Championship regular Andy Davies takes his first QPR game for a year on Saturday as the R’s head to Sheff Wed.
Referee >>> Andy Davies (Hampshire), gave a ridiculous penalty in this fixture in 2019.
Assistants >>> Andrew Dallison (Nottinghamshire) and Darren Williams (Newcastle)
Fourth Official >>> Leigh Doughty (Blackpool)
Norwich 0 QPR 0, Wednesday November 2, 2022, Championship
Rangers would certainly need to play a good deal better than they had at Birmingham on Friday to hang onto Canary tailfeathers. Even allowing for the refereeing, the flukey goal, and the injuries at St Andrew’s, after eight wins and just two defeats in 11 games Rangers just felt and looked a little smug with themselves in that game for me, like they thought they could just turn up and win, and that saw them caught cold by an aggressive Brum side. Here they made it to first base in the first minute. Tim Iroegbunam steaming into Sam Byram with mere seconds on the clock and picking up a thick yellow card from referee Andy Davies, a late replacement for Bobby Madley. Get that into you.
Some bits and pieces for you to pick the bones out of. QPR won a corner at the end of first half stoppage time, but spent so long over it referee Davies lost patience and blew for half time before it could be taken. Fine. I agree with him. I wish more referees would do that, because much like I don’t really understand why you’re allowed to spend a minute over every throw in if you’ve got somebody who can chuck it a moderately long way as long as they towel it off first, I’ve also never grasped football’s received logic that if time is up but there’s a corner you let them take it and see what happens before blowing the whistle. Typical, though, the first time a referee doesn’t allow it, it’s against us.
But what I want to focus in on for a moment is an incident right at the end of the first half where QPR got sprung big time on the counterattack from their own corner, leaving Todd Cantwell to sprint into the Rangers half with the ball and really only Dieng for company. Ilias Chair, brilliantly, worked his arse off to get back, make the tackle, win the ball back and nullify the danger. Cantwell wanted a free kick, and a red card, and got neither. Referee Davies did really rather well all night, for my money, to ignore the diving, play-acting, histrionics and shithousing. But once you did ignore the diving, play-acting, histrionics and shithousing it was really quite difficult to see what else Cantwell was bringing to the table. He spent more time on his back last night than… no, I’m sorry, I can’t do it, let’s all grow up a bit shall we? Goodness me.
Norwich: Gunn 8; Byram 6 (Dowell 84, -), Hanley 6, Gibson 6, McCallum 7 (McLean 70, 6); Hayden 6 (Aarons 84, -), Gibbs 6; Gomes 6 (Hernandez 66, 7), Ramsey 6, Cantwell 5 (Nunez 70, 6); Pukki 6
Subs not used: Krul, Hugill
Bookings: Byram 35 (foul)
QPR: Dieng 8; Laird 7, Dickie 7, Balogun 7, Paal 7; Dozzell 6 (Willock 57, 7), Iroegbunam 8, Field 7; Amos 6 (Shodipo 85, -), Chair 7 (Adomah 85, -), Dykes 7 (Bonne 85, -)
Subs not used: Archer, Trävelmän, Kakay
Bookings: Iroegbunam 1 (foul), Field 48 (foul), Dykes 75 (foul)
Referee — Andy Davies (Hampshire) 8 Always going to be quibbles, but I thought he did really well with this and contributed to the game as best he could. Didn’t buy into the ‘every bit of contact is a free kick’ Premier League mantra, wasn’t having any of Cantwell’s bullshit, very good overall. Made a nice change.
QPR 0 Blackpool 1, Tuesday August 16, 2022, Championship
QPR should, should, have had plenty more time to try and get that right next time. Blackpool’s clock running started before half time at nil nil, and really kicked in in earnest after the break, with every trick in the book rolled out and bled to death over every throw in, every free kick, every goal kick, every thing, everything. Every. Thing. Thompson, already on a booking, took the piss like few before him. His theft of up to ten yards at every throw in took place in plain sight in front of the referee, who allowed it to take place unchecked all evening.
The ball is in play, on average, for 50% of Championship matches, by far and away the worst total of any European league. Blackpool fans travelling here this Tuesday night, Hull next week, at a disgusting £36 a ticket, plus train, plus hotel, plus petrol... can expect to witness a game in which the ball is out of play as much as it is in. The EFL and PGMOL had made this a priority in the summer, and promised a clampdown, which so far seems to have consisted of a couple of yellow cards scattered around on the opening day, and absolutely Jack shit since.
Davies, here, did less than nothing at all about it, encouraging it and increasing it with every moment of indecisive inaction. He then added just four minutes to the end of the game, as the equally piss weak Jeremy Simpson had in similar circumstances at Sunderland on Saturday. If four minutes was correct here, then we may as well just pack in now. Just make every game 94 minutes and be done with it. If this game, and Saturday’s at Sunderland, only warranted four minutes of added time, then truly what are we doing here? What’s the point? Complete horseshit. Just laughable really. Four minutes. Even Davies must have known deep down that this was a complete crock of absolute shit. All those subs, all those injuries, all that time wasting. Four minutes. Fuck off mate, and, when you arrive, fuck off from there as well.
QPR: Dieng 6; Laird 6, Dickie 6, Dunne 5, Paal 5 (Adomah 86, -); Dozzell 6, Johansen 5 (Armstrong 68, 7), Field 6; Chair 6, Dykes 4, Roberts 6 (Shodipo 80, 5)
Subs not used: Kakay, Travelman, Masterson, Walsh
Bookings: Dunne 88 (dissent)
Blackpool: Grimshaw 7; Connolly 7, Ekpiteta 7, Williams 7, Thompson 5; Bowler 8 (Corbeanu 87, -), Patino 7 (Carey 45, 6), Dougall 7, Fiorini 6 (Gabriel 64, 6), Lavery 7 (Thorniley 90+4, -); Yates 6
Subs not used: Maxwell, Husband, Hamilton
Goals: Bowler 45 (unassisted)
Referee — Andy Davies (Hampshire) 4 If you can’t tell time you can suck a four out of my arse. They teach kids time in Year One.
QPR 0 Swansea 0, Tuesday January 25, 2022, Championship
The smug, superior, holier than thou tone stretched as far as a side-eyed bitch about the state of the pitch, apparently not billiard-table pure enough for Swansea to treat us to their absolute best stuff. What a tragic shame, however will we cope with such a missed opportunity to experience footballing nirvana? Should have had a go on that ploughed field we played on at Coventry on Saturday mate. A bit bloody rich given some of the dark arts that went on in the second half, players feigning injury to get the game stopped two feet from a touchline they could easily have crossed for treatment, Ryan Manning doing exactly what Ryan Manning used to do for us — falling over onto the ball to force the referee to give free kicks, constantly making out like he’s mortally wounded only to go sprinting off in the opposite direction moments later, kicking the ball away at every free kick. If you’re going to make out like yours is the one true footballing faith, you should surely be well above nonsense like this? Referee Andy Davies perhaps stood for it a bit too long and a bit too often, allowing the game to descend into a niggly, bad-tempered, petty, frustrating dirge. Charlie Austin, like Manning, rarely covers himself in glory in these situations either and having spent the final quarter of an hour rattling around inside Flynn Downes’ head he eventually elicited the reaction he’d been craving during five minutes of stoppage time, the two of them wrestling to the ground in a wholly unedifying spectacle that resulted in a pair of yellow cards which, as he’d already received one earlier when his head first left him, meant a red for Downes. He wasn’t going quietly either, wrestled away from the fourth official on the way off. He’d been a walking red card for a good ten minutes, and I was amazed a footballing mind as vast and powerful as Martin’s didn’t use his final substitution to prevent the inevitable outcome. It was, at least, something happening, otherwise I would have had to wheel out the Prague story again.
QPR: Marshall 7; Odubajo 6, Dickie 6, Dunne 7, Barbet 6, Wallace 6 (Adomah 61, 6); Field 7, Amos 6 (Dykes 61, 5), Johansen 6; Austin 5, Willock 7 (Thomas 82, -)
Subs not used: De Wijs, Ball, Dozzell, Walsh
Bookings: Odubajo 69 (foul), Johansen 76 (foul), Austin 90+2 (unsporting)
Swansea: Hamer 7; Christie 6, Cabango 7, Naughton 7, Manning 6, Latibeaudiere 6; Downes 5, Grimes 7, Smith 6; Wolf 6 (Fulton 66, 6), Piroe 6 (Obafemi 66, 6)
Subs not used: Bennett, Joseph, Fisher, Abdulai
Red Cards: Downes 90+2 (two yellows)
Bookings: Smith 29 (foul), Cabango 47 (foul), Downes 72 (foul), Downes 90+2 (unsporting), Obafemi 90+5 (foul)
Referee — Andy Davies (Hampshire) 6 There’s probably a discussion to be had about his game management, and whether leniency earlier in the game with things like Manning’s cheating and play-acting, or players feigning injury a foot away from the touchline and getting the game stopped for treatment when they should have been told to move to the side or get up and get on with it, contributed to the messy end in which Downes was sent off. Austin, like Manning, had been engaging in the dark arts long before that incident, and had set up camp in Downes’ head for a good quarter of an hour prior, making the former Ipswich junior a red card waiting to happen. I’ve written several times before about how antics like those that Manning and Austin were up to last night are fetishized and lorded at the moment as "shithousing” and somehow a desirable part of the modern game rather than something to be stamped out, and I’d like to have seen a lot less leeway given to that sort of behaviour last night. But, overall, I actually thought he refereed the thing reasonably well.
Bristol City 1 QPR 2, Thursday December 30, 2021, Championship
There was certainly no chance of my cursing things at Ashton Gate on whatever bloody day of the week it was yesterday. QPR’s performance against an eighteenth-placed Bristol City had been so sub-par for so long that with three minutes left, having played against ten men for the thick end of half an hour, I actually said a small prayer to myself that we didn’t find a way to contrive a defeat, never mind a victory. Within that, the delivery from wide areas, particularly by the usually reliable Albert Adomah, had been so wayward that in the end Stefan Johansen pulled rank on the situation and belatedly started to take the corner kicks himself. The idea that we might get one right, score, and win the game, in the final minute, felt about as likely as City getting a 50/50 call from unusually Rangers-leaning referee Andy Davies. And that’s when the ball entered my field of vision.
If you think QPR’s general crapness in any way masks the joy of the win, give your head a wobble immediately. Or, come here, and I’ll wobble it for you. Yes, yes, of course, play like this against other teams in other matches and blah blah blah, yadda yadda yadda. We’ll do that in future match previews. For now, pour yourself a drink and pull up a chair. In this unique set of circumstances, the joy is incrementally increased by the shitness of the performance. In many ways, I wish we’d played even worse still, and then I could have belly laughed even harder when Luke Amos, added to the midfield with Ilias Chair injured and Andre Dozzell suspended, hit the deck under a clumsy challenge from Cameron Pring and referee Davies pointed decisively at the penalty spot. City fumed, Andy King was cautioned for his anger, and it felt much like the Johansen one we weren’t awarded against Bournemouth earlier this Christmas — you get a free kick for that outside the box, so technically it’s a penalty, but… really? Anyway, like I say, I hope it wasn’t a penalty. I hope it’s a dreadful decision. May I drag you all back to 2019 at that end of this ground when Darnell Furlong was falsely accused of a foul by referee Tony Harrington for the award of a penalty the other way, dispatched by Diedhiou to win the match, something the Bristol City’s social media accounts trumpeted pre-game as "LATE, LATE drama when QPR visited Ashton Gate in 2019 head exploding emoji”. Goodness karma’s a spiteful arsehole today isn’t she? Charlie Austin, hapless penalty miss against Stoke still front of mind, much more accurate with the pork sword this time. Get that into you. This is funny. Again, sorry, again, I don’t make the rules.
Tired of firing wayward blanks at one end, City then decided to turn the gun on themselves. Andy King lost a physical struggle with Johansen in midfield, but then instead of letting the Norwegian be on his way (as might have been the sensible thing to do having already been booked) he grabbed hold of his shirt and wrestled him away from the ball for a mandatory second yellow. Didn’t even wait to see the red, just kept walking off and away down the tunnel. Well, cheers Andy, couldn’t have done any more for QPR’s cause if he’d pulled on a hooped shirt and started kicking in the opposite direction. If I’d known you were feeling this benevolent I’d have maybe asked for an own goal as well or something. The home fans harangued referee Davies all night, and I guess I’d have done exactly the same given the amount of 50/50 calls that went QPR’s way, but on the big decisions — two penalties and a red card — I think he was right. I guess I would say that, wouldn’t I? But King was fucking moronic and deserved everything he got.
Bristol City: O’Leary 6; Tanner 6 (Atkinson 39, 7), Vyner 6, Kalas 7, Pring 6; King 4, James 6; Weimann 6, Scott 7, O’Dowda 7; Semenyo 7 (Wells 90+1, -)
Subs not used: Bentley, Dasilva, Martin, Benarous, Massengo
Goals: Scott 3 (unassisted)
Red Cards: King 56 (two yellows)
Bookings: King 45+2 (dissent), King 56 (foul), Weimann 67 (foul)
QPR: Dieng 7; Adomah 5, Dickie 6, Dunne 6, Barbet 7, Wallace 6 (Dykes 60, 6); Field 5, Johansen 6, Amos 7 (Thomas 85, -); Austin 6, Willock 5
Subs Not Used: Kakay, Ball, Archer, Thomas
Goals: Austin 45+3 (penalty, won Amos), Barbet 90+3 (assisted Johansen)
Bookings: Dunne 22 (foul), Dykes 65 (foul), Field 74 (foul)
Referee — Andy Davies (Hampshire) 6 Welllll, look, if I was writing for the Bristol City equivalent of this site then I strongly suspect my report would look much like it did for the Bournemouth game, with my big, angry, pointy foam finger retrieved from under the stairs and aimed square at Davies awarding QPR a reasonably soft penalty, but waving away City’s appeal for one of their own, giving benefit of doubt to several QPR challenges, and not doing the same for City. It is true that QPR, historically, seem to get a lot out of this guy (bar one aberration at Hillsborough), in the same way they seem to get a very raw deal from the demonic midget we had in charge against Bournemouth. That felt the case here as well, with every 50/50 seeming to go our way. I’d probably go three, or four at most, and describe the whole thing as diabolical, shambolic, scandalous, inept, all of those overused words I trot out in the fire and fury of the moment after my team has been supposedly wronged. But, then, I thought ours probably was a penalty, theirs probably wasn’t, and the red card cannot be argued against, and so he got the big decisions right, and I’ll settle on a six, which is almost certainly what I would have said, and the mark I would have given, if I was assessing Keef’s latest beer fart for a Bournemouth website instead of a QPR one. Having painted myself into that hypocritical corner there’s probably nothing left for me to do than hold my hands up and admit it. Another beer?
QPR 1 Forest 1, Friday October 29, 2021, Championship
The first half an hour was pretty much all about the visitors and their electric 20-year-old forward Brennan Johnson. He was constantly into the space behind Yoann Barbet, with huge overlaps behind McCallum, and probably should have done more than simply win a corner on seven minutes from one of those situations. Forest, who didn’t play midweek, looked more confident and energetic than a leggy home team, epitomised when Seny Dieng was almost caught dawdling over a pass back on 12 minutes. Soon Johnson was muscling past Barbet into the area and then hitting the deck under clumsy contact that I’d have wanted a penalty for — referee Andy Davies said no — and Joe Lolley was trying his luck from distance and drawing a camera save from Dieng up in the top corner. McCallum’s injury came recovering another Johnson break after a questionable non-offside decision and when the brilliant youngster got in behind again it was only a desperate one handed save from Dieng and improvised clearance from Albert Adomah that almost went in off Rob Dickie and only missed the bottom corner by inches even without that which prevented a score.
QPR: Dieng 6; Adomah 8, Dickie 7, De Wijs 6 (Dunne 36, 6), Barbet 6, McCallum 6 (Odubajo 26, 6); Johanson 7, Dozzell 7, Chair 6 (Amos 78, 6); Willock 6, Dykes 6
Subs not used: Austin, Ball, Archer, Gray
Goals: Dykes 45+5 (assisted Adomah)
Bookings: Dozzell 44 (foul), Johansen 83 (body slam)
Forest: Samba 7; Spence 7, Worrall 6, Figueiredo 6 (Mighten 61, 7), McKenna 6; Lowe 6; Yates 6, Colback 7, Lolley 7 (Zinckernagel 67, 6); Johnson 8, Grabban 6 (Taylor 61, 7)
Subs not used: Horvath, Bong, Ojeda, Garner
Bookings: Worrall (foul)
Goals: Colback 90+1 (unassisted)
Referee — Andy Davies (Hampshire) 6 I suspect if this was a Forest website I’d be giving him a four and talking about two first half penalty appeals. On those, I’d certainly have wanted the first one, for Barbet on Johnson, but having won the ball in the first place by shoulder charging (legally) the French centre back I guess the referee felt Johnson then went to ground a little easily when the same was done back to him. I’d have certainly wanted it. The Spence and Adomah one far less so. Overall a vast improvement on some of the nonsense we’ve seen in our games lately.
QPR 0 Barnsley 1, Saturday June 20, 2020, Championship
Elliot Simoes, a 20-year-old whose eclectic career has already included stints with Benfica, Sporting and FC United of Manchester, waltzed through a yawning gap between Conor Masterson and Yoann Barbet to roll the opener past a tame attempted save from Liam Kelly after seven minutes. One of several long, diagonal passes over the head of left back Ryan Manning gave impressive youth team graduate Jacob Brown a sight of goal which he headed wide. When top scorer Cauley Woodrow mishit a shot completely inside the QPR penalty area, Barnsley were still able to retain and recycle possession and get him the ball back for a second attempt which was blocked. When Masterson gave the ball away sloppily just after the quarter hour, Manning was skinned down the sideline and only the faintest of touches off Yoann Barbet diverted the resulting cross away from Brown at the near post. Later Manning was grateful for the benevolence of referee Andy Davies who somehow failed to card the Irishman for a deliberate, cynical trip on Brown after he’d again been sold short and then stripped.
Ch-ch-changes. Turn and face the strange. Off went Luke Amos. Bless him, it feels like kicking a puppy, but my God he’d been poor. Couldn't find his own arse with both hands. On came Mide Shodipo to join Chair, Eze and Bright behind Alex Band to try and bolster the attack. Soon somebody I hadn’t seen before claiming to be Lee Wallace joined him, moving Manning into midfield to little improvement in his poor personal showing. Mark Warburton, however, did not name a fully expanded bench of nine, and when you’re bringing on Todd Kane for Angel Rangel ten minutes from time of a 1-0 home loss to Barnsley it betrays how few other options you have at your disposal. Barnsley, for their part, took goalscorer Simoes off injured and replaced him with Chaplin, who QPR could probably have done without seeing at this point given the havoc he’d wrought against them previously. Referee Andy Davies, just as he had done at QPR v Sheff Wed in 2016, clocked off early as well to be replaced by fourth official Sam Purkiss.
QPR: Kelly 5; Rangel 5 (Kane 80, -), Masterson 5, Barbet 5, Manning 4; Amos 4 (Shodipo 46, 5), Ball 5 (Wallace 61, 5); Osayi-Samuel 5, Chair 5, Eze 6; Hugill 4
Subs not used: Lumley, Oteh, Bettache, Clarke
Barnsley: Walton 6; B Williams 6, Anderson 6, Sollbauer, Ludewig 6 (Thomas 84, -); Ritzmaier 6, Mowatt 8; Brown 8, Simoes 7 (Chaplin 46, 6), Palmer 7 (Dougall 57, -); Woodrow 7 (Styles 74, 6)
Subs not used: Radlinger, J Williams, Schmidt, Oduor, Halme
Goals: Simoes 7 (assisted Williams)
Bookings: Chaplin 90+2 (foul)
Referee — Andy Davies (Hampshire) 6 (Sam Purkiss (London) 46, 6) Davies was generous not to card Manning for a bad foul in the first half. A worse hack on him by Chaplin in injury time, booked by substitute referee Purkiss, was probably a yellow and a half. Chaplin had earlier had a penalty appeal which fitted the ‘seen them given’ cliché perfectly.
QPR 2 Preston 0, Saturday December 7, 2019, Championship
Wait a minute though, what’s this? Lining up in a lesser-spotted 5-0-5 formation, QPR decided on Saturday to bypass the midfield altogether, leaving Pearson with nobody to kick, niggle, antagonise and scream at. Mark Warburton, the man with "no plan B”, sent his team out to go more direct than I suspect he ever has in his entire career. Ball was kept away from areas where talents like Sean Maguire, Alan Browne and Tom Barkhuizen have caused us problems previously, and placed repetitively and deliberately into parts of the pitch where Ebere Eze and Bright Osayi-Samuel could have a lovely old time. There was precious little pisballing about in their own penalty area, and an unprecedented amount of stuff played up to Jordan Hugill who gamely attacked a wrestling match with Paul Huntington referee Andy Davies seemed happy to watch rather than officiate.
The game would move away from them permanently after the hour when a ball was inadvertently sent into Marc Pugh’s path in the penalty area via a series of deflections and Rudd had little option but to hack the former Bournemouth man down as he prepared to roll a simple second in from six yards out. Pearson immediately set about screaming in the face of the linesman — poor little troll must have been lonely, it was the first time another human had been within 20 feet of him all afternoon — and referee Andy Davies did go over and have a long chat with his assistant, which I can only assume was to decide whether Pugh was offside when he received the ball (which he was) and whether the ball had actually been touched to him by a defender (which it had).
Penalty eventually decided upon, Ebere Eze afforded himself a laugh at Huntington’s rudimentary attempts to stress out the world’s most laid back lad before going through his usual stuttered run up to sit Rudd down and make it 2-0 with consummate ease. Somewhere in a backroom Lee Hoos rubbed a number eight off a white board and replaced it with a ten.
Now it was all about whether a first clean sheet of the season could be maintained. There were two significant moments to come in that quest. The first was a big penalty appeal, that I’d personally have been screaming for, when substitute Billy Bodin seemed to be sandwiched between two defenders in the area. Toni Leistner had been a man on a mission to this point, bastarding his way through a succession of head-it and kick-it basics, but I wondered if he’d gone too far on that occasion. Davies gave the German the benefit of the doubt. Preston’s frustrations will only have grown when Lumley stretched out to his left and made a terrific one-handed save to keep out a fierce drive by Bodin that looked a goal all ends up.
Josh Scowen was brought on to shore things up, and was immediately booked. A twenty sixth yellow in 100 QPR appearances for rat boy — I’m starting to think referees should just book him in the tunnel before we come out and get it over with.
QPR: Lumley 7; Kane 7, Leistner 8, Hall 7, Manning 7; Cameron 7; Osayi-Samuel 8, Eze 8 (Amos 87, -), Pugh 7; Hugill 7, Wells 7 (Scowen 68, 6)
Subs not used: Wallace, Barnes, Smith, Ball, Chair
Goals: Eze 17 (assisted Cameron), 67 (penalty, won Pugh)
Bookings: Scowen 79 (foul), Osayi-Samuel 90 (foul)
Preston: Rudd 6; Rafferty 5, Huntington 6, Storey 6, Hughes 5; Pearson 5, Browne 6; Barkhuizen 6 (Nugent 62, 4), Potts 5 (Harrop 66, 5), Maguire 6; Stockley 6 (Bodin 57, 5)
Bookings: Rudd 65 (foul, penalty concession), Bodin 90+2 (foul)
Referee — Andy Davies (Hampshire) 6 Both teams, historically, have had quite a lot of out of this referee in recent times and it was QPR who benefited from the big marginal call this time with the game clinching penalty. I thought it was, pretty obviously, a spot kick and wasn’t really sure what the big chat with the linesman was all about, other than perhaps deciding whether Pugh was offside (which he was) and whether it was a QPR player who’d passed it to him (it wasn’t). I find Alex Neal’s assertion that the referee said he wasn’t sure whether it was a penalty or not and the lineman admitted he didn’t see it rather fanciful — if that was the case I very much doubt they’d have awarded it, and certainly can’t imagine they’d actually admit it to the players. Licence for Preston defenders to do whatever they liked to Hugill, including several incidents where arms were clearly wrapped around his shoulders and neck when contesting high balls, was odd.
QPR 3 Bristol City 3, Tuesday August 13, 2019, League Cup First Round
Nice shape on a Manning cross at the midway point of the half gave Wells a chance to head straight at Bentley. Should. Do. Better. Chair, sublime, received, controlled, spun and went to seek out the top corner in one flowing motion on the corner of the box — missed by a foot. Not 60 seconds later Rangers found themselves caught out by a shot corner — devil’s work — but Diedhiou headed a sitter wide at the near post when the cross did belatedly arrive. On came Charlie Owens for Josh Scowen, collecting his party bag at the door and settling down for what was left of the jelly and ice cream. Manning, involved in everything, took matters into his own hands with 12 to go, buccaneering into the City area and then hitting the deck looking for a penalty. He was looking for it as well, referee Andy Davies said nah.
To pass the time, Wells unleashed a barnburning thunderbastard that nearly snapped the crossbar in half.
It would have been the equaliser Wells, QPR and the game deserved. But this absorbing contest was destined to finish level regardless. What haven’t we had so far? A refereeing controversy. What did Andy Davies do five minutes from time when Wells pretty flagrantly dived having stepped in front of Walsh in the penalty area? Pointed straight to the spot. Perhaps the Manning one had played on his mind. It was, thankfully, the Galway boy entrusted with the kick after Wells’ personal traumas last season. He goes the same way every time, but they’re struck with such power and accuracy the keepers can’t do anything with them. This one kissed the inside of the post on its way into the net.
Three and indeed three. Slap my hand high up in the air.
QPR: Kelly 6; Ball 5, Leistner 6, Barbet 7; Kane 7 (Mlakar 60, 7), Smith 7, Scowen 5 (Owens 74, 6), Pugh 7 (Amos 60, 6), Manning 8; Chair 8, Wells 7
Subs not used: Lumley, Oteh, Osayi-Samuel, Masterson
Goals: Wells 15 (assisted Smith), Chair 26 (assisted Pugh), Manning 85 (penalty, won Wells)
Bookings: Ball 90+2 (delaying the restart)
Bristol City: Bentley 6; Hunt 7 (Baker 64, 6), Wright 6, Moore 6, Walsh 8; Eliasson 7, Massengo 8, Szmodics 7 (Nagy 72, 6), Rowe 6; Semenyo 6 (O’Dowda 63, 7), Diedhiou 5
Subs not used: Brownhill, Gilmartin, Afobe, Palmer
Goals: Diedhiou 13 (assisted Semenyo), Hunt 41 (assisted Walsh), Walsh 59 (direct free kick, won Diedhiou)
Referee — Andy Davies (Hampshire) 5 Our record of positive results, and generous decisions, from Mr Davies continued with the late penalty here, which was never a spot kick in a month of Sundays. He’d been pretty lenient with the cards and hands off with the game prior to that but you can’t mark a referee too highly when the big decision of the game is wrong. Some pay back for the nonsense penalty he awarded against us at Hillsborough on the final day of last season, and of course the even more scandalous one City beat us with in injury time at Ashton Gate last season. Notice that didn’t get much of a mensh while Lee Johnson was hammering the officials in the after match interview…
Sheff Wed 1 QPR 2, Sunday May 5, 2019, Championship
Ridiculous that a goalkeeper of this quality was ostracised and left in the reserves by the previous manager here, Jos The Child Catcher. Westwood is still just about the best there is at this level but brilliant keeper or not, you have to score when you’re on top, when you’re playing like this, when the combinations are clicking. Finish him for God’s sake, he wants you to punch him. Sadly, QPR have been missing chances all season long, not least when presented to them in the form of a kick from the penalty mark. When Osayi-Samuel was felled by Lees in the area ten minutes from time, referee Andy Davies pointed straight to the spot and, in front of the travelling 500 from West London, Rangers would have a chance to seal a deserved 2-0 win from 12 yards. Thankfully no Nahki Wells on the field to go for a sixth consecutive personal miss, and second this week, but also no Tomer Hemed, whose successful spot kicks against Ipswich and West Brom are about all he’s contributed across a season long loan. Ryan Manning, as discussed a week ago, had scored three penalties for Rotherham earlier in the season and had the ball in his hands straight away, but there ensued an ugly and needless row among several players about who would take the kick. Bright Osayi-Samuel seemed to want it, which is terrifying really because God bless the kid but he can’t finish his dinner at the moment. And then Eze, seemingly on the say so of captain Leistner took the ball.
He had scored a penalty in fine style in the summer friendly win against Union Berlin, calmly into the top bins, but has endured a difficult season since then. All things considered, with Westwood in flying form, this needed five big steps and one almighty smack. What it got was some weird Trevor Francis-style walk and shimmy, presumably attempting to deceive Westwood but having no such effect — the keeper palmed a weak kick onto the post. Memories of that harrowing 1995/96 Premier League relegation season, punctuated by penalty misses from Simon Barker (Boro H), Kevin Gallen (Leeds H) and Bradley Allen (Chelsea H), flooding back. Annoyingly, this will be what Eze’s critics remember of him from this game, which is a shame because he was great across the 90 minutes as a whole.
Moments of brilliance, check. Profligacy in front of goal, check. A penalty miss, check. Then there was the really bad stuff. If you’re going to pass up opportunities with such frequency, you’ve got to be as tight as a mouse’s waistcoat at the end, and QPR simply aren’t. You couldn’t help but stand and applaud Darnell Furlong’s fabulous recovery tackle on Steven Fletcher after the Scottish international forward had been played into a must score situation by Lucas Joao. Turning our own throw on halfway into a clear run on Joe Lumley for Marcos Matias within two touches was somewhat less impressive — thankfully his cut back missed Fletcher and Joao and was scrambled away. Later Lumley improvised a punched clearance after Fox had got in too easily down the left and crossed from the byline — the rebound hit Matias, rather than him heading it deliberately, and it drifted wide of the unguarded net.
And then, of course, there’s the astonishing moments of refereeing that have peppered our season, particularly in our own area where Rangers were about to concede their league leading tenth and eleventh penalties of the campaign. The second brought the equaliser, calmly rolled in by Hector, and we’ll start with that because although if you slow the replay right down it does look like Matias is rather playing for the foul, at first glance it looked a stick on foul from Manning in the exact spot on the pitch where we’ve committed identical fouls on two Blackburn players this season to lose both games against them and away at Derby over Easter as well. Manning slips, I think, and Freeman won the ball at Pride Park, but still we’re giving referees decisions to make there.
I must say, we’ve had some ludicrous penalties given against us this season, but that first one today is incredible. @EFL pic.twitter.com/SWdDqGdHu5– LoftforWords (@LoftforWords) May 5, 2019
Where we didn’t give the referee a decision to make was with the first penalty on 57 minutes. Forestieri picked the ball up on the edge of the box, tried to trick his way through the defence with a one two off Fletcher, couldn’t quite reach the return ball as he’d have liked and toed it straight at Lumley from close range. No contact, at any point in the move, from any QPR player. No appeals, from the several thousand Sheff Wed supporters massed on The Kop behind the goal not ten yards away from the incident. No appeals, even, from Forestieri, who’s just about as big a cheat as you’ll find at this level and can’t get round fucking Meadowhall without throwing himself down the escalator and accusing some passing pensioner of pushing him. Nevertheless, as happened against Sheff Utd in August, Bristol City in February and Derby in April, a ridiculous penalty was awarded all the same. Forestieri very sportingly skied it over the bar Kerry Dixon style, but I’m not sure that’s the point.
Four penalties awarded against you in a season that were clearly, obviously, blatantly, palpably complete bullshit is really out of the ordinary. Quite something. The stand out line from Luke Freeman’s farewell interview in the Indie last week was the revelation that QPR have received eight letters from the PGMOL, who oversee the match officials, this season apologising for decisions that have cost us points and presumably we’ll be getting another in the post this week. Should it arrive, I think we should return it back to them having taken the trouble first of all to roll it up very tightly to make it easier for them to shove up their arse. Because it’s all very well apologising for this rubbish - we get it, refereeing is tough, mistakes happen, we’ve had much more than our fair share of incorrect calls against us this season but it won’t carry on like that and that’s football — but it rings rather hollow when nothing is actually done about it. One of those letters is surely about the two goals Sheff Utd scored at Loftus Road in August, one which was offside the other from a bad penalty call. Another one of those letters, almost certainly, will refer to the deliberate handball in the penalty area which stopped Ryan Manning equalising at Wigan in January. And I dare say another of them could be for Jack Robinson’s two-handed save in his own box for Forest at Loftus Road last week. But those incidents were all with the same referee, Scott Duncan, who was also seen recently screwing Bristol City out of a nonsense penalty decision at Villa Park. What’s the fucking point in apologising, if you’re just going to send the same referee out to do the same damage again the following week? Stuart Attwell’s "punishment” for allowing that Leeds Villa game to descend into a complete farce, complete with a red card that was subsequently scrubbed off, was a Premier League appointment at West Ham this week. So they’ve apologised to Villa, rescinded the red card, banned another player retrospectively, and promoted the referee that cocked it all up. It’s mental. It’s like Boris Johnson, apologising for shagging your wife, while still shagging her. Never mind apologising, do something about it, get off her you fat shit.
Anyway, that’s the final rant for the season. And the final outcome, it seemed. Hector’s equalising penalty looked like being the last word because along with the moments of brilliance, the missed chances, the missed penalties, the refereeing calamities and the comical defending the other thing QPR have been good for this season is prolonged, blatant, tedious clock running to protect a scoreline that isn’t really that great and doesn’t really do a lot for them. And so it was again here, with Joe Lumley and Darnell Furlong as usual the chief protagonists of it — though quite why Hector was allowed to interrupt Furlong’s shithousing by booting him straight in the shins off the ball while the play was dead without receiving even a yellow card I’m not sure. Davies capping a curious performance in the middle by awarding Forestieri another dangerous set piece, this time right on the corner of the box, for a blatant dive (he skied it over again, stop laughing at the back), only to then wave Josh Scowen’s similar appeal away at the other end and then yellow card him for sarcastically applauding the linesman on that side. It was the only time all afternoon that assistant referee had actually been up with play and stood where he was supposed to be.
All we needed now to really put the tin hat on it was an injury time goal against. Rangers have conceded nine of those this season — like the penalties, that’s more than any other team in the league — and invariably when we’ve tried to slow things down and drag the game out for a point we’ve ended up getting nothing at all. But Sheff Wed weren’t very good, clearly on the beach after an excellent second half to the season of just three defeats in 23 games, and having replaced one injury prone midfielder, Kieran Lee, with another, Shaun Hutchinson, they then found themselves down to ten men for the last few minutes when the latter had to leave the field after Steve Bruce had used all his subs. That meant space, and tired legs. That meant Mass Luongo moving into a dangerous place down the QPR left unchallenged. That meant an understaffed penalty box and that meant one final chance for the R’s. Luongo got the cross spot on. Matt Smith has probably never hit a ball better in his entire life. First time, full toss, left foot, ninety-third minute, and absolute thunderbastard ripped right into the roof of the net. Big Posh Matt’s Big Posh Volley. Wallop. Even Westwood wasn’t saving that.
Sheff Wed: Westwood 8; Palmer 6, Hector 7, Lees 6, Fox 6; Matias 6, Pelupessy 5, Lee 7 (Hutchinson 64, 5); Forestieri 5, Joao 6 (Nuhiu 64, 5), Fletcher 6 (Hooper 78, 6)
Subs not used: Winnall, Thorniley, Dawson, Penney
Goals: Hector 84 (penalty, won Matias)
Bookings: Matias 90+3 (foul), Hector 90+4 (foul)
QPR: Lumley 6; Furlong 7, Leistner 6, Cameron 6, Manning 7; Eze 7, Scowen 7, Luongo 6, Shodipo 5 (Walker 61, 5); Osayi-Samuel 6 (Hall 89, -), Smith 7
Subs not used: Ingram, Bidwell, Freeman, Wells, Bansal-McNulty
Goals: Scowen 28 (assisted Furlong), Smith 90+3 (assisted Luongo)
Bookings: Scowen 74 (dissent), Cameron 88 (foul)
Referee — Andy Davies (Hampshire) 3 Making his own fun.
QPR 1 Leeds 0, Tuesday February 26, 2019, Championship
As happened in the cup tie between the two teams here earlier this season, a swift counter attack in the very first minute gave Tyler Roberts a sight of goal but where he struck both posts with a shot in January this time his weak hit dribbled wide. Within ten minutes Toni Leistner had, fairly blatantly, blocked a goalbound shot with an outstretched arm right on the edge of the area — referee Andy Davies, who’s been kind to QPR previously this season, played on. Joe Lumley tipped one near post header from an Alioski corner over but then blotted his copy book with a poor throw out that conceded possession and Roberts drew a nervy save from him. Lumley, and Darnell Furlong, looked particularly troubled mentally in the first half — stiff, tentative, second guessing, hesitating, terrified of making a mistake and yet therefore much more likely to do so. Furlong messed up a header, and then a second attempt at a clearance, sparking a penalty box panic. Things didn’t look good. They didn’t look good at all. Pablo Hernandez dribbled one cross shot right through the goal mouth, Patrick Bamford a whisker away from converting at the far post.
One thrust into the Leeds penalty area seemed to have Wells in for a crucial second but Cassila sprung from his line and saved. A cross from Jake Bidwell was headed straight at the keeper by Wszolek. Jordan Cousins, improved again, was set free behind Ayling by Freeman and seemed to be fouled but referee Davies said no. A Freeman corner was sent screaming a foot over the bar by Luongo on the volley — a rare Tony Yeboah thunderbastard alive in the wild, but just too high. Bielsa sent on Izzy Brown in another attempt to wrestle back control of the game. The Chelsea loanee - quelle surprise - seemed more bothered about trying to get sent off than plundering an equaliser. One bad smack on Jordan Cousins drew an immediate yellow card and the crowd wanted blood red when he committed another foul straight away but referee Davies gave him the benefit of the doubt. If there’s some shithousing to be done there’s a rat for that, and Josh Scowen sprinted on from the bench and booted Tyler Roberts up in the air for his trademark yellow literally within seconds. This guy. Bright Osayi-Samuel, another sub, came close to sealing it with a second goal only for Cassila to save low to his left.
QPR: Lumley 7; Furlong 6, Leistner 7, Hall 7, Bidwell 6; Luongo 8, Cousins 7; Wszolek 6, Eze 7 (Osayi-Samuel 77, 6), Freeman 9 (Scowen 86, -); Wells 6 (Hemed 83, -)
Subs not used: Ingram, Smith, Lynch, Manning
Goals: Freeman 48 (assisted Luongo)
Bookings: Luongo 45+2 (foul) Bidwell 50 (foul), Wells 57 (kicking ball away), Scowen 87 (ratting)
Leeds: Cassila 7; Ayling 6 (Dallas 73, 6), Jansson 6, Cooper 6, Alioski 5 (Brown 81, -); Phillips 5 (Douglas 65, 5), Klich 6; Hernandez 6, Roberts 6, Harrison 5; Bamford 5.
Subs not used: Peacock-Farrell, Berardi, Shackleton, Gotts
Bookings: Brown 85 (foul)
Referee — Andy Davies (Hampshire) 6 I thought QPR got away with a big Leistner handball right on the edge of the area early in the game, and there were some odd bits and pieces apart from that. Bamford should have been booked for the attempt at handling an opening goal in on the stroke of half time. Not bad though, difficult game to keep a hold of.
Stoke 2 QPR 2, Saturday November 24, 2018, Championship
QPR have already won three away games this season, as many as they managed in the whole of last. They’ve also already matched their clean sheet total of seven from 2017/18 and, honestly, despite the vast majority of the game remaining, this felt strongly like it was going to be another notch in both columns. On the ball, Rangers were very good, certainly far better than their hosts. Off it, the pride in defending the penalty box reduced Gary Rowett’s team to feeding on scraps. A shot from public enemy number one James McClean deflected wide but Wells quickly went up the other end and unloaded his own attempt across the face of Jack Butland’s goal. Referee Andy Davies, very kind to Rangers in a recent win at Reading, turned down two fairly obvious looking fouls on Eze only to then award a free kick for a pretty clear dive by Stoke’s lone front man Saido Berahino but Joel Lynch cleared the resulting free kick no dramas.
Stoke didn’t like it. They didn’t like it one bit. They’d already had a potential third goal from Berahino ruled out for offside (reassuring to know the lino on that side was actually still alive, we were beginning to have our doubts) and they treated the equaliser as a chance to roll back the years to that vintage period when they used to beat Arsenal up and steal their lunch money. On came Afobe and Crouch, the two biggest humans in Staffordshire, and the tactic changed to the sort of packed penalty box, chuck it, boot it, flog it, kill it, burn it-style that Tony Pulis used to employ here to extract confessions from prisoners of war. QPR really, really struggled with this. A heartbreaking late winner from Crouch, who’d been given an outstanding reception from the away end before the game and at the point of his introduction, was mercifully ruled out for offside.
Stoke: Butland 6; Edwards 6, Shawcross 6, Williams 6, Martins Indi 6; Woods 6; Ince 7 (Crouch 84, -), Clucas 6 (Bojan 72, 5), Allen 7, McClean 7 (Afobe 81, -); Berahino 6
Subs not used; Diouf, Martina, Fletcher, Federici
Goals: Berahino 21 (assisted Allen), Allen 60 (assisted McClean)
Bookings: Martins Indi 47 (foul)
QPR: Lumley 6; Rangel 7, Leistner 6, Lynch 5, Bidwell 6; Cousins 6, Luongo 6; Wszolek 6 (Hemed 62, 6), Eze 7 (Hall 90+1, -), Freeman 5; Wells 6 (Smith 89, -)
Subs not used: Ingram, Scowen, Furlong, Osayi-Samuel
Goals: Rangel 7 (assisted Eze), 78 (assisted Eze)
Bookings: Lynch 3 (foul), Leistner 36 (foul), Bidwell 90+1 (foul), Cousins 90+7 (foul)
Referee — Andy Davies (Hampshire) 6 Few bits and pieces of rubbish but nothing major wrong, assuming the second goal was onside though it certainly didn’t look it to me either at the time or on the replay.
Reading 0 QPR 1, Tuesday October 2, 2018, Championship
Fortunately, apart from Méïté’s one off the post, Reading’s main tactic for the second period seemed to be based around conning penalties out of referee Andy Davies. Double fortunately, Davies wasn’t having any of it. First he booked Méïté for going down as he ran past Toni Leistner in the box — haven’t seen it back, it looked a pen to me at first glance. Then Ezatolahi went the same way, into the notebook for a much more obvious flop under no contact at all. I wondered whether Reading were deliberately playing on the human nature of match officials, who having had enough courage of their convictions to wave one appeal away from a home team and issue a yellow card may be intimidated into awarding a questionable one the other way next time. If so, they’d backed the wrong horse. This was a man who’d had the stones to give two penalties against Millwall at The Den on Saturday, and besides there were no Reading fans in attendance to provide the intimidation factor. Just for good measure, he waved a third appeal away from the home team’s best player Andy Yiadom after he’d charged forward from left back and beaten two men on his way into another theatrical penalty box tumble. No card that time though, that would have been a bit much.
Reading: Walker 6; Gunter 5, Ilori 5, Moore 6, Yiadom 7; Bacuna 5, Kelly 5 (Swift 67, 5); Barrow 6, Ezatolahi 5 (McNulty 79, 5), Aluko 5 (Sims 65, 5); Méïté 6
Subs not used: Mannone, Blackett, Rinomhota, Loader
Bookings: Méïté 55 (diving), Ezatolahi 68 (diving), Sims 70 (foul)
QPR: Lumley 6; Rangel 6, Leistner 7, Lynch 6, Bidwell 6; Cameron 5, Luongo 6; Cousins 6 (Wszolek 82, -), Eze 6 (Scowen 80, -), Freeman 7; Wells 7
Subs not used: Ingram, Hall, Osayi-Samuel, Smith
Goals: Leistner 64 (assisted Freeman/Cameron)
Referee — Andy Davies (Hampshire) 11 QPR got a lot out of him. He laid his stall out early when challenges from Luongo on Barrow and Méïté on Lynch that were easily yellow cards were allowed to float past with a word on the run. Whether he’d have awarded the penalty for the handball on the line for Leistner’s goal we’ll never know — though as he didn’t book the player involved anyway we assume not. I’ve heard Méïté’s was a dive, it looked a penalty to me at the time. The other two were dives, and rightly ignored. Blew for half time ten seconds early, which I’m all in favour of, we’ve all got homes to go to. Overall, in all seriousness, maybe a 6/10.
Ipswich 0 QPR 0, Tuesday December 26, 2017, Championship
Josh Scowen had been harshly booked for kicking the ball away — at 0-0, after 18 minutes, not exactly prime time-wasting territory — in the first half by referee Andy Davies, a man who looked heartily pissed off with being asked to work on Boxing Day and determined to take it out on everybody else who was there for enjoyment with a maddeningly inconsistent and pedantic performance. Scowen had committed two fouls since then and been warned severely after a third when Ipswich finally put a move together that would have had David McGoldrick through for a winner had the self-styled ‘little rat’ not taken one for the team and hauled him back. Free kick awarded, second yellow card rightly administered, Scowen was off and Ipswich had a chance to win the game from 20 yards against ten men. Celina beat the wall, and Smithies, but missed the top corner.
Ipswich: Bialkoski 7; Iorfa 7, Chambers 6, Webster 6, Knudsen 7; Bishop 5 (Ward 42, 5), Connolly 6, Waghorn 6, Sears 5 (Celina 84, -); McGoldrick 6, Garner 6
Subs not used: Smith, Spence, Crowe, Kenlock, McDonnell
Bookings: Knudsen 24 (foul)
QPR: Smithies 7; Baptiste 6, Onuoha 6, Robinson 6; Wszolek 6, Bidwell 6; Scowen 6, Luongo 6, Cousins 6 (Osayi-Sauel 82, -); Freeman 8, Sylla 5 (Smith 80, 5)
Subs not used: Furlong, Hall, Lumley, Chair
Red Cards: Scowen 88 (two yellows)
Bookings: Scowen 18 (kicking ball away), Scowen 88 (foul)
Referee — Andy Davies (Hampshire) 5 Bit of a pain in the arse really. Pedantic and picky over minor offences, then waved away other stuff that obviously should have been given, often in the same passage of play. Sending off was correct, although whether a yellow card for kicking the ball away when it’s 0-0 after 18 minutes is really appropriate I’m not sure.
QPR 2 Ipswich 1, Saturday September 9, 2017, Championship
The first wasn’t without controversy. Massimo Luongo, for once looking fresh on his return from a long-haul international break with Australia, typified his powerful midfield display on the day with a surging run away from a crowded midfield area into the red zone — though he’d almost certainly handled the the bouncing ball to get it under control in the first instance, a fact missed by referee Andy Davies and his assistant but certainly not by Ipswich manager Mick McCarthy and his staff. Play was allowed to roll on and Luongo fed Wszolek who, as usual, picked somebody out in the penalty box for his cross rather than just slinging it over and playing the percentages. That somebody was Jamie Mackie, and he arrived right on time to sweep it into the bottom corner from 12 yards out.
QPR: Smithies 6; Baptiste 8, Onuoha 7, Robinson 7; Wszolek 7 (Wheeler 77, 6), Bidwell 7; Scowen 8, Luongo 8, Freeman 8; Mackie 7 (Lua Lua 82, -), Washington 7 (Smith 82, -)
Subs not used: Furlong, Manning, Lumley, Osayi-Samuel
Goals: Mackie 43 (assisted Wszolek), Freeman 49 (unassisted)
Bookings: Freeman 90 (foul)
Ipswich: Bialkowski 6; Connolly 6, Spence 6, Iorfa 6, Knudsen 6; Ward 5 (Celina 76, 7), Skuse 6, Downes 6 (Adeyemi 66, 7); Waghorn 5 (Sears 67, 6), McGoldrick 6, Garner 5
Subs not used: Gerken, Rowe, Kenlock, Woolfenden
Goals: Celina 89 (unassisted)
Bookings: Downes 34 (foul), Connolly 90+5 (foul)
QPR 1 Sheff Wed 2, Monday April 17, 2017, Championship
This one had much in common with the four that went before it. Again, Rangers were beaten by a single goal, 2-1 for the third game in succession. Again, as at Villa and Bristol City and at home to Brighton, it could reasonably be argued that they may have taken something from the same game on a different day — referee Andy Davies said no to two very reasonable penalty appeals from the hosts and Matt Smith missed a sitter. But, again, the scoreline was somewhat flattering to Rangers, who responded to yet another team selection riddled with changes with a confused, disjointed performance which Wednesday really should have overcome a lot more easily than they did.
There was good cause to feel aggrieved with Wednesday’s second on the half hour, scored by the excellent Pudil himself this time from close range after a tremendous Alex Smithies save had kept out a header from Jordan Rhodes. The free kick which led to it, awarded for a foul by Joel Lynch wide on the right touchline, was marched several yards infield by Ross Wallace to improve his crossing angle. Referee Andy Davies let him do it, then spent the rest of the afternoon meticulously placing and marking out every subsequent free kick.
Don’t think that referee Davies had played advantage mind. He was clearly waving the stone waller away, and he did so again three times in the second half when all three looked good shouts to me — one when Ryan Manning appeared to handle in the box, another when Jamie Mackie was involved in a three-way clash with Westwood and Pudil over a loose ball he’d seemingly reached first, and finally when substitute Matt Smith seemed to be fairly blatantly pushed by Tom Lees who had two hands in his back as a ball was played forward. Davies booked Reach for repetitive fouling, and Perch for his weekly attempt to end another professional’s career, but this was a poor afternoon of officiating overall.
A Freeman free kick (very carefully positioned by Davies) caused panic before half time and Jake Bidwell lashed over straight after the break when another set piece fell loose to him on the edge of the box.
QPR: Smithies 6; Perch 5, Lynch 4, Bidwell 4; Petrasso 4 (Lua Lua 45, 6), Robinson 6 (Washington 62, 6); Freeman 6, Luongo 6, Manning 5 (Smith 75, 5); Mackie 5, Sylla 5
Subs not used: Goss, Ingram, Wszolek, Ngabakoto
Goals: Sylla 20 (assisted Mackie)
Bookings: Perch 76 (foul)
Sheff Wed: Westwood 6; Palmer 6, Lees 6, Loovens 6, Pudil 8; Wallace 6 (Semedo 67, 6), Jones 6, Bannan 6, Reach 7; Rhodes 7 (Nuhiu 76, 4), Hooper 6 (Forestieri 67, 6)
Subs not used: Wildsmith, McManaman, Fletcher, Sasso
Goals: Reach 12 (assisted Pudil), Pudil 31 (assisted Wallace)
Bookings; Reach 61 (Repetitive fouling)
Referee — Andy Davies (Hampshire) 4 Not great. Sylla scoring when nobody noticed got him out of jail in the first half because he wasn’t going to award a penalty for the obvious foul on Mackie and he missed at least two further obvious spot kick — one for a push on Smith, the other the clash with Mackie — and possibly one at the other end too when Manning appeared to handle. That and the farce of the free kick placement for the second goal made it a poor afternoon.
Birmingham 1 QPR 4, Saturday February 18, 2017, Championship
Birmingham had posed the odd threat. Jerome Sinclair, on loan from Watford, must be wondering how Che Adams headed an early chance he’d put on a plate for him wide and later he had a deflected shot of his own clip the top of the bar on its way over. But the Blues were so obviously second best that even Paul Robinson, two weeks shy of his seventy eighth birthday and incapable of doing anything other than staggering around miles off the pace of the game and abusing the match officials, improved them slightly when he came on for the injured Keita after half an hour. The crusty old git was eventually booked by Andy Davies for repeated dissent.
Birmingham: Kuszczak 6; Nsue 6, Cogley 5 (Koyunlu 45, 5), Shotton 5, Grounds 5; Keita 5 (Robinson 31, 5), Kieftenbeld 4, Tesche 5 (Storer 82, -), Stewart 7, Adams 5; Sinclair 5
Subs not used: Legzdins, Gleeson, O’Keefe, Bielik
Goals: Nsue 90+3 (assisted Adams)
Bookings: Tesche 21 (foul), Robinson 56 (dissent), Storer 87 (foul)
QPR: Smithies 6; Furlong 7, Onuoha 8, Lynch 7, Bidwell 6; Manning 8, Hall 7, Freeman 8; Washington 8 (Ngbakoto 85, -), Smith 8 (Sylla 80, -), Wszolek 7 (Lua Lua 85, -)
Subs not used: Mackie, Ingram, Luongo, Perch
Goals: Smith 18 (assisted Freeman), Washington 47 (unassisted), Sylla 84 (assisted Wszolek), Ngbakoto 88 (free kick — won Manning)
Bookings: Lynch 50 (foul), Bidwell 82 (foul), Manning 90 (foul)
Referee — Andy Davies (Hampshire) 7 Birmingham have lost 8-1 on aggregate in the two games they’ve had with Davies this season and they didn’t seem overly thrilled with his performance in the first half but I thought he was ok, no complaints about the bookings, no big decisions wrong. Got conned by Manning a couple of times, but he’s a sneaky little git sometimes so that’s not that unusual.
QPR 0 Newcastle 6, Tuesday September 13, 2016, Championship
Jonjo Shelvey dominated this match completely from the centre of the Newcastle midfield. A talented player, only at this level through personality flaws, he’ll do that to a few teams this season. He set the tone for the night in the first 12 minutes — three nasty tackles, two rows with QPR players, one argument with referee Andy Davies who really should have booked him, one shot which deflected into the net off Perez who was flagged offside, one shot drilled just wide and then one shot into the net via two deflections to give his side the lead. Nice clear message stamped all over the game — we’re not here to piss about, we mean business, we’re already 1-0 up, what have you lot got?
Often in such circumstances you see the beaten team picking up bookings for frustrated tackles and kicks out at opponents — QPR didn’t even get close enough to Newcastle to commit a foul and referee Davies’ cards stayed firmly in his pocket. There never seemed to be any inkling that we should change formation, limit the damage, add a man to the middle of midfield, get some men behind the ball and at least try and hold out for ten minutes, maybe commit a few fouls to disrupt the play, or anything really. It was barbaric. Almost cruel. I honestly thought they were going to get double figures. Never mind not at the races, QPR weren’t on the same planet.
QPR: Smithies 5; Onuoha 3, Caulker 3 (Lynch 89, -), Hall 4, Bidwell 4; Perch 5 (Wszolek 18, 3), Henry 3, Cousins 3, Ngabokoto 4 (Sylla 57, 6); Chery 4, Washington 3
Subs not used: Borysiuk, Ingram, El Khayati, Shodipo
Newcastle: Sels 6; Anita 8, Lascelles 8, Clark 8, Dummett 7 (Hanley 65, 8); Gouffran 7 (Atsu 61, 7), Hayden 8, Shelvey 9, Ritchie 8; Mitrovic 8 (Yedlin 74, 6), Perez 8
Subs not used: Colback, Gayle, Diame, Darlow
Goals: Shelvey 12 (assisted Mitrovic), 48 (unassisted), Perez 30 (assisted Ritchie), Clark 56 (assisted Ritchie), Mitrovic 63 (unassisted), Hanley 79 (assisted Clark)
Referee — Andy Davies (Hampshire) 7 Nothing to really referee, with QPR rarely close enough to Newcastle to put a tackle in and commit a foul. Two borderline offside decisions, one given as a goal which looked about right, one disallowed which looked generous. Shelvey could easily have been booked in the first ten minutes but other than that he was essentially marshalling a procession.
Sheff Wed 1 QPR 1, Tuesday February 23, 2016, Championship
It looked like a typical QPR in the north evening was unfolding, and that feeling only grew immediately after half time when Grant Hall had one go at tripping Gary Hooper in the penalty area, failed, and Nedum Onuoha swept in to finish the job with an obvious foul for a spot kick. But Hooper, with ten goals in 11 matches prior to kick off, didn’t take the penalty himself and although Nuhiu’s record from 12 yards is apparently decent, his kick was tame and read expertly by Smithies who saved and held the ball down to his left.
The game seemed to be petering out into another stalemate until referee Andy Davies took centre stage. Phillips hung a lazy leg out and was booked, and Ross Wallace followed him — odd considering the two earlier fouls on Washington and Luongo in much more dangerous areas hadn’t drawn cards and Nuhiu absolutely hacked into Onuoha right on half time and again escaped further reprimand. Seemingly cold and fed up, Davies then made his way to the touchline with an ailment so troublesome (or a train home so early) it apparently meant he couldn’t referee the final ten minutes or so of the match. Fourth official Graham Salisbury creaked onto the field looking, and running, like the exhumed remains of Methuselah and, wouldn’t you just know it, was presented with a huge decision to make during five minutes of added time at the end of the game.
Rangers looked stretched to breaking point as Wednesday freed Lee into the Kop End penalty box for a final time, and Grant Hall’s desperate lunge looked like a fool’s mission to rescue the situation. Only the theatrical fall from the Wednesday player, and the distance of Old Father Time from the incident, can have counted in QPR’s favour — it looked like a stick on penalty at the time and the home crowd and bench were as happy as Graeme Souness at Jamie Redknapp’s birthday party when it wasn’t awarded. Carvalhal came onto the field at the final whistle to demand answers. We’d have been fuming too.
Sheff Wed: Westwood 6; Hunt 6, Lees 7, Sasso 6, Pudil 6; Wallace 7, Lee 7, Bannan 6, McGeady 5 (Jao 62, 6); Hooper 6, Nuhiu 5
Subs not used: Loovens, McGugan, Bennett, Helan, Lopez, Price
Goals: Nuhiu 63 (assisted Pudil)
Bookings: Wallace 72 (foul)
QPR: Smithies 8; Onuoha 5, Hall 6, Angella 7, Perch 6; Phillips 5, Tozser 7, Henry 6, Luongo 6, El Khayati 7 (Mackie 79, 6); Washington 6 (Polter 73, 6)
Subs not used: Chery, Hoilett, Ingram, Petrasso, Diakite
Goals: Tozser 57 (unassisted)
Bookings: Phillips 76 (foul)
Referee — Andy Davies (Hampshire) 6 (Graham Salisbury {Lancashire} 80, 5) Davies did ok, although it seemed odd that Phillips and Wallace were booked for their fouls in reasonably neutral positions while Pudil and Jao escaped censor for deliberate chops on Washington and Luongo respectively, right on the edge of the Wednesday box as dangerous situations developed. The home crowd were unhappy that he let Karl Henry get away with so much, but he rightly awarded them a penalty for Onuoha’s reckless challenge. Obviously the talking point for his late replacement was the final minute penalty appeal from Kieran Lee which looked absolutely blatant at the time, and still does now really although Lee probably convinced the official otherwise by falling so theatrically. Still looks a foul by Hall though, so for the second time this season Rangers have had the rub of the green against Sheff Wed from a referee.
Eleven appointments to this point, six of them in the Championship, with 45 yellows and one red shown. His biggest single haul was six yellows ands a red at Sunderland 2-0 Watford. This is his second trip to Hillsborough this season, and they did actually win his first – 2-0 at home to Rotherham. Wednesday are 4-3-5 from 12 games with this official. Last season he booked 86 players (3.44) and sent two off in 25 games, with seven bookings at Sunderland 0-1 Cardiff the biggest haul. Sheff Wed lost 2-1 at title rivals Plymouth in League One in their only game with him. QPR are 8-6-4 with Davies from 18 appointments — only Reading, Luton and Brentford have had this referee more.
Tweet @loftforwords
Pictures — Action Images