A televised derby game, but no Premier League referee for QPR and Brentford this Friday as Championship official James Adcock takes charge.
Referee >>> James Adcock (Nottinghamshire), QPR took four points from two away matches with Adcock in charge last season.
Assistants >>> Adam Matthews (Gloucestershire) and Michael George (Norfolk)
Fourth Official >>>> Tim Robinson (West Sussex)
Leeds 1 QPR 1, Tuesday April 5, 2016, Championship
Polter, meanwhile, hadn’t seen much of the ball himself but his presence alone is enough to cause problems for defenders and one such moment of panic brought QPR and equaliser in the dying stages of the game. Hesitancy from Giuseppe Bellusci when he seemed to be clear favourite to get to a ball in the right channel first enabled Polter to muscle in front of him, surge into the area and hit the deck under heavy contact. Even at Elland Road, referee James Adcock couldn’t help but point straight to the spot.
Leeds complained long and loud, delaying the taking of the spot kick for a minute, but Chery wasn’t distracted and dispatched the ball emphatically into the top corner. No goalkeeper, young or old, would ever have got anywhere near it.
Leeds: Peacock-Farrell 5; Beradi 6, Bellusci 4, Cooper 6, Taylor 6; Bridcutt 7, Murphy 6 (Diagouraga 83, -), Dallas 5 (Coyle 86, -), Cook 6; Carayol 6 (Mowatt 90, -), Wood 6
Subs not used: Bamba, Adeyemi, Grimes, Antenucci
Goals: Wood 70 (assisted Murphy)
QPR: Smithies 5; Onuoha 6, Hall 6, Angella 5, Perch 5; Phillips 5, Luongo 5, Faurlin 5, Hoilett 7 (Chery 74, 6); Washington 4 (El Khayati 80, -), Mackie 4 (Polter 24, 5)
Subs not used: Gladwin, Henry, Ingram, Robinson
Goals: Chery 86 (penalty, won Polter)
Referee — James Adcock 6
Rotherham 0 QPR 3, Saturday January 16, 2016, Championship
Junior Hoilett, in particular, showed marked improvement. Having spent much of the first 45 rolling around on the floor, now he suddenly had toughness, endurance and upper body strength. Time and again he bustled, tricked or outright fought his way past a Rotherham defender — non more so than seven minutes after half time when he remained on his feet in the area despite being obviously fouled just long enough to finish precisely past our former charge Lee Camp into the far corner. Referee James Adcock indicated he would have awarded a penalty had the goal not been scored.
Later Fer and Phillips, unrecognisable from their respective first half non-events, won the ball back in the Rotherham right back area then executed a neat one two allowing Fer to curl a shot wide of the far post from the edge of the area. When Luongo later charged through the middle of the home side during another piercing attack, Man City loanee Shay Facey was booked for deliberately chopping him down just to achieve some respite. That breather was brief, as soon Grant Hall was reading the play superbly, intercepting a pass and the marauding forward deep behind enemy lines with possession at feet. He grows with every game. A shoo in for Player of the Year.
Rotherham: Camp 5; Facey 6, Broadfoot 5, Belaid 6, Mattock 6; G Ward 7, Green 6, Smallwood 5, Newell 6; D Ward 6 (Cklarke-Harris 55, 5), Derbyshire 5 (Ledesma 80, -)
Subs Not Used: Wood, Collins, Richardson, Cairns, Thorpe
Bookings: Facey 76 (foul)
QPR: Smithies 7; Perch 6, Onuoha 7, Hall 7, Konchesky 5; Henry 6, Luongo 7; Hoilett 7 (Mackie 87, -), Fer 6, Phillips 5 (Chery 86, -); Polter 8
Subs not used: Lumley, Angella, Tozser, Sandro, Petrasso
Goals: Hoilett 52 (unassisted), Phillips 54 (assisted Luongo), Polter 90 (assisted Fer)
Referee — James Adcock (Lacashire) 8 The Rotherham fans seemed very unhappy with him, with boos and ironic cheers greeting the decisions they were given, but to be honest I thought he had a really excellent game here, with great use of the advantage rule throughout — most notably for Hoilett’s goal. Only one, fully justified, card, no big decisions wrong, kept out of the way. Very decent.
Blackburn 2 QPR 0, Tuesday April 8, 2014, Championship
As the half trundled laboriously to its conclusion, Assou-Ekotto neatly summarised the less than inspiring proceedings by foul throwing the ball five-year-old-style six inches from his head and watching it literally plop onto the ground — ground which he surely would have wished would swallow him up if he actually gave a shit.
The rest of the first half was for the most part fairly innocuous sparring. The lesser-spotted Luke Young blocked Rhodes with a last ditch tackle; Simpson earned a yellow for a rash challenge on Conway; Green saved from Rhodes after Gestede flicked on Spurr’s bullet throw; and Morrison had a sumptuous volley well saved by the reliable Robinson after a pull back from Benayoun.
Blackburn Rovers: Robinson 7, Keane 6, Hanley (c) 7, Kilgallon 7, Spurr 7, Cairney 6, Lowe 7, Williamson 6 (Etuhu 85’), Conway 7, Gestede 8, Rhodes 7.
Goals: Gestede, Spurr
QPR: Green 4, Simpson 6, Dunne 5, Young 5, Assou Ekotto 6 (Yun 77’), Hoillet 5, Henry 5, Benayoun 5, Carroll 5 (Maiga 68’), Morrison 7, Keane 5 (Austin 68’)7
Booked: Simpson
Referee: James Adcock 6
Bolton 0 QPR 1, Saturday August 24, 2013, Championship
The introduction of Bobby Zamora for a hot-headed Austin, who needlessly got involved with Marc Tierney and picked up a booking, signalled QPR’s intent for the final 20 minutes. This is what Zamora does well, supposedly, holding the play up and slowing the game down by keeping the ball. It was hardly an inspiring cameo though, yet his work-rate couldn’t be questioned.
Bolton: A Bogdan 6; A Baptiste 6, Z Knight 7, D Wheater 7, M Tierney 6; T Ream 5 (R Hall 72 7), M Kamara 7, J Spearing 8, C Lee 7; J Beckford 5 (C Davies 67 6), D Ngog 5 (Moritz 67 6).
Subs Not Used: A Lonergan, T Mears, M Mills, O Odelusi
Bookings: Tierney 58 (unsporting behaviour)
QPR: R Green 8; D Simpson 7, R Dunne 7, N Onuoha 8, C Hill 8; S Wright-Phillips 6 (Traore 6), K Henry 8, J Barton 6, G O'Neil 7; A Johnson 7 (Jenas -) C Austin 6 (Zamora 71 6)
Subs not used: B Murphy, Y Suk-Young, T Hitchcock, A Faurlin.
Goals: Johnson 54 (assisted Hill)
Bookings: Dunne 8 (foul), Barton 21 (foul), Henry 49 (foul), Austin 58 (unsporting behaviour), Simpson 84 (foul), Onuoha 87 (foul).
Referee — James Adcock (South Yorkshire) 5 An early booking to Richard Dunne for some reason meant every other wrongly timed tackle was a booking. QPR picked up six yellow cards during a pretty timid affair.
A single red card and 35 yellows for Adcock in 13 appointments so far this season, led by some way by the seven bookings issued in the Barnsley v Villa Championship fixture in September. He's already had Brentford once this year — a 1-0 loss in the league at Rotherham in August.
Last season Adcock only issued one red card in the whole campaign, at Preston v Charlton, and showed 70 yellows in 31 outings giving him a low average of 2.2 bookings a game. He didn't show more than four yellows in any game all season.
Championship >>> It's the big Birmingham v Villa tear up on Sunday, and Mike Dean is the Premier League referee charged with keeping a lid on it.
League Two >>> Gavin Ward has Cheltenham v Blackpool.
Tweet @loftforwords
Pictures — Action Images