Russell back at Loftus Road for Boro visit
Thursday, 9th Sep 2010 20:05 by Clive Whittingham

Referee Mick Russell, who postponed a game, awarded two penalties and denied QPR another blatant one last season, is back in W12 for this weekend’s game against Middlesbrough.

Referee >>> Mick Russell (Hertfordhsire) postponed our home match with Crystal Palace last season due to waterlogging, subsequently refereed the 1-1 rearranged fixture where he awarded two penalties and another score draw with Derby at Loftus Road where he missed a blatant spot kick for the R’s right at the end.

Assistants >>> Philip Knight (Kent) and Harry Lennard (East Sussex)

Fourth Official >>> Ian Crouch (Kent)

Previously

QPR 1 Derby 1 Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Savage became a man-marker on Taarabt, following him across the pitch and preventing him from turning. Taarabt appealed to the referee on numerous occasions about the pressure from Savage, but it was no-more than you would expect from any decent midfielder in the Championship, including the scything tackle on the edge of the centre-circle, which should have earned Savage the first booking of the game. The ref waved all protest away; Taarabt threw his little black gloves off in anger; the fans climbed on the ref's back, and not for the last time. It should have been a booking, but then so should Taarabt's kick on Savage just before – which in many peoples eyes’ could have brought a red card.

German was still the only real threat Derby had to counter, and they did this by man-marking yet another one of our players, although this time with far more shirt-pulling and physical contact than should have been allowed. German had already complained to the ref about being held down by a Derby player, and in the last minute of the game, as he broke through into the box after hunting the ball down, a clear shirt pull which was seen by half of the 12,569 fans inside the ground, was completely missed by both linesman and referee. It was such a nailed-on penalty, that the Derby keeper held his head in his hands when the ref pointed for a goal-kick, thinking it was for a penalty.

QPR: Ikeme 7, Ramage 7, Stewart 7, Gorkss 8, Connolly 8 (Hill 33, 6), Faurlin 5, Leigertwood 5, Cook 6 (German 59, 7), Taarabt 7, Vine 6, Simpson 6 (Ephraim 78, -)

Subs Not Used: Cerny, Buzsaky, Balanta, Priskin

Booked: Faurlin (foul)

Goals: Cook 45+2 (assisted Taarabt)

Derby: Bywater, Anderson, Barker, Hunt (Davies 61), McEveley,Tonge, Pearson, Savage, Green, Sunu (Leacock 46),Porter (Hulse 82)

Subs Not Used: David Martin, Teale, Moxey, Dave Martin

Booked: Leacock (time wasting)

Goals: Barker 67 (unassisted)

Referee - Mick Russell (Hertfordshire) 5 Had a good first-half, notable by the absence of whistle and cards (although he should have booked Savage). His second half performance was not so great. Cards should have been produced for the Derby keeper, who spent most of his time digging the pitch-up, and free-kicks and a penalty should have been awarded for the constant tugging of German’s shirt.

QPR 1 Palace 1, Tuesday November 3, 2009

Quite out of the blue QPR took the lead in the 18th minute from the penalty spot. Adel Taarabt skipped into the penalty area with the ball at his feet and took Palace full back Danny Butterfield to the byline before turning back inside. As he did so the Palace man went to ground, always a fatal mistake with Taarabt around, and felled the QPR winger for an obvious spot kick. Butterfield, who never looked anything special to me in his early days at Grimsby but has forged a very steady Championship career since then with Palace, must be getting a little sick of visiting Loftus Road – it was he that was tormented by Lee Cook in the 4-2 QPR win here a couple of seasons back, and he gave away a spot kick that day as well. For the third time in five games Akos Buzsaky converted comfortably from 12 yards, sending Speroni the wrong way to the put the R’s in front.

The equaliser when it came was pretty typical of Palace. A long ball forward from Butterfield was flicked on in the air first by John and then Ambrose whose header dropped in behind Hall for Sears to run onto. The loaned West Ham striker looked suspiciously offside when the ball arrived at him, although having had so many decisions from the linesman in the second half it seemed churlish to complain, and in his desperation to get back Hall was too physical and wrestled his opponent to the ground. It looked a blatant penalty and sure enough referee Russell pointed to the spot for the second time in the game. The inform Darren Ambrose stepped up to send Cerny the wrong way an roll home his third goal in as many games and ninth off the season overall.

The game was being played at a frantic pace by this stage and referee Russell did very well to keep a hold on proceedings – although Alan Lee can count himself very fortunate to have stayed on the field after striking out at the excellent Kaspars Gorkss as the pair chased a long ball in behind the QPR defence.

It could also have been so much better as Speroni twice produced heroics in the final ten minutes to deny QPR a winner. First Akos Buzsaky tried his luck from a free kick. QPR attacked down the right with Routledge but as they did so the linesman on that side started to frantically flag for a foul. That confused many as no Palace player had got near to Routledge at all but what the assistant had actually seen was Claude Davis’ cynical and needless haul back on Agyemang right in the centre of the field as the QPR sub threatened to get ahead of the Jamaican and onto any subsequent cross. The foul looked to be in the area but after consultation with his linesman the referee, who seemed as confused as the rest of us, gave a free kick right on the very edge of the box and showed a yellow card to Davis who was absolutely furious about the whole thing. Palace brought everybody back behind the ball but the chance still looked plum for Buzsaky. The Hungarian curled the ball low round the wall with pace and direction but Speroni, despite not even seeing the ball until it was almost upon him, managed to turn it round the post to Buzsaky’s clear disbelief.

QPR: Cerny 7, Leigertwood 7, Hall 6, Gorkss 8, Borrowdale 6, Buzsaky 6 (Ephraim 80, -) Watson 5, Faurlin 8, Taarabt 7 (Agyemang 74, 7), Routledge 6, Simpson 5 (Vine 74, 7)

Subs Not Used: Heaton, Ramage, Alberti, Ainsworth

Booked: Routledge (kicking the ball away)

Goals: Buzsaky 19 (penalty)

Crystal Palace: Speroni 9, Hill 5, Fonte 7, Davis 6, Butterfield 6, Ertl 6, Ambrose 7, Derry 6, N'Diaye 6 (Sears 46, 6), Danns 7 (Hills 84, -) John 6 (Lee 67, 6) Subs Not Used: Clyne, Carle, Moses, Scannell Booked: Davis (shirt pulling) Goals: Ambrose 62 (penalty)

Referee - Mick Russell (Hertfordshire) 7 One or two dodgy decisions and moments of confusion, most notably the Buzsaky free kick resulting from the foul on Agyemang. Russell seems to be keen for his linesmen to get involved in decision making all over the park and once or twice I felt he allowed himself to be overruled by hs assistants when he personally didn’t think it was a free kick. That’s not necessarily a problem, but it does make referees look a little unsure of themselves at times. Both penalty decisions and yellow cards given were correct.

Stats

So far this season Russell has booked eight and sent one off in six matches. Three of the games, and three of the yellow cards, have come in the Championship. In 2009/10 he showed 92 yellows (2.875 a game) and three reds in 32 matches. Of those, 15 were Championship games during which he showed 39 yellows (2.6 per game) and one red. His biggest haul last season was five yellows and a red at Derby v Bristol City, his busiest day this season so far was three yellows and a red at Exeter v Bristol Rovers in League One last month.

Other Listings

Championship >>> Gavin Ward, the man who sent off Damion Stewart and shafted QPR at Reading last season has Norwich v Barnsley. Premiership referee Kevin Friend has been chosen to drop down to try and keep control of Burnley v Preston on Saturday evening.

League One >>> The wildly inconsistent occasional foe of QPR Andy D’Urso has Huddersfield v Orientbr>

Next Week >>> Keith Stroud has our trip to Ipswich, more details on that appointment online on Monday.

Photo courtesy of refworld.com

Photo: Action Images

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