Stephen Martin has the second QPR appointment of his career, and first at Loftus Road, as the R's face Reading at home this weekend.
Referee >>> Stephen Martin (Staffordshire), starred opposite John Candy in the 1987 comedy road trip movie Planes, Trains and Automobiles directed by John Hughes.
Assistants >>> David Avent (Northants) and Darren Blunden (Kent)
Fourth official >>> Trevor Kettle (Leicestershire), the worst referee in the Football League by some considerable distance.
Cardiff 0 QPR 0, Saturday April 16, 2016, Championship
So I’m well placed to tell those of you who weren’t there that Cardiff City and Queens Park Rangers played out 45 minutes of Championship football in South Wales on Saturday during which two things happened. The first, after 13 minutes, saw Cardiff’s most advanced midfielder Anthony Pilkington dive in the penalty box attempting to con a penalty kick out of referee Stephen Martin. He was yellow carded for his troubles. Later, on the half hour, Pilkington ushered a chance wide of the post after Stuart O’Keefe had crossed and Lex Immers had flicked it on at the near post.
And it’s probably worth noting that Grant Hall, who’s had one or two issues of late, followed up a very fine ball and all tackle in his own penalty area with a mad five minutes during which he was first caught in possession in a dangerous area trying to bring a dropping ball down with a first touch when he should have just leathered it away, then tried a risky pass across his own box to Hill with similarly poor results, and finally tried to buy a free kick tight to the touchline with an obvious dive that Martin waved away again allowing Cardiff to launch an attack against a short-handed defence.
There were other scares in between — Nedum Onuoha flinging everything he owns in front of a powerful drive from Malone after Konchesky had been skinned showed tremendous commitment and desire to win the point in a largely meaningless match. Hall also stood his ground, and was subsequently wrestled over by Pilkington for an obvious yellow card, when Zohore sent Ralls’ back post cross all the way back through the goal mouth.
Cardiff: Marshall 6; Peltier 5, Morrison 6, Connolly 6, Malone 6; Noone 6, O’Keefe 6 (Ameobi 66, 7), Ralls 6, Whittingham 5 (Gunnarsson 81, -); Immers 5 (Zohore 80, -); Pilkington 5
Subs not used: Turner, Dikgacoi, Moore, Lawrence
Bookings: Pilkington 13 (diving), Peltier 49 (foul)
QPR: Ingram 7; Onuoha 6, Hall 6, Hill 6, Konchesky 4; Henry 6, Luongo 6, Faurlin 6, Phillips 6 (Washington 84, -); Chery 5 (El Khayati 72, 6); Polter 5 (Gladwin 66, 6)
Subs not used: Lumley, Hoilett, Petrasso, Kpekawa
Bookings: Konchesky 81 (foul)
Referee — Stephen Martin (Staffordshire) 8 Promising performance on his first ever QPR outing. Bookings spot on, early dive from Pilkington not bought, decent control of a pretty pedestrian game.
A very active season for Martin already with 11 matches refereed in the first two months of the campaign — ominously, no red cards shown as yet. His total of 31 bookings across those games is led by the six he showed at Sheff Wed v Aston Villa on day one. Six of his games have been in the Championship and he’s had a match in all three rounds of the League Cup so far.
Last season he finished with 83 yellows and five reds in 38 matches, and was rewarded for his form with an appointment in the plat-offs — taking the League One semi-final tie between Wimbledon and Accrington. He had three Reading appointments with an even spread of results — a 2-0 win at Bristol City, a 1-1 draw with Sheff Wed and a 1-0 loss at Brighton.
Premier League >>> Anthony Taylor, from Manchester, is the somewhat bold choice for the Liverpool v Man Utd game on Monday evening. An Altrincham fan apparently.
Championship >>> Premier League referee Craig Pawson has Brighton v Preston.
The Twitter @loftforwords
Pictures — Action Images