Both QPR and Scunthorpe need a change of fortune with referee Eddie Ilderton on Saturday – they lost their last games with this referee 5-0 and 4-2 respectively.
Referee >>> Eddie Ilderton (Tyne and Wear), on the list since 2002, both Scunthorpe and QPR were heavily beaten the last time he refereed them.
Assistants >>> Glen Hart (Durham) and Mark Sutton (Derbyshire)
Fourth Official >>> Richard Wigglesworth (Doncaster)
Forest 5 QPR 0, Tuesday January 26, 2010
As the clock moved into double figures we had to endure a minute or so of farcical officiating from our referee Mr Ilderton. Firstly Taarabt lost out in a one on one situation and as the Forest player carried the ball away he appeared to trip over his own feet, as Taarabt was laid out five yards away from him, but a free kick was awarded. QPR were then awarded a bizarre free kick of their own for a nonexistent foul on Buzsaky and with frustrations running high the Hungarian was booked within 30 seconds for a scything scissor challenge from behind on Anderson that left the Forest man on the ground and staff from both benches aggressively heading for the touchline. All caused by rank refereeing.
In fact Mr Ilderton was a picky pain in the backside for most of the evening and entered the fray again after a quarter of an hour when a staggeringly beautiful Forest passing move, that included two back flicks on its way to the edge of the penalty area, was cut short with them still in possession and about to get McKenna in down the right for a meagre shirt tugging offence by Hill on Blackstock as he received the ball with his back to goal on the edge of the penalty box. McKenna was furious advantage had not been played but it was to Forest’s benefit ultimately as Robert Earnshaw stepped up from 20 yards out and curled a free kick a fraction over the wall, which didn’t jump, and into the bottom corner of the net away from Ikeme.
The immediate reaction to the goal from QPR said a lot. Billy Davies has always insisted that every single outfield player go and celebrate goals right down by the corner flag thereby delaying the restart. QPR lined up for the kick off without a word said between them apart from Taarabt who waved his arms around at the referee for allowing the time wasting. No arguments, no inquest, just line up and go again.
Adel Taarabt then became the second QPR player to be booked as he was flagged offside, but smashed the ball high into the stand anyway after the whistle. This began an evening of petulant hand gestures and diving around from Taarabt, although at least when given the ball he could be seen to be making the effort - albeit with no success whatsoever other than a tame bouncing shot straight at Camp that proved to be our only serious effort on goal in the half.
On the half hour it was three nil. Earnshaw hit the deck as Gorkss left a lazy leg hanging out in the penalty area and Ilderton pointed straight to the spot. The Welshman, despite being on a hat trick, handed penalty taking duties onto Dexter Blackstock after a poor miss against Birmingham in the cup over Christmas and Blackstock duly stepped up and whacked the ball into the side netting from 12 yards. An unstoppable penalty even if Ikeme had guessed the right way, which he didn’t – the first spot kick Forest have scored this season.
QPR may have had a penalty of their own five minutes later as Alejandro Faurlin seized on a loose ball on the edge of the area and poked it in behind the last man but rather than hit the deck under contact from Morgan he rode the challenge but could only chase the ball out for a goal kick. Just when you thought the farce could not deepen any further it turns out QPR have signed the only South American in world football who stays on his feet in the penalty box. You really could not make it up.
Nottm Forest: Camp 7, Gunter 7, Morgan 7 (Chambers 72, -), Wilson 7, Cohen 8, Perch 8, McKenna 8, Majewski 9, Anderson 8 (Tyson 69, 7),Blackstock 7 (Adebola 80, -), Earnshaw 8
Subs Not Used: Smith, McGugan, McGoldrick, Moussi
Booked: McKenna (foul)
Goals: Earnshaw 18 (free kick), 21 (assisted Anderson), Blackstock 32 (penalty), Cohen 49 (assisted Perch), Perch 78 (assisted Earnshaw)
QPR: Ikeme 2, Connolly 2, Gorkss 2, Stewart 2 (Ramage 46, 2), Hill 3, Buzsaky 2, Leigertwood 2, Quashie 2, Faurlin 4 (Ephraim 46, 4), Buzsaky 2,Taarabt 3, Simpson 3 (Vine 69, 3)
Subs Not Used: Cerny, Hall, Cook, German
Booked: Buzsaky (foul), Taarabt (kicking ball away), Quashie (off the ball incident)
Referee: Eddie Ilderton (Tyne & Wear) 5 Needlessly picky at times. Four cards and a lot of free kicks considering one of the teams wasn’t making any tackles. One of those referees that immediately blows for a foul after a bone crunching, ball winning tackle when really everybody loves to see that and it only gets both sets of players annoyed. A by the book man, and thoroughly irritating with it. Hard to argue with either the penalty or the free kick for the first goal having seen them again although Earnshaw did go down easily for the former and advantage could easily have been played for the latter.
Barnsley 0 QPR 0, Tuesday, February 26, 2008
From the resulting corner Howard whipped the ball in right under the cross bar and Camp did well to claw it away from the goal under huge pressure from Ferenczi in the swirling wind. The Hungarian striker is very good at his job when it comes to bullying the goalkeeper from corners. With referee Eddie Ilderton choosing to stand 30 yards away from the goal and peer through the gloom to try and catch a glimpse of things going on as corners were delivered he was pretty much allowed free reign to do what he liked to Camp as the ball was whipped in. It’s to our keeper’s credit that they didn’t score from one of these situations because it’s when they looked most threatening.
It would be fair to say that Dexter Blackstock was not having his best game, a continuation of recent poor form, but I had to laugh at the QPR fans chanting for Rowan Vine’s introduction. Would this be the same Rowan Vine everybody was moaning about not three days ago at Loftus Road? Nothing quite as fickle as football fans sometimes. The other striker we used on the night, Patrick Agyemang, was anonymous in the first half but worked a lot harder in the second and came back into the game. He didn’t get much of a sight of goal on the night but was wrestled back by the throat in the penalty area midway through the half – Ilderton too far away and poorly positioned so didn’t see it. As we’d come to expect of our match official by this stage.
The game looked to be up as we neared stoppage time when Jon Macken got in behind Fitz Hall and raced through on goal – as much as a man with the acceleration of a bulldozer can race anywhere - but Hall got back at him and bundled the ball out of play with a last ditch tackle. The homes fans screamed for a penalty, Ilderton waved the appeals away and awarded a corner. If he did get anything on the ball then Hall deserves a pat on the back for saving a point, if he didn’t then we can chalk one up in the ‘goes around’ column. Seconds later Leon was chopped down in the box for a certain spot kick – thankfully for QPR the flag had already been raised as Leon was offside.
Barnsley: Steele 7, Foster 6, Nyatanga 7, Souza 7, Van Homoet 7, Campbell-Ryce 8, Hassell, 7, Howard 7, Devaney 6 (Leon 68, 7), Macken 6, Ferenczi 4 (Odejayi 60, 6)
Subs Not Used: Togwell, Ricketts, Potter
QPR: Camp 7, Delaney 6, Hall 7, Mancienne 7, Connolly 7, Buzsaky 5 (Stewart 90, -), Rowlands 8, Leigertwood 4, Balanta 7 (Ephraim 62, 6), Blackstock 5 (Vine 78, 5), Agyemang 6
Subs Not Used: Pickens, Lee
Booked: Hall (foul), Delaney (foul)
Referee: Eddie Ilderton (Tyne & Wear) 4 - Positioning was consistently awful and was therefore always a long, long, long way away from any incident that took place. Compare him to Steve Bennett, not a particularly good elite official himself, at the weekend when he was right on the spot of any foul with a quick blast of the whistle and away we went again and the difference was stark. I lost count of the amount of times neither he nor his linesman, one of which showed no signs of life whatsoever throughout the game, looked blankly at each other and then guessed a decision. Missed Patrick Agyemang being pulled back by the neck after turning his full back, missed countless shirt pulling offences, accused a player of diving and then awarded another a free kick for the same thing seconds later and so it goes on. Also apparently turned up with a sun dial to keep time only to find that it gets dark in Barnsley about 6pm at the moment – hence a first half that he said he would extend by two minutes ended up running to 50. Either that or he wanted to see what happened with their corners, bless him.
His only other QPR fixture was back in his first season on the list in 2002 at Wigan. The R’s secured a 1-1 draw but would have done better had they been awarded a first minute penalty when Andy Thomson was blatantly chopped down in the box. Afterwards Ian Holloway blamed the referee’s inexperience and nerves for him not giving the decision.
So far this season Ilderton is averaging just about two yellow cards a game with 63 booked in 31 games, and five sent off. The only time he has shown more than four cards in a game was Peterborough 4 Southampton 4 in League One in February when he booked five. Twice this season he has sent off two players in a game – Oldham v Plymouth in League One, and Bury v Accrington in the division below. His only Scunthorpe appointment this season was a 4-2 home defeat by Cardiff in November.
Last season he showed 88 yellows and five reds in 35 matches – 2.5 bookings a game on average.
Championship >>> Premiership referee Mike Dean drops down to take Leicester v Burnley.
League One >>> Another elite official Mark Clattenburg is in charge of Orient’s home game with Southampton. Andy D’Urso has MK Dons v Carlisle
Tuesday >>> Anthony Bates is in the middle for our trip to Barnsley.