Referee Michael Naylor returns to Loftus Road for the first time since QPR’s League Cup win over Walsall 12 months ago to take charge of this weekend’s game with Ipswich.
Referee >>> Michael Naylor (South Yorkshire), refereed QPR’s 3-0 League Cup win against Walsall last season.
Assistants >>> Darren Blunden (Kent) and Dan Robathan (Surrey)
Fourth Official: Michael Bull (Essex)
QPR 3 Walsall 0, Tuesday August 28, 2012, League Cup first round
Referee Michael Naylor — no doubt thrilled to be dragged down from South Yorkshire for such a prestigious midweek fixture — awarded a generous free kick to Ashley Hemmings after an alleged foul by Anton Ferdinand. One thing football players should be able to do regardless of their ability relative to their opposition is deliver a nice set piece and the resulting free kick here was an absolute peach. Hemmings whipped the ball in with real venom with his left foot, drawing it back towards the near post with Walsall attackers rushing towards it from left to right. Striker Will Grigg came closest to getting a touch, but the visitors were unfortunate not to see the ball sail all the way into the net without a touch. Ultimately it landed safely in the gloves of Rob Green.
Things didn’t get much better for Smith as he was forced into an early change: former Orient man Adam Chambers went off to be replace by James Baxendale. His side then picked up the night’s only caution as Dean Holden was accused of a gratuitous foul on Zamora as the striker held up a ball and awaited the arrival of supporting runners.
Walsall were having their ten minutes in the game and after Park was adjudged to have fouled Cuvelier on the edge of the area the League One side executed a clever free kick routine that at first looked as if they’d made a complete mess of things, but then suddenly opened up for debutant Andy Taylor, a former QPR loanee, to have a smack with his left foot from the edge of the penalty box. Robert Green came to successfully claim the resulting corner after Aton Ferdinand had blocked Taylor’s shot behind. When Hemmings then shot wide after collecting the ball in broken play Mark Hughes reached for his cards for the first time and sent on Kieran Dyer instead of Junior Hoilett who had been fairly anonymous throughout.
QPR: Green 6, Bosingwa 6, Ferdinand 5, Nelsen 6, Fabio 6, Wright-Phillips 6 (Traore 68, 6), Park 6, Faurlin 7, Hoilett 5 (Dyer 60, 6), Johnson 7, Zamora 7 (Cissé 69, 7)
Subs: Murphy, Onuoha, Derry, Mackie
Goals: Wright-Phillips 29 (assisted Zamora), Zamora 66 (assisted Dyer), Bosingwa 84 (assisted Faurlin)
Walsall: Gróf 6, Butler 6, Holden 6, Purkiss 6, Taylor 5, Featherstone 6, Chambers 6 (Baxendale 37, 6), Cuvelier 6, Hemmings 7 (Jones 78, -), Grigg 7 (Bowerman 70, 6), Paterson 6
Subs: Walker, Benning, Downing, Williams
Bookings: Holden 42 (foul)
Referee — Michael Naylor 8 Very little to referee in a pretty uncompetitive game, did what he had to do without fuss.
Last season Naylor booked 72 players and sent three off in 30 appointments. Those games were split evenly between all three divisions in the Football League with a decent number of Championship fixtures for a referee in just his third season on the list. His biggest haul in a single game was seven yellows at Watford v Palace in the Championship in February.
That was only an average of 2.4 yellows a game which was substantially less than the previous year when he booked 101 and sent five off in 31 appointments (3.2 yellows a game). That total was boosted substantially by a card happy start to the season when he booked 11 and sent two off in Notts County’s 3-2 win against Tranmere, and then followed that swiftly with eight yellows and one red at Southend v Plymouth.
He refereed Ipswich’s 2-1 home defeat by Northampton in the League Cup in 2011, and their 2-1 league win at Bolton in December last season.
This is his first appointment of this season.
Premier League >>> No surprise names appearing on the Premier League list on the opening weekend. Phil Dowd has Swansea v Man Utd, Andre Marriner takes Man City v Newcastle.
Championship >>> Every week we draw closer to the return of Trevor Kettle to QPR action. This week he has Middlesbrough v Blackpool. Roger East drops down from the Premier League for Leeds v Sheff Wed while the highly rated Robert Madley has Derby v Leicester. Michael Jones also comes down a league for Reading v Watford.
League One >>> Gavin Ward has Gillingham v Brentford.
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Pictures — Action Images