A second QPR outing of the season for referee Jeremy Simpson this Saturday as the R’s welcome Hull City to Loftus Road.
Referee >>> Jeremy Simpson (Lancashire), sent two QPR players off at Preston last season.
Assistants >>> Michael George (Norfolk) and Nigel Lugg (Surrey)
Fourth Official >>> Keith Stroud (Hampshire)
Birmingham 0 QPR 0, Saturday September 1, 2018, Championship
For your authentic, thick Championship sludge simply take two poor teams and boil them through a traumatic August until all the confidence has evaporated and they’re labouring under the misapprehension that a draw from a game against each other is a good result. Add one referee who grew up loathing football and is now dedicating his life to ruining it for the rest of us and serve over 90 stupefying minutes until your guests have started to weep.
The game started with a free kick into the wall from Jake Bidwell tormenter in chief Jota. At the other end, Wells went over in the area and enquired about a penalty from referee Jeremy Simpson. Given that Simpson deemed the Nottingham Forest goalkeeper belting Ayoze Perez in the back of the head wasn’t a penalty at the end of the Reds’ cup tie with Newcastle during the week, this one was never likely to be awarded. Strange though, because absolutely every other single little tiny insignificant thing that happened outside the area was a foul apparently. That’s a foul, that’s a foul, that’s a foul, that’s a foul, that’s a foul, that’s a foul, that’s a foul, that’s a foul, that’s a foul, that’s a foul, that’s a foul, that’s a foul. There were 41 free kicks awarded in this game, not far off one every 120 seconds. Honestly, it felt like three times that. If you told me the ball was in play for 15 minutes across the 90 I’d call you a liar. That’s a foul. That’s a foul.
That’s a foul.
And that.
Rangers did almost win it at the death regardless. A corner to the far post was returned to the heart of the goal mouth sparking a panic and Matt Smith, who has five goals in eight appearances against Birmingham across his career, hit the inside of the post with a close range header he should have scored. Some debate as to whether it would have counted because, of course, naturally, referee Jeremy Simpson had awarded the ten billionth free kick of the game, but that may have been for something that happened after Smith’s effort rather than before. By the time he put his whistle to his lips again and brought the game to a close, it was more of a mercy killing than a full time whistle.
Birmingham: Camp 6; Colin 5 (Harding 59, 6), Morrison 6, Dean 5, Pedersen 6; Maghoma 6, G Gardner 6, Kieftenbeld 6, Jota 6; Adams 6 (Solomon-Otabor 68, 6), Jutkiewicz 6 (Bogle 86, -)
Subs not used: Roberts, Mahoney, C Gardner, Trueman
Bookings: Maghoma 30 (foul), Pedersen 53 (foul)
QPR: Lumley 6; Rangel 6, Leistner 6, Lynch 6, Bidwell 6; Eze 6, Cousins 6, Luongo 5, Freeman 6; Wells 6 (Smith 85, -), Hemed 6 (Cameron 89, -)
Subs not used: Ingram, Baptiste, Osayi-Samuel, Wszolek, Smyth
Referee — Jeremy Simpson (Lancashire) 5 A pernickety, pedantic, suffocating presence in a match that was already plenty shit enough without him stopping the bloody thing every minute and a half.
Preston 1 QPR 0, Saturday December 2, 2017, Championship
One early talking point was the Preston goalkeeper’s kit; he wore our green socks and shorts with a black top. All he was missing was the green hoops! Ridiculous, no amateur referee would allow such an obvious clash. In fact in the second half we looked certain to score from a corner but instead of heading it in, the bloke in green and black caught it comfortably.
The good start came to nothing and unravelled significantly when Mackie received his straight red in the twenty third minute. It may or may not have been the correct call, we couldn’t tell from our distant view point, but the referee didn’t hang about in flashing the card. The Preston players certainly helped him with his decision, as one lay poleaxed as if shot, and the assistant refs in white surrounded Mr Simpson. When Mackie finally departed and the "dead” Preston player recovered, we all knew the game was up and the new sequence of defeats was off and running. But why did it have to take until the final two minutes for the winner to arrive? It’s always the hope that does for you. Even with ten men, the home side hardly laid a glove on us in the first half. We continued to look composed in possession but of course didn’t threaten their goal either.
The fans stayed with their team and we even managed to create a couple of opportunities. Robinson broke forward and hit a shot that was on target but well parried by Maxwell, of course the rebound went in between attackers rather than to one, and Smith hit a smart over-the —shoulder effort that went straight to the keeper. Holloway sent on Sylla for a pointless couple of minutes, where Preston successfully kept the ball safely away from their own half and managed to frustrate Bidwell and Baptiste into unnecessary bookings. Baptiste’s obviously proved far more important as he managed to make it two yellows and a red after the final whistle- cheers.
PNE: Maxwell; Fisher, Clarke (O’Connor 45), Huntingdon, Davies; Gallagher, Pearson, Barkhuizen, Browne (Harrop 45); Robinson, Hugill
Subs not used: Rudd, Boyle, Horgan, Pringle, Welsh
Goals: Hugill 88 (assisted Gallagher)
Yellow cards: Huntingdon 79 (foul), Pearson 79 (dissent)
QPR: Smthies 7; Wszolek 6, Baptiste 8, Robinson 8, Bidwell 7; Luongo 6, Scowen 6, Wheeler 5 (Smith 73, 6); Chair 6 (Sylla 90, -), Mackie 4, Washington 6
Subs not used: Lumley, Cousins, Smyth, Manning, Goss
Red Cards: Mackie 22 (serious foul play), Baptiste 90+6 (two yellows)
Yellow cards: Luongo 86 (foul), Bidwell 90 (foul), Baptiste 90+5 (dissent), Baptiste 90+6 (dissent)
Referee — Jeremy Simpson (Lancashire) 5 Just like our players, the performances of the men-in-the middle have faded recently. The last score I gave, to a Mr Martin at Sunderland, was as close to a ten as is possible, but here Mr Simpson has brought the average score down. Until the red card I thought he looked pretty solid. Mackie’s dismissal came as a shock to us, but we were a long way from the incident. If it was the right call, fair enough, you can make him a 6. But here we have another ref who seems to allow one set of players to berate him with no consequences. Smith could’ve /should’ve earned a penalty when forced to the ground late on. Instead the coward chose to award a free kick for an identical offence outside the box moments later. He also wimped out of sending off the violent Huntingdon, who was already on a yellow, when he flattened Smith again late on.
Bristol City 2 QPR 1, Saturday April 15, 2017, Championship
They’d had the ball in the net before half time as well when Smith nodded a Freeman corner in from half time only to be penalised for a foul on the goalkeeper. Bollocks. Fielding’s a decent shot stopper but he’s too small and doesn’t command his area at all. Flint had more to do with him ending up flat on his back here than Smith did — one of those where the referee, Jeremy Simpson, had decided he was giving a free kick almost before the corner was taken.
It’s a source of frustration that the clampdown on jostling in the penalty area announced last summer has, in the Championship at least, been interpreted almost exclusively as a crackdown on attacking players. While Premier League referees, Mike Dean in particular, have been penalising defenders and awarding penalties for holding, in the second tier all we’ve seen is a huge increase in the number of free kicks being awarded against strikers as soon as corners are delivered. With some referees, Tim Robinson in particular, it’s hardly worth having a bloody corner at all, so keen and quick are they to immediately award a free kick the other way. This one, from Smith, should have stood.
City: Fielding 6; Little 6, Flint 8, Wright 7, Bryan 7; Brownhill 6, Smith 6, Pack 7, Paterson 7 (Tomlin 88, -); Abraham 7 (Wilbraham 76, 6), Taylor 7 (O’Dowda 77, 6)
Subs not used: Magnusson, Hegeler, Cotterill, Giefer
Goals: Pack 14 (assisted Taylor), Paterson 40 (assisted Taylor)
Bookings: Pack 86 (time wasting)
QPR: Smithies 6; Furlong 6 (Washington 45, 6), Onuoha 5, Lynch 5, Bidwell 5; Manning 6, Freeman 6, Luongo 5; Ngbakoto 4 (Mackie 71, 5), Wszolek 4, Smith 4 (Sylla 69, 6)
Subs not used: Goss, Ingram, Perch, Lua Lua
Goals: Sylla 90+6 (assisted Washington)
Bookings: Manning 35 (foul), Luongo 45+1 (foul), Freeman 53 (foul), Mackie 90+3 (foul)
Referee — Jeremy Simpson (Lancashire) 6 Bit slow to punish the time wasting — Pack eventually booked in the 86th — and I thought Smith’s goal from the corner in the first half was fine. All of QPR’s bookings more than fair. Not helped by a linesman on the main stand side whose concept of the touchline and where it figures in the rules of the game left a lot to be desired.
Rotherham 1 QPR 0, Saturday December 10, 2017, Championship
Rotherham: Price 7; Fisher 6, Wood 6, Belaid 6, Mattock 6; Forde 6, Adeyemi 6 (Vaulks 85, -), Frecklington 8, Newell 7 (Kelly 90+3, -); Ward 8, Brown 8 (Taylor 86, -)
Subs not used: Ball, Blackstock, Yates, Bilboe
Goals: Brown 24 (assisted Ward)
Bookings: Adeyemi 50 (foul), Frecklington 83 (foul), Forde 87 (foul)
QPR: Smithies 7; Onuoha 4, Hall 5, Lynch 5, Bidwell 4; Sandro 4 (Gladwin 72, 5); Luongo 5, Cousins 5; Chery 5 (Wszolek 89, -); Ngbakoto 5 (Polter 59, 5), Washington 5
Subs not used: Ingram, Henry, El Khayati, Shodipo
Bookings: Ngbakoto 45+3 (repetitive fouling), Luongo 48 (foul), Polter 73 (foul)
Referee — Jeremy Simpson (Lancashire) 8 Very decent. Not a lot to referee but consistent, calm and not over-fussy. Blessed relief after the last couple of weeks.
QPR 1 Bristol City 0, Saturday May 7, 2016, Championship
The same can be said of Alejandro Faurlin, who may also now have played his last in Hoops. It looked for one glorious moment in the second half like he was going to sign off with a spectacular goal, tiptoeing through the tulips on the edge of the City penalty box before being tripped right on the line. Tjaronn Chery’s resulting free kick flicked off the wall on its way past the top corner, but referee Jeremy Simpson awarded a goal kick.
But the goal, a real sucker punch, seemed to knock the stuffing out of City for the final half hour of the game. Johnson responded with a triple substitution, and had good reason to believe his side should have had a penalty when Kodjia seemed to be impeded in the area by Hill — I’d have wanted a spot kick at the other end — but the contest petered out after Rangers had taken the lead and QPR could actually have ended up winning by more.
QPR: Ingram 7, Onuoha 6, Hall 6, Hill 7, Kpekawa 7; Henry 6, Faurlin 7; Gladwin 6 (Petrasso 67, 6), Chery 6 (Hoilett 59, 6), El Khayati 5; Washington 5 (Polter 74, 6)
Subs not used: Lumley, Perch, Prohouly, Grego-Cox
Goals: Henry 63 (unassisted)
Bristol City: O’Donnell 6; Ayling 6 (Vyner 68, 6), Pearce 6, Baker 6, Goldbourne 6; Reid 6, Pack 6, Bryan 7 (Freeman 68, 6); Tomlin 8; Kodjia 6, Wilbraham 6 (Dowling 67, 6)
Subs not used: Little, Williams, Agard, O’Leary
Referee — Jeremy Simpson (Lancashire) 6 Not much to referee, but I thought City were unlucky not to be awarded a second half penalty and Chery’s free kick was certainly deflected over when he awarded a goal kick erroneously.
Bolton 1 QPR 1, Saturday February 20, 2016, Championship
Bolton’s pitch, more mud than grass, looked to have another couple of hours left in it. Had this been an evening game, referee Jeremy Simpson may have had a call to make. One patch of bare earth stretching from the goal to the corner flag in front of the away end glistened under standing water, and the whole thing played like a skating rink — players struggling to keep their balance, the ball picking up pace and skidding off in random directions every time it landed.
Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink stiffened his midfield following the capitulation against Fulham a week ago by recalling Karl Henry. A shrewd move in the circumstances — despite a first half yellow card from referee Simpson for a tackle that looked to cleanly take the ball and was certainly no worse or different from three that had been made immediately before it, and Darren Pratley’s subsequent prolonged attempts to wind him up and extract a red card, Henry protected the defence well and closed that space in the ‘ten’ position from where Fulham had done so much damage.
Bolton: Amos 5; Vela 5, Dervite 6, Holding 6, Moxey 5; Spearing 5, Pratley 6, Davies 5, Clough 8 (Danns 84, -); Heskey 4 (Madine 53, 5), Feeney 5
Subs not used: Rachubka, Osede Prieto, Wellington, Dobbie, Woolery
Goals: Clough 68 (unassisted)
QPR: Smithies 6; Perch 5, Onuoha 5, Hall 6, Konchesky 4; Luongo 5, Henry 6 (Chery 80, -); Phillips 5, Hoilett 5 (El Khayati 62, 7), Mackie 5 (Polter 74, 6); Washington 6
Subs not used: Angella, Toszer, Ingram, Petrasso
Goals: Phillips 90+3 (Unassisted)
Bookings: Henry 21 (foul), Luongo 60 (foul)
Referee — Jeremy Simpson (Lancashire) 6 Booked Henry in the first half when I didn’t even think it was much of a foul, and was then pursued around the field by Darren Pratley and harangued from the touchline by Neil Lennon for the rest of the game as they attempted to Henry sent off. Having been weak in the first instance, he did well to stand up to that nonsense after half time.
Exeter City 0 Queens Park Rangers 2, Tuesday August 6, 2013, League Cup
Set pieces are another staple of a cup upset that Exeter failed to make the most of. Centre half Danny Coles scored a thumping header from a corner against Bristol Rovers in the opening league game at the weekend but the delivery on Tuesday night was poor. When referee Jeremy Simpson adjudged Alejandro Faurlin to have fouled striker Alan Gow on the edge of the QPR box just after the half hour an enticing free kick offered the home side a route back into the game. Winger Liam Sercombe had earlier fed young Jamie Reid in open play and his shot forced a comfortable parry from QPR’s stand in goalkeeper Brian Murphy but on this occasion Sercombe hoisted a mishit shot high and wide of the goal and onto the terrace of QPR fans.
Harry Redknapp meanwhile removed Alejandro Faurlin from the midfield and replaced him with Shaun Derry. This turned out to be the footballing equivalent of a bad move in Jenga and suddenly a previously sturdy QPR tower was swaying alarmingly. Already lacking pace at the back with Richard Dunne preferred to Nedum Onuoha alongside Clint Hill, Rangers suddenly found themselves unable to either maintain possession or get their team high enough up the field. A mild panic set in as the back four got sucked deeper and deeper towards Murphy’s goal. Exeter’s Davies let fly from 20 yards and rattled the cross bar; then referee Simpson waved away loud penalty appeals for a clumsy challenge by Clint Hill on John O’Flynn; and Murphy did little to calm the nerves when he scrambled around a crowded penalty area chasing the ball while leaving his goal unguarded during a melee sparked by an Exeter corner.
Exeter: Krysiak 8, Woodman 6, Baldwin 6, Coles 6, Moore-Taylor 6, Bennett 5, Sercombe 6, Doherty 5 (Davies 46, 6), Wheeler 6 (Parkin 54, 7), Gow 5 (O’Flynn 54, 6), Reid 6
Subs not used: Pyn, Dawson, Gosling, Keohane
QPR: Murphy 6, Simpson 6, Hill 6, Dunne 5, Suk-Young 6, Barton 6, Jenas 6, Faurlin 6 (Derry 63, 6), Hoilett 7 (Wright-Phillips 74, 6), Austin 7, Zamora 5 (Johnson 46, 7)
Subs not used: Green, Onuoha, Ehmer, Henry
Goals: Austin 1 (assisted Jenas), Simpson 50 (assisted Johnson)
Bookings: Hill 85 (foul)
Referee — Jeremy Simpson (Lancashire) 7 Very little to referee really because, as previously said, Exeter stood off and did little to effect the game for the first hour at least. There were none of the biting challenges and frayed tempers you usually see in a fiery cup tie, even with Mad Dog Doherty prowling round the midfield for the first half. Waved away two penalty appeals in the second half, one completely and the other because he felt it was a foul on the edge of the box rather than inside. I’ve seen neither again, and the away terrace didn’t offer a great view of the far end of the ground, but by most accounts the first one should have been given.
Newcastle’s Ayoze Perez had to be separated from Simpson by manager Rafa Benitez at the final whistle of their cup tie with Forest earlier this season after the official turned down what seemed a blatant penalty in injury time and Forest promptly went up the other end and scored a third goal to clinch the tie. He’s since booked ten at Doncaster’s 0-1 home defeat to Sunderland, and booked eight with a red card to boot at Wigan 1-0 West Brom. This is his third Hull game of the season, all away from home, following a 3-2 win at Rotherham and 3-0 loss at Reading.
In 2017/18 he finished with 167 yellows (3.55) and ten reds in 47 games. The sending off total was boosted significantly by a run of five reds in six games through April, including two at Brentford’s 1-1 draw with Sheff Utd at Griffin Park. His biggest single total was nine yellows at Villa v Cardiff towards the back end of the season.
Similar story the season before where he booked 166 and sent off six in 40 games. Nine yellows at Coventry v Northampton was his biggest single haul, though he also booked eight at Port Vale v Millwall in League One too.
The previous campaign he showed 115 yellows and five reds in 35 games with three separate hauls of seven yellows his busiest afternoons. He refereed Rotherham on three occasions, with all three games finishing level — 1-1 at home to Reading, 2-2 at Cardiff where the hosts had Lee Peltier sent off, and 0-0 at Wolves in April. The season before he showed 119 yellows and nine reds in 32 matches.
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