Gibson that flew well wide. The QPR players and fans continued to express their displeasure to the referee as the teams left the field for the half time oranges.

Then the big controversial moment of the game. Just before the hour Nygaard won back possession from Kevin Foley right in the corner of the penalty area by the byline. The Dane turned on the ball and then looked set to hammer it across the face of goal but Foley clamped his arm tightly and wouldn't release, eventually wrestling the QPR player to the ground. Graham was a matter of feet away, looking right at it, but was unmoved. I still can't believe a penalty wasn't given now looking back, what on earth was the moron looking at? Why would Nygaard go down? He'd turned his man, he was away and heading for goal. A scandalous, pathetic piece of refereeing from an official who was incompetent to the point of endangering the players' safety all afternoon. Nygaard, Barker and several others protested long and hard for more than a minute afterwards.

QPR Camp 7, Malcolm 7, Rehman 8, Stewart 7, Barker 7, Ainsworth 8, Leigertwood 7, Buzsaky 7, Rowlands 7, Blackstock 6 (Sinclair 83, -), Nygaard 6

Subs Not Used: Cole, Moore, Walton, Balanta

Wolves Hennessey 8, Foley 6, Darren Ward 7, Collins 5, Gray 5, Gibson 6, Olofinjana 7, Henry 7, Stephen Ward 7, Elliott 6, Bothroyd 6 (Keogh 88, -)

Subs Not Used: Ikeme, Edwards, Jarvis, Eastwood

Referee: Fred Graham (Essex) 4 - Regular readers will know that I like a referee who keeps his cards in his pockets an allows a game to flow, but there is a limit to that and Mr Graham was so far past that limit at times it became farcical. Twice in the first half Wolves players were the victims of poor challenges from QPR players over by the South Africa Road stand and nothing was given, Buzsaky was chopped down on the edge of the area and nothing was given, Nygaard was blatantly wrestled to the floor in the penalty area and no penalty was given. He just gave nothing all afternoon, and that's great to a point, but as the players realised they could get away with things some really dangerous tackles went in and Graham is lucky nobody got hurt as a result of his slack performance. At one point I actually thought he'd left his whistle in the bogs, Dermott Gallagher stoned off his face would have given more free kicks than this guy. Poor to the point of being dangerous.

Stats

Graham, as you’ve probably already gathered, is a referee who likes to let everything except murder and gang rape pass by without a free kick being awarded. Consequently it’s no surprise to see him posting a low average of 35 yellows and two reds from 16 games so far this season, and that 2.18 bookings a game ratio would be lower still were it not for seven yellows at Reading v Leeds and five yellows and a red at Brentford v MK Dons earlier this month. Without those two games his card average would be just 1.64 a game. Six of his games have been in the Championship this season, including Bristol City’s 3-0 home defeat by Norwich in October when he awarded the Canaries a first half penalty. Last season he showed 78 yellows (2.516 a game) and seven reds in 31 games and refereed City’s 1-1 home draw with Sheffield Wednesday.

Other Listings

Championship >>> Rob Shoebridge, of Palace ghost goal infamy and the lowest mark of any referee on LFW last season, has Portsmouth v Hull. Andy D’Urso has Cardiff v Leeds on Tuesday.

League One >>> Young Michael Oliver continues to be trusted with the big games – he has Huddersfield v Sheffield Wednesday.

League Two >>> Clueless young whippersnapper Gavin Ward has Aldershot v Hereford.

Photo: Action Images

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