David Coote from West Yorkshire is in charge of tonight’s FA Cup fourth round replay between QPR and Portsmouth at Loftus Road.
Referee >>> David Coote (West Yorkshire), first QPR appointment this season.
Reading 1 QPR 0, Friday March 30, 2018, Championship
It seemed a dominant second half and siege on the home goal would finally reap rewards for Rangers when referee David Coote pointed straight to the spot after an obvious foul by David Edwards on Pawel Wszolek. With Washington substituted earlier, left back Jake Bidwell took responsibility. That wasn’t as left field as some have made out, given that he took and scored one against Blackburn in the FA Cup last January, but his kick was the archetypal ‘nice height for the keeper’ effort and Reading’s Vito Mannone sealed his man of the match performance with a strong two handed save off to his left.
Little Smyth volleyed over when a Luke Freeman free kick was spilled by Mannone on 15 minutes, five minutes later a long throw from Darnell Furlong dropped for Freeman but his shot was blocked, then on the half hour a long ball was touched off to Pawel Wszolek but his effort also hit a defender. Freeman delayed too long and saw a shot closed down ten before half time, then almost immediately Reading made a mess of their own throw in but Washington’s flat-footed first touch rolled through to Mannone. The half ended with prolonged QPR pressure, and the ball in the net on two occasions but the first was ruled out for offside as a shot from a cleared corner flashed through a crowded penalty box and in via Lynch and the second didn’t count because, boldly, the referee had blown for half time while Rangers were setting the shot up.
Mannone did well to beat Washington to a good Furlong cross from the right on 53 minutes. The former Peterborough striker, still looking absolutely bereft, was replaced on the hour by Matt Smith who quickly headed a Jake Bidwell cross wide when he should have at least hit the target. Little Smyth, fresh from his debut goal for Northern Ireland during the week, almost matched Aluko’s barnburner midway through the second half but Mannone thrust up an arm and made the save of the match to deny him. Ebere Eze then replaced Smyth, an annoying withdrawal forced by the latest random Ian Holloway team selection (on which more shortly) and quickly dribbled a shot wide after winning the ball back. Bidwell shot over, Smith headed straight at Mannone, and growing frustration only increased when Luke Freeman was yellow carded for what looked like a fantastic tackle — referee Coote had earlier let Joey van den Berg off without a yellow for deliberately hauling Freeman down as he streaked away in a 29th minute counter attack just to exacerbate the situation.
Reading: Mannone 8; Gunter 6, Ilori 6, Moore 6, Blackett 6; van den Berg 6 (Bacuna 55, 6), Edwards 6; Aluko 7, Swift 6 (Evans 84, -), Barrow 6; Martin 5 (Kermorgant 62, 3)
Subs not used: Clement, Jaakkola, Smith, Holmes
Goals: Aluko 13 (unassisted)
Red Cards: Kermorgant 81 (two yellows)
Bookings: Martin 21 (foul), Kermorgant 70 (foul), Kermorgant 81 (foul), Aluko 90+2 (time wasting)
QPR: Smithies 6; Furlong 7, Onuoha 7, Lynch 6, Bidwell 4; Cousins 6 (Luongo 67, 6), Scowen 6, Freeman 7; Wszolek 6, Smyth 7 (Eze 74, 6), Washington 5 (Smith 58, 6)
Subs not used: Ingram, Manning, Robinson, Sylla
Bookings: Bidwell 57 (foul), Freeman 69 (foul), Lynch 82 (foul)
Referee — David Coote (West Yorkshire) 5 Pretty bog standard Championship referee, infuriating at times and as usual did little to clamp down on time wasting and gamesmanship, but the big decisions (the penalty and the red card) were judged correctly.
Preston 2 QPR 1, Saturday February 25, 2017, Championship
Nevertheless, a reasonably entertaining game by this division’s abysmal standards was soon up and running. Matt Smith headed down for Lua Lua to hit a shot that deflected kindly to home keeper Chris Maxwell. Then the standard brilliant left-footed pass from Ryan Manning had Lua Lua accelerating into the penalty area unchecked but he tried to square it rather than shoot and failed to pick out a team mate. Smith had what looked like a reasonable penalty appeal waved away after being wrestled to the floor by Clarke, who panicked after realising he shouldn’t have let the ball bounce. Smithies saved brilliantly from Hugill in Preston’s first serious attack although, as he was far too often on Saturday, the big forward had already been flagged offside. Bidwell got back to deny McGeady a sight of goal with a well-executed sliding tackle in his own area after referee David Coote had awarded the home side a generous free kick which they’d taken quickly.
Initially the fourth official had suggested it was Freeman to be replaced before Furlong’s number came up, and given the effect of taking the young full back off, and what happened to Freeman next maybe Rangers should have let him get on with that change. Chasing a loose ball back towards halfway, Freeman received a fairly rash tackle from behind from Tommy Spurr. Now either angry at the over-zealous nature of the tackle and reacting to it, or simply losing his balance and bringing his foot down in an unfortunate place, Freeman planted his left boot on Spurr’s outstretched left calf. Referee David Coote stopped the play, awarded Preston a free kick, handed out the first yellow card in the history of the game for stamping on an opponent (a straight red if that’s what you have decided) and Freeman was gone, to the QPR bench’s very public fury.
It’s a judgement call. It looks a bit of a joke to me but I can see why he gave what he gave — although as he issued a yellow card rather than a red (which means we can’t appeal it) I’m not entirely sure he knows what he’s really given at all. Yeni Ngbakoto’s fairly hopeless finish over the bar with his right foot when the shot needed a left was as close as Rangers got with ten men — Preston finished much the stronger and deserved their win.
PNE: Maxwell 6; Huntington 6, Clarke 6, Spurr 6, Cunningham 6; Browne 8, Johnson 7; McGeady 7, Robinson 7, Horgan 7 (Barkhuizenat 86, -); Hugill 6
Subs not used: Lindegaard, Makienok, Beckford, Gallagher, May, Boyle
Goals: McGeady 44 (unassisted), Hugill 77 (assisted Horgan)
Bookings: Clarke 66 (foul)
QPR: Smithies 7; Furlong 6 (Ngbakoto 67, 5), Onuoha 6, Lynch 4, Bidwell 5; Freeman 6, Perch 7, Manning 6; Wszolek 6, Smith 6 (Sylla 67, 5), Lua Lua 6 (Mackie 73, 6)
Subs not used: Ingram, Goss, Ingram, Petrasso
Goals: Lua Lua 36 (assisted Furlong/Smith)
Red Cards: Freeman 78 (two bookings)
Bookings: Onuoha 21 (foul), Freeman 41 (foul), Lua Lua 62 (foul), Freeman 78 (stamping)
Referee — David Coote (West Yorkshire) 5 Is it just me, or has the opening of another vacancy on the already stretched Premier League refereeing list coincided with a sudden onset of picky, by-the-book, is-my-assessor-watching, totally-lacking-in-common-sense officiating in our Championship games?
QPR 0 Derby County 1, Wednesday December 14, 2016, Championship
QPR: Smithies 6; Perch 7, Onuoha 6, Lynch 6, Bidwell 6; Luongo 5, Hall 6, Cousins 7 (Shodipo 77, 6); Ngbakoto 5, Washington 5 (Polter 69, 5), Chery 5 (Gladwin 64, 5)
Subs not used: Borysiuk, Ingram, Sandro, Wzsolek
Derby: Carson 6; Baird 6, Keogh 7, Pearce 6, Olsson 6; Hughes 7 (Bryson 79, 6), Johnson 5, Butterfield 6; Ince 7, Bent 5 (Vydra 63, 6), Weimann 5 (Camara 79, 7)
Subs not used: Shackell, Russell, Mitchell, Hanson
Goals: Ince 86 (assisted Camara)
Bookings: Butterfield 17 (foul), Baird 26 (foul)
Referee — David Coote (West Yorkshire) 8 I felt Butterfield’s booking for a foul in the first half which led to another wasted QPR set piece was harsh, and there was an obvious foul on Washington in the second half that he missed and then -infuriatingly — penalised Luongo the other way immediately after. But overall I hardly noticed him, which is usually a good sign.
QPR 1 Reading 3, Sunday February 16, 2014, Championship
Both teams had had their 15 minute spells at this point, and referee David Coote — in his first ever QPR appointment — decided it was his turn to dominate proceedings for a quarter of an hour before half time. Certainly no complaints could be made about quick fire yellow cards for Clint Hill after he’d been skinned by Le Fondre and hauled him back, or Williams who was turned by Hoilett on halfway and also elected for a cynical tug back to halt the attack. But Pogrebnyak was then released without further punishment after an obvious shove on Joey Barton and play was also allowed to continue with Hill down with an obvious head injury. Later the referee awarded Reading a free kick for a non-existent push from a distance of 30 yards away when the linesman next to the incident had given the home team a throw in and Rangers were lucky that no visiting player was available to turn in Obita’s extraordinarily good cross through the Loft End goal mouth.
Rangers were rocking and Barton had to take a suspension-triggering tenth yellow card of the season for fouling McCleary — had he not done so Reading could have been in for a fourth — and Kranjcar followed him into the book for pulling back McAnuff. The game became a stop-start affair, littered with cards and injuries, not helped by an incredibly pernickety refereeing display from Coote. Sky’s decision to schedule this against Arsenal v Liverpool on BT Sport didn’t exactly look shrewd — anybody watching this instead needs their head examined — but for all of that it could have turned into a cliff hanger ending, and potentially another three all draw, had Doyle headed home his second of the game from Hoilett’s deflected cross on the goal line. Only he will know how he missed.
Kaspars Gorkss did his best for his former side with a wild challenge on Junior Hoilett close to the far touchline that brought an immediate and deserved red card — although I’m not sure it was vicious enough for a loyal servant to the club to be booed off by the home fans — but any attempts the visitors did make at capitalising on that numerical advantage were ended by referee Coote who bizarrely decide to start blowing his whistle and awarding fouls for mysterious pushing offences every time the ball went within 20 yards of the Reading penalty area. That restricted the R’s to long range shots only — Traore hit one at McCarthy, Barton smacked a volley a foot over the top.
QPR: Green 6; Hughes 5, Dunne 5, Hill 6, Assou-Ekotto 5 (Benayoun 78, 5); Hoilett 6, Kranjcar 5, Barton 6, Traore 6; Doyle 6, Keane 6 (Zamora 57, 5)
Subs not used: Onuoha, Jenas, Henry, Murphy, Maiga
Goals: Doyle 20 (assisted Traore/Hoilett/Keane)
Bookings: Hoilett 14 (foul), Hill 25 (foul), Barton 60 (foul), Kranjcar 62 (foul)
Reading: McCarthy 6; Gunter 6, Gorkss 6, Pearce 7, Obita 7; McCleary 8 (Kelly 90+3, -), Williams 8, Akpan 7, McAnuff 7; Pogrebnyak 6 (Robson-Kanu 85, -), Le Fondre 7 (Hector 73, 6)
Subs not used: Federici, Drenthe, Guthrie, Blackman
Goals: Williams 10 (assisted Le Fondre), Pearce 56 (assisted McAnuff), McCleary 58 (unassisted)
Sent off: Gorkss 70 (serious foul play)
Bookings: Williams 29 (foul), McCleary 46 (foul), Obita 90 (foul)
Referee — David Coote (Nottinghamshire) 4 A bit of a pain in the arse really. His grasp of the laws around injured players seemed rather loose — Reading were allowed to play on with Clint Hill on the floor with a face injury, then in the second half play was stopped with Pogrebnyak sitting down half a yard from the touchline. The final ten minutes where he awarded free kicks for mystery offences every time QPR went near the penalty area was bizarre. Red card for Gorkss probably justified.
Coote has been added to the Premier League list this season, refereeing seven top flight fixtures including Wolves 3-0 West Ham most recently. He’s booked 70 and sent off five in 19 games, totals boosted significantly by nine yellows handed out at Colchester v Lincoln in League Two.
Last season he showed 151 yellows (4.08) and five reds in 37 games, led by eight yellows at Aston Villa 4-1 Wolves in March. His last Portsmouth game was a 1-0 home loss to Shrewsbury at the end of January when Pompey had Adam May sent off in injury time.
Tweet @loftforwords
Pictures — Action Images