A new referee for both Southampton and QPR this weekend at St Mary’s with young Sheffield official James Bell in charge.

Referee >>> James Bell (Sheffield), second year on the Championship list.

Assistants >>> Ian Cooper (Kent) and George Byrne (Suffolk)

Fourth Official >>> Oliver Langford (West Mids), has been involved in three of QPR’s first four league games either as referee or fourth official.

History

First QPR appointment.

Stats

Bell was promoted onto the league list for the 2020/21 campaign and after two campaigns in League One and Two was upped into the Championship for the start of the 2022/23 campaign. He did 17 matches last year, nine of them at this level, with 58 yellows and three reds shown.

Two of those red cards came in Plymouth matches – one for Argyle in injury time at Portsmouth as they conceded in the last minute to draw 2-2, and another for Accrington when the Green Army won 2-0 up in Lancashire. He has a chequered past with Plymouth. In May 2021 he sent off Jerome Opoku in a 3-1 home loss to Sunderland in League One. After the game manager Ryan Lowe went to town on the young official, saying that before the match he’d been laughing and joking about how, as a Sheff Wed fan, he used to sing Lowe’s name from the terrace when he played for the Owls, but then afterwards he’d refused to meet and speak about the red card decision. This would come back to haunt Bell at the end of the 22/23 campaign when he was appointed to referee Ipswich v Charlton, until Town fans discovered the old Lowe quotes online and kicked up a stink about him doing the game given how Ipswich and Sheff Wed were locked in a promotion battle. He was replaced for the fixture. He later issued a red card to Lowe, by now Preston manager, in a game against Birmingham.

One game in each competition so far this year: MK Dons 0 Wycombe 2 in the League Cup; Burton 0 Derby 3 in League One; and Stoke 1 Watford 0 in the Championship last weekend. A dozen yellows and no reds to date. Neither QPR nor Southampton have ever had a match with this referee.

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