Lincolnshire’s Darren Drysdale takes charge of a QPR game for the second time this season on Boxing Day as the R’s travel to high-flying Ipswich Town.
Referee >>> Darren Drysdale (Lincolnshire), refereed the 4-3 farce against Bolton at Loftus Road earlier this season.
Assistants >>> Alan Young (Cambridgeshire) and Rob Smith (Hertfordshire)
Fourth Official >>> Anthony Da Costa (Cambridgeshire)
Queens Park Rangers 4 Bolton Wanderers 3, Saturday October 3, 2015, Championship
In other news from the game, Henry, Tözsér and Chery all picked up yellow cards for various fouls whereas Bolton avoided any such sanction despite a tendency to literally (and persistently) get to grips with QPR players. And a mention of the crowd — more than 16,000 was a pretty good turnout given the Fulham result and the fact that the Bolton support was fairly modest in number. Fortunately, Emmanuel-Thomas’ first goal stemmed the tide of ugliness that was threatening to sweep over the ground and his second prompted wild scenes of celebration that did much to erase memory of the worst that had gone before. Having said that, the mood of the church was not good — ‘We heard the C word an awful lot today’ I heard one guy remark as we left the ground.
QPR: Green 5, Onouha 5, Angella 5, Hall 4, Konchesky 6, Henry 5, Tözsér 6, Phillips 6, Fer 7 (Sandro 76, 6), Chery 7, Emmanuel-Thomas 8
Subs not used: Doughty, Faurlin, Luongo, Perch, Smithies, Polter
Goals: Emmanuel Thomas (assisted Chery), Fer (assisted Phillips), Chery, Emmanuel-Thomas
Bookings: Chery 45+2 (foul), Tozser 55 (foul), Henry 74 (foul)
Bolton Wanderers: Amos 6, Pisano 5 (Wheater 45, 5), Gouano 5, Devite 5, Moxey 6, Danns 6, Davies 7, Feeney 6, Pratley 6 (Spearing 64, 5), Clayton 6 (Wellington 80, 7), Madine 6
Subs not used: Vela, Rachubka, Casado, Dobbie
Goals: Madine 8 (assisted Feeney), Feeney 11 (assisted Pratley), Wellington 85 (unassisted)
Referee — Darren Drysdale (Lincolnshire) 7 Didn’t really find myself taking notes about the ref, which is a good sign. Not sure that the distribution of the cards was strictly fair but other than that I thought he was reasonable, calm and competent. Neil Lennon disagrees with that quite passionately, it would seem, but I’m afraid I did not see the Konchesky tackle that upset him so. All I can say is that his player, apparently clinically dead one minute, was trotting away the next. As far as the alleged bias in favour of QPR was concerned, I just saw a lot of pushing, grappling and tugging by Bolton players, only the worst of which got penalised.
QPR 0 Blackburn 0, Saturday December 7, 2013, Championship
Rangers looked more positive when they got Andy Johnson on the ball. He drew a foul from Dann while running at the Rovers defence for which referee Darren Drysdale showed a yellow card, and later sent in a low cross that Austin stepped over allowing Phillips a clear strike on goal but a remarkable save from Rovers keeper Simon Eastwood — third choice and making his first league start of the season — kept the scores deadlocked.
Drysdale had the book out again for Chris Taylor - who’d been crying out for a card long before it actually arrived in the sixty fourth minute following a series of fouls, dives and, ultimately, a hack on Joey Barton — and then again for Tommy Spurr despite the one-time QPR transfer target appearing to win the ball with a fair tackle. Taylor should have scored moments after his indiscretion when a cross from the right dropped in the six yard box but Rangers muscled up and cleared away.
QPR: Green 6; Simpson 6 Dunne 6, Hill 7, Assou-Ekotto 6 (Traore 87, -); Phillips 5 (O’Neil 59, 6), Carroll 6, Barton 6, Hoilett 5 (Kranjcar 59, 6); Johnson 6, Austin 6
Subs not used: Onuoha, Jenas, Henry, Murphy
Blackburn: Eastwood 7; Henley 6, Dann 6, Hanley 6, Spurr 6; Marshall 6, Williamson 6, Lowe 6, Cairney 6 (King 63, 5 (Dunn 85, -)); Taylor 6; Rhodes 6 (Campbell 76, 5)
Subs not used: Kilgallon, Judge, Rochina, Kean
Bookings: Henley 33 (foul), Dann 48 (foul), Spurr 64 (foul), Taylor 69 (repetitive fouling)
Referee — Darren Drysdale (Lincs) 7 Thought he allowed Taylor to get away with far too much before booking him, and then yellow carded Spurr rather harshly immediately afterwards, but other than that he had a calm, firm control on a dreadful game.
Reading 2 QPR 1, Sunday April 30, 2006, Championship
Langley then had a bit of handbags with Sidwell and we had the interesting sight of the referee holding Langley's arms down by putting his own arms around Langley and guiding him away from the others. The referee soon had them both shaking hands and it had all blown over. Sensible handling of the situation by the official and a good example of his level-headed control of the game.
But Reading managed to force some attacking moves and as the ball came in to the area, it hit Langley on the arm. The referee blew immediately for a Reading penalty and was surrounded by some Rangers players, who continued to complain. Presumably, they were arguing that it was ball-to-hand and accidental, but Langley's arm was away from his body so the referee really didn't have much option.
Dan Shittu, in particular, seemed to have the red mist. The complaining appeared to be going on for too long and you had to think that someone was going to talk themselves into the book. But the referee let the fuss peter out and eventually Gareth Ainsworth shepherded all the players away. Jake Cole tried to make himself big but went the wrong way and Murty smashed it into the net.
The relief of the home crowd was immense. Before the bit of pressure that resulted in the penalty, Rangers were having more and more control and mounting increasing attacks on their goal. They could see their party being spoilt.
If the Rangers players were upset by the penalty decision, they didn't let it affect their composure and continued to play an attractive passing game.
Reading: Hahnemann, Murty, Shorey, Sidwell, Sonko, Oster (Hunt), Kitson Harper, Ingimarsson, Convey (Gunarsson), Doyle (Long)
Subs Not Used: Stack, Makin
Goals: Kitson 41, Murty 81 pen.
QPR: Paul Jones 7 (Cole 8), Bignot 5 , Shittu 7, Santos 8*, Milanese 7, Langley 7, Ainsworth 6, Bailey 6 (Ray Jones 7) , Donnelly 6, Cook 7, Furlong 7.
Subs Not Used: Evatt, Howell, Munday.
Goals: Furlong 73
Ref: Darren Drysdale (Lincs) 8 - Came into the game with a reputation for brandishing cards but, in this game, he seemed to be more interested in keeping the cards in his pocket. He controlled the game with a lot of common sense and was always keen to keep the game flowing. We may not have liked the penalty decision but having seen the replay, I can see why he gave it. He was very good at talking to the players, either warning them quietly to watch themselves or explaining a decision.
Last season he showed 102 yellows and seven reds 28 games. The reds mostly came in a mid-season flurry — five in ten games over the winter, hope everything was alright at home. He showed seven yellows and a red at Millwall v Wolves, and again at Mansfield v Tranmere, which were his busiest afternoons.
Championship >>> Mark Clattenburg forced to slum it down here with the rest of us this Christmas. Not sure how his fake tan will go down at Hull v Burnley.
League One >>> Merry Christmas Bradford and Burton Albion — here comes Trevor Kettle bearing cards. Lots of cards. Stuart Attwell has the derby between Doncaster and Scunthorpe too, which should be interesting. And Gavin Ward at Millwall too — three dead.
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Pictures — Action Images