David Webb is the referee in the middle on Friday night as QPR face a daunting trip to Ipswich — Rangers have won only one of 12 with this referee and have had a red card or penalty awarded against them in each of his last three appointments.
Referee >>> David Webb (Durham), last seen sending Asmir Begovic off for being within the same postcode as Patrick Bamford at Leeds.
Assistants >>> Rob Smith (Hertfordshire) and Hristo Karaivanov (Sutton-in-Ashfield)
Fourth Official >>> Keith Stroud (Hampshire), just you be ready with that holy water.
Leeds 1 QPR 0, Wednesday October 4, 2023, Championship
There was, as there had been against Swansea and Coventry, an incredibly poor refereeing decision still to come. Rangers had won one of 11 games with Durham-based gnome David Webb prior to kick off, and in the first half Leeds enjoyed a nice swift counter attack through a yawning chasm in the visiting midfield caused by him obstructing Sam Field from chasing back and then getting angry with the midfielder for complaining about that. Four minutes from time, trailing 1-0, Lyndon Dykes was fouled right on the edge of the box for a very presentable free kick which could have been a shot, or a dangerous ball into the area. Webb waved an advantage, with QPR now in possession, outnumbered, wide on the touchline. He knew, within a second, he’d made an error, putting his head on one side and cursing himself, but didn’t go back to award the free kick then, or two seconds later when Adomah predictably gave the ball away.
Then, in stoppage time, Patrick Bamford pushed a bouncing ball through a gap in the defence towards the area, Begovic lunged towards him, the Leeds man collapsed in a heap, and Webb awarded a free kick and sent the goalkeeper off. Cue an absolute melee as Begovic tried to get at the referee and then the Leeds striker, full in the knowledge the replay would duly show he didn’t go anywhere near him and Bamford, as he is rather prone to do, had cheated to get him sent off. Given Bamford’s finishing ability you can see why he’d rather hit the deck than go through on an open goal, and I think there’s a debate to be had about whether anything could be deemed a "clear goalscoring opportunity” when it’s that chinless toff on the end of it, but it certainly wasn’t a foul, never mind a red card. Bamford, predictably, took the opportunity of a free hit at makeshift goalkeeper Lyndon Dykes from 18 yards and stuck it straight into the wall. As against Coventry it gave manager, players and staff a chance to talk about a referee afterwards, rather than their own failings.
Leeds: Meslier 6; Ayling 4, Rodon 6, Struijk 7, Byram 6; Gray 7, Ampadu 7; Summerville 7 (Poveda 80, -), Piroe 5 (Bamford 65, 5), Anthony 7 (James 65, 6); Rutter 6 (Cresswell 90+11, -)
Subs Not Used: Cooper, Kamara, Darlow, Gelhardt, Gruev
Goals: Summerville 9 (assisted Rutter)
QPR: Begovic 6; Kakay 3 (Dunne 73, 5), Cook 5 (Larkeche 84, -), Clarke-Salter 6; Smyth 4 (Adomah 46, 4), Colback 4 (Dozzell 46, 5), Field 5, Paal 5; Dykes 5, Chair 5, Armstrong 4 (Kolli 78, 5)
Subs not used: Archer, Dixon-Bonner, Duke-Mckenna, Kelman
Red Cards: Begovic 90+3 (professional foul)
Yellow Cards: Field 26 (foul), Kakay 69 (foul)
Referee – David Webb (Durham) 3 With the money washing around the sport in this country - which could be used for handsome pay packets, recruitment drives and training to grow the talent pool of officials - it is disgraceful that gormless 4ft pissmonkeys like this are officiating as high as the second tier. This is the best we’ve got is it? This guy? This guy?
Middlesbrough 3 QPR 1, Saturday February 18, 2023, Championship
When this happened again, 13 minutes from time, Iroegbunam foolishly, naively went to ground in the box and - whether you think there was much contact on McGree or not, whether you believe it was a penalty or a dive - if you abandon your feet and dive in like this in your own area you leave the referee a decision to make. David Webb is not a referee you ideally want to be leaving with a decision to make. Cameron Archer took hold of the ball and stood on the spot, absorbing all of the gamesmanship and attempts to distract and delay by the opponent, and then when it was time for the kick handed the ball to Akpom — see, Illy, that’s what you bloody do — who hit a tame shot straight at Dieng and then netted the rebound when the keeper sportingly patted it back to him for a second swing.
Boro: Steffen 4; Smith 6, McNair 6, Lenihan 6, Giles 7; Barlaser 8 (Mowatt 88, -), Hackney 6 (Bola 90+3, -); Ramsey 7 (Howson 78, 6), Akpom 8, McGree 8; Archer 7 (Crooks 78, 7)
Subs not used: Fry, Forss, Roberts
Goals: Akpom 64 (assisted Lazer Quest), 77 (rebound off missed penalty), McGree 90+3 (assisted Crooks)
Bookings: Akpom 64 (over celebrating — steady down mate, there’ll be another along in a minute or two)
QPR: Dieng 6; Kakay 5, Dickie 5, Dunne 6, Paal 6; Field 6, Dozzell 5 (Adomah 69, 5), Iroegbunam 4, Chair 6; Martin 6, Lowe 5
Subs not used: Johansen, Archer, Dicks and Boner, Gubbins, Drewe, Aoraha Borealis, Pugh, Pugh, Barney McGrew, Cuthbert, Dibble, Grubb, former culture and media secretary Tessa Jowell, Davis Love III etc.
Genuine goals, no make up: Chair 90 (assisted Steffen)
Referee — David Webb (Durham) 5 One win in 11 for QPR now with this pedantic arsehole. Don’t shout it too loudly, with a record like that he might end up being the next manager.
QPR 1 Peterborough 3, Sunday March 20, 2022, Championship
The gamesmanship on show in the final third of this game, at times, had to be seen to be believed. Referee David Webb, as we’re now well aware after previous encounters, is so biblically inept at dealing with this issue it destroys what little credibility and authority he has in the rest of the game. For Cornell to emerge from this without a yellow card was astounding really. With all three substitutions made Jonson Clarke-Harris hit the deck for the umpteenth time on the afternoon holding his thigh suggesting he’d suffered a dead leg or hamstring pull. He limped off to the touchline but then, after a brief conversation with the bench, returned to the field and sat straight back down holding his head. This was then deemed worthy of a concussion substitution allowing the visitors to remain with 11 on the field and, trying not to get sued here, seemed suspect to me. Referee happy to just trundle along with the lies and bullshit.
Football, like both codes of rugby before it, is about to be overrun with concussion protocols, head injury assessments, legal cases, bans on heading the ball, and plenty else besides which will creep and creep and creep until, like rugby league in the UK at the moment, you no longer recognise the sport you’re watching. Any complaint from you and I will be met with accusations that you are a dinosaur who doesn’t care if footballers become dribbling vegetables after they retire, that this is A Very Serious Issue which "football has ignored for too long”. And then you see this. Down clutching his leg one minute, off under concussion protocols the next. At the very least the assessment should be made by an independent, rather than club, doctor to allay any suspicions the player might be rather conveniently concussed in the context of the game.
Each Peterborough ‘injury’ apparently necessitated the on field presence of an enormous man in a yellow suit who moved at the speed of rust — somebody I’m absolutely sure we’d have seen just as much of had they been losing the game 2-1. Most frustrating of all, it was just so totally unnecessary. The game was won, and in fact could and should have been won by more. Peterborough by far the better team now, playing the better football, with Knight pulling all the strings from the back, and Marriott offering all the threat going forwards. It could have been any score the basement dwellers liked, and only Westwood’s brilliant one on one save in injury time stopped it being at least 4-1. QPR were a shocking, embarrassing rabble. The substitutions had such a detrimental effect on the team that not ten minutes after they were made, with Peterborough again putting us through the pain of the bloke from the side of the Mega Bus waddling onto the field to tend to somebody else’s ‘injury’, half the team had to come over to the bench for a re-brief and a piece of paper with further instructions was sent onto the field.
QPR: Westwood 6; Adomah 4, Sanderson 2, Dickie 4, Dunne 3, McCallum 4; Field 6, Dozzell 4 (Thomas 57, 5), Amos 7 (Hendrick 57, 4); Chair 4, Gray 5 (Austin 57, 3)
Subs not used: Barbet, Ball, Odubajo, Mahoney
Goals: Amos 9 (assisted Gray)
Bookings: Field 66 (foul)
Posh: Cornell 6; Ward 6, Edwards 7, Knight 8, Kent 6, Mumba 4 (Burrows 45, 7); Taylor 6 (Fuchs 71, 6), Norburn 7, Szmodics 6; Marriott 8 (Poku 76, 6), Clarke-Harris 7 (Taylor 90+2, -)
Subs not used: Grant, Beevers, Blackmore
Goals: Clarke-Harris 39 (unassisted), 52 (penalty won Burrows), Marriott 54 (unassisted)
Bookings: Mumba 45 (foul), Marriott 56 (foul), Nordburn 67 (time wasting)
Referee — David Webb (Durham) 5 Goodness me he’s hard work this guy. Play-acting, injury-feigning and time-wasting are chronic and endemic in the Championship. This official, rather than clamp down on it, rewards it. As with every game he’s refereed this season, the goalkeeper was allowed to engage in a whole load of blatant cheating without punishment. At one point the referee actually made the point of marching all the way back down the field to talk to him about it, offer no punishment, and walk all the way back, wasting yet more time. One yellow card for time wasting given some of the stuff that went on in the second half was a total joke. Clarke-Harris going down with what looked like a clear dead leg, hobbling badly on his way off, only to return to the field, sit down with his hand on his head, and then be allowed a fourth substitution for concussion is just wrong. That protocol has been brought in to protect players and their long term health, not for that. And this referee was completely complicit in it. One of the most infuriating officials in a league where the standard of refereeing is racing hard to the bottom.
Peterborough 2 QPR 0, Saturday February 5, 2022, Championship
I think much of the criticism stems from the final third of the game. A bald pitch, and high wind, might be worthy of mention, but Peterborough aren’t a long ball team by any stretch, so both sets of players had to cope with that. Andre Dozzell was no kind of replacement for Stefan Johansen. George Thomas, bless him, after a couple of promising substitute appearances in recent weeks, came on for Ilias Chair, big opportunity, and was pretty dire. Odubajo went from all-action dangerman to Todd Kane-style crosser of presentable opportunities straight into the exasperated away end. Those changes occurred prior to the second goal, and such was their negative impact on the performance that the game felt gone even before Jones struck. Austin’s influence now so laboured that a sizeable away crowd began to turn on a club legend. He did manage one nod down which looked to give a sight of goal to Dykes, but he collided with Benda and a defender and the ball squirted out for what referee David Webb completely guessed might be a goal kick - Dykes wanted a penalty. Webb, as ever, woefully inadequate in the policing of outrageous time wasting — Benda consistently placing his goal kicks outside the six-yard box creating a series of prolonged exchanges between linesman and referee about whether the game could proceed, when a nice early yellow card around the 60 minute mark would have nipped the farce right in the bud. To only, eventually, show a yellow for time wasting in the sixth minute of stoppage time, to a player who’d only just stepped off the bench, was fucking disgusting. His assessor shouldn’t so much file a report as beat the bloke round the head with it.
Posh: Benda 7; Ward 6 (Coulson 65, 6), Kent 7, Edwards 7, Beevers 7, Mumba 6 (Thompson 90+2, -); Fuchs 6, Norburn 6, Poku 6 (Brown 57, 6); Marriott 5 (Jones 65, 7), Clarke-Harris 4 (Szmodics 45, 5)
Subs not used: Brown, Grant, Knight, Cornell, Randall
Goals: Ward 25 (unassisted), Jones 71 (assisted Mumba)
Bookings: Clarke Harris 29 (foul), Edwards 45 (foul), Fuchs 63 (foul), Jones 83 (foul), Norburn 87 (foul), Thompson 90+6 (time wasting)
QPR: Marshall 5; Odubajo 6, Sanderson 6, Dickie 5, Dunne 6, Wallace 6 (Adomah 45, 6); Amos 5 (Hendrick 45, 6), Johansen 6 (Dozzell 62, 4), Chair 6 (Thomas 62, 5); Austin 4, Dykes 5
Subs not used: Kakay, Barbet, Ball, Walsh
Bookings: Dunne 43 (dissent), Dozzell 90+2 (foul)
Referee — David Webb (Durham) 5 I almost knocked this down to a four for the yellow card he gave Nathan Thompson in the sixth minute of stoppage time. To tolerate the level of time wasting he did, for as long as he did, particularly from Benda, with nothing more than an ongoing serious of elaborate hand gestures but no meaningful action, only to then book somebody who’d only been on the pitch two minutes for taking their time over a throw in when there was 30 seconds left, the game was over and done with, and the card had no effect as either punishment nor deterrent, was an absolute fucking embarrassment to him and his profession. Allowing Benda’s clever ruse of placing all the goal kicks outside the six yard box, provoking a debate between lino and referee every time, without just booking him straight away and bringing a halt to it, was so dumb. This referee cannot police time. This was to QPR’s benefit earlier in the season when they were beating Blackburn 1-0 at Loftus Road, the ball disappeared into the Loft for a long old while, wasn’t returned by the crowd, and somehow he still only added four minutes on at the end of the game, which caused a fully justified meltdown from Moany Towbury. Here it was to our disadvantage. I can’t believe anybody assessing and training this official, who has had the misfortune to sit through his games, hasn’t at least spoken to him about some of the flagrant clock running and time wasting he tolerates, and encourages. Other than that there was plenty of inconsistency and irritation, not least at the end of the first half where he not only bought a dive by Jonson Clarke-Harris but then booked Jimmy Dunne for dissent when actually it was little more than incredulity that the referee had fallen for it and given a free kick. Within 45 seconds a much more obvious foul on Ilias Chair hadn’t even been given as a free kick, and with players now aggravated and the game moving out of the referee’s control you then had a big, meaty tackle from Edwards that felt like a very thick yellow card, players charging in from both sides, getting in each others’ faces, screaming at the referee. This was a really good, specific example, across five minutes, of how a referee can lose control of the game through his own action and inaction — Clarke-Harris had dived, Chair had been fouled, get those two very basic decisions right, and there’s no card for Dunne, no card for Edwards, no agg, no incident, no problem. Ten minutes from time Rob Dickie carrying the ball out of defence had his Achilles stamped on by Jones — a really nasty tackle, somehow worthy of the same punishment that Dunne and Thompson received. Bullshit. Bull. Shit. A poor referee, refereeing poorly, creating problems for himself.
QPR 1 Blackburn Rovers 0, Tuesday October 19, 2021, Championship
Every note I’ve made in the first half an hour — full debutant Dan Butterworth’s drive forward and shot over after 13 minutes, Yoann Barbet’s excellent recovery tackle on 21, Rob Dickie’s thick yellow card for a late lunch on 27 — starts with Rangers giving the ball away. The central midfield, shorn of suspended Stefan Johansen, was not a conspicuous success, with Andre Dozzell and Dom Ball both below par. It took 34 minutes, and an injury to Lewis Travis necessitating the introduction of wildly-out-of-shape and slower than rust Bradley Johnson, for QPR to do anything of note at all but their first significant move of the game should surely have resulted in a penalty — Adomah’s stood up cross from the byline clearly and obviously batted back towards him by Johnson’s upstretched arms above his head. Referee David Webb, seven QPR games and zero QPR wins, looked right at it with his assistant and gave nothing.
The half then petered out through a series of weird and wonderful refereeing decisions, great big long chats with players before corners are taken (just let the bloody thing come in and then penalise whoever you think is sinning, some of us want to be back in the Crown for last orders), and a yellow for Liverpool loanee Leighton Clarkson for seeking retribution on Dickie. The reaction to the half time whistle was funereal.
Blackburn, who to be fair compounded the first half loss of Travis by then having to remove Harry Pickering at half time, necessitating a switch into Adomah’s path for midfielder Tayo Edun where he promptly got absolutely murdered, were absolute baggage long before the end. Twice, to the referee’s credit, they received a yellow card for kicking the ball away, though Webb then blotted his copy book by going through this ridiculous solves-nowt, testiculating routine with goalkeeper Kaminski’s flagrant time-wasting. Book, book early, problem solved. Stop waving it around and start fucking.
QPR: Dieng 6; Adomah 8 (Kakay 86, -), Dickie 7, Dunne 7, Barbet 7, McCallum 6; Ball 5 (Austin 73, 6), Dozzell 5 (Amos 60, 7), Chair 7; Willock 6, Dykes 7
Subs not used: De Wijs, Archer, Gray, Duke-McKenna
Goals: Chair 83 (assisted Dickie)
Bookings: Dickie 28 (foul), Amos 90+4 (foul)
Blackburn: Kaminski 7; Nyambe 6, van Hecke 6, Ayala 6, Lenihan 6, Pickering 6 (Rothwell 45, 6); Travis 6 (Johnson 34, 5), Edun 5, Clarkson 5; Brereton-Diaz 5, Butterworth 6 (Gallagher 67, 5)
Subs not used: Dolan, Pears, Buckley, Poveda-Ocampo
Bookings: Clarkson 45+1 (foul), Butterworth 50 (kicking the ball away), Rothwell 55 (kicking the ball away)
Referee — David Webb (Durham) 5 Crikey we’re not having a happy time with officials at the moment are we? On the positive side, finally a referee that books players for the habit of wasting time and delaying the restart by deliberately knocking the ball away from the spot free kicks are being taken. A point added back on for that. The handball penalty appeal in the first half is ridiculously blatant, two hands high above Johnson’s head batting the ball down in full view of the assistant referee on that side. Let some really meaty stuff go, which I tend to like, but then undermined that by giving free kicks for other ridiculously soft things, particularly the dive by Brereton-Diaz right in front of the F Block in the first half. Also undermined the two yellow cards he did issue by then engaging in this ridiculous routine where the goalkeeper is allowed to waste all the time in the world, while the referee simply does a big exaggerated hand gesture to suggest he won’t tolerate any more — before he then tolerates lots more. The four minutes added to the end of the game was brilliant news for us, as we were now in front, but if it was still 0-0 I’d have been absolutely stewing with that. Proof, if proof were needed, that for all the arm waving, watch pointing, and in this case a couple of yellow cards, they add fuck all to the end of the game for this stuff. Four minutes would have been grossly inadequate even without the time the ball spent bouncing around the Lower Loft after the goal had gone in — when you add that into consideration it was a joke, and Mowbray was rightly absolutely livid about it. Yet another Championship game where the time-wasting, clock-running and gamesmanship is allowed to run rampant by the referee.
Birmingham 2 QPR 1, Saturday February 27, 2021, Championship
They didn’t really look much like coming back from the single goal deficit to be fair. Rare incursions into the QPR penalty area were almost entirely snuffed out at source by the commanding Seny Dieng, and what few moments of excitement there were in the game came mostly at the other end as Johansen first snatched at a presentable chance with time to do more, then robbed Marc Roberts in the penalty area but turned around to find no support to convert the chance. QPR’s own sub Lyndon Dykes cut in onto a great ball from Kane looking for the far corner on 78 but the shot was blocked, and also had a header comfortably saved by Etheridge. Bonne was pulled back from a one on one situation by an incredibly generous pushing call from inconsistent referee David Webb, who then punished Halilovic for fouling the former Charlton striker when actually it looked like he’d simply passed the ball cleanly away. Pedersen was booked for smashing into Dickie, Hämäläinen somehow not for scything down Sanchez. Time was ticking. Birmingham’s threat was negligible.
Birmingham: Etheridge 6; Colin 5, Dean 6, Clarke-Salter 6 (Roberts 63, 6), Pedersen 6; Sunjic 6; Sanchez 6 (Valery 90+1, -), Harper 6, Gardner 6 (Halilovic 63, 7), Bela 6 (Leko 63, 5); Hogan 5 (Jutkiewicz 71, 5)
Subs not used: Prieto, Friend, Clayton, McGree
Goals: Pedersen 82 (assisted Roberts), Halilovic 86 (unassisted)
Bookings: Pedersen 51 (foul), Halilovic 86 (over celebrating), Roberts 90+6 (time wasting)
QPR: Dieng 6; Dickie 6, Cameron 5, Barbet 5; Kane 6, Willock 5 (Field 56, 5), Ball 5, Johansen 5 (Adomah 87, -), Hämäläinen 5; Bonne 5 (Kelman 87, -), Austin 6 (Dykes 56, 5)
Subs not used: Lumley, Chair, Bettache, Thomas, Kakay
Goals: Austin 44 (assisted Kane)
Bookings Willock 13 (foul), Bonne 73 (time wasting)
Referee — David Webb (Durham) 6 Not a referee we do particularly well with, now no wins in seven, nor seem to get very much from. Working with seriously limited material here he nevertheless came up with some inconsistent calls for me — the harsh booking of Willock for a shirt pull in a neutral part of the pitch very early in the game, and then leniency with Kane and others for exactly the same thing later in the match one among several. Yellow cards aplenty for technical offences, but quite happy to give benefit of the doubt on fouls that can actually hurt players — Hämäläinen’s deliberate chop on Sanchez at the start of the second half after being comprehensively done on the touchline was as obvious a yellow card as you’ll ever see in your life, he gets off and yet Willock got booked for a shirt pull.
Barnsley 3 QPR 0, Tuesday October 27, 2020, Championship
Bonne and Dykes may have been unlucky that their link-up attempt broke down on halfway, but it should need more than one pass to get from that situation to the heart of the QPR penalty box. Problems with our deep-lying central midfield have existed for a long time now, through several transfer windows mostly spent signing more wingers and tens. The central defensive pairing may curse an unfortunate ricochet of the ball, but why is Barbet off his feet, sliding in recklessly, trying to clear the ball in that last ditch manner anyway? Just read it, intercept it, and let’s play. Why is Rob Dickie then blatantly, rather lazily in my view, pulling the opposition striker down by the shoulder, exacerbating the goalscoring chance by turning it into an obvious penalty kick and red card for referee David Webb?
Albert Adomah’s chase of a lost cause and dangerous back post cross almost produced a headed goal for Dykes. His withdrawal was clearly fitness related as he continues to get up to speed, but replacing him directly after that rare bit of enterprising play from Rangers, after removing him from the position he was so effective in to begin with to play him at right wing back, and then replacing him with crowd favourite Todd Kane, felt like a tin hat on top of a shite night. To be fair, Kane was ok, and certainly should have drawn a yellow card from Mads Anderson for a deliberate pull back after Rangers had got in behind them. Usually a mandatory yellow that one, referee Webb far more lenient with Barnsley than he ever is with QPR. Later Chris Willock, on for Bonne (more trolling after leaving him on earlier), was also pretty clearly and obviously fouled on the edge of the Barnsley area for no return. The game had gone, it didn’t matter, but still. Now six games without a win with this official.
Barnsley: Walton N/A; Sollbauer 6, Helik 6, Andersen 6; Brittain 7, Styles 8, Mowatt 8, Odour 5 (James 46, 7); Woodrow 7 (Schmidt 68, 7), Frieser 8 (Simoes 75, 6), Chaplin 7
Subs not used: Kane, Halme, Miller, Collins
Goals: Woodrow 27 (penalty, won Woodrow), Chaplin 37 (assisted Frieser), Barbet 64 (own goal, assisted Frieser)
QPR: Dieng 7; Kakay 4, Dickie 3, Barbet 2, Hämäläinen 4; Ball 5, Carroll 4; Adomah 6 (Kane 54, 5), Bonne 5 (Willock 63, 6), Chair 6 (Masterson 31, 5); Dykes 6
Subs not used: Cameron, Bettache, Kelman, Kelly
Red Cards: Dickie 27 (denying obvious goalscoring opportunity)
Referee — David Webb (Durham) 6 Swapping out a referee who seems to like us, Andy Davies, for one who wouldn’t piss on us if we were on fire was never likely to end well, though there can be no complaint about either the penalty award, or the red card — had Dickie slid into a tackle to try and deny him he might have escaped with a yellow, but the blatant and obvious pull back made no attempt at the ball and is therefore a sending off. Two bits though — the pull on Willock on the edge of the area on 80 minutes not penalised at all, and the deliberate haul back of Kane after he’d got clear of Andersen down the right side prior to that which didn’t draw a yellow when it really should be mandatory under the current rules, are exactly the sort of decisions we don’t get from this referee, while every little thing we do is whistled immediately.
Huddersfield 2 QPR 0, Saturday February 8, 2020, Championship
Town went in front early, with new arrival from Lincoln Harry Toffolo riding one ridiculously over committed tackle from Hall in the area and then crossing to Elias Kachunga who was able to stroll in unmarked between static Connor Masterson and Lee Wallace to head home unchallenged. Undone and panicked, Rangers swiftly conceded an even more defensively shambolic second when Wallace miscontrolled the ball to begin with and then hung a lazy leg out in the second instance to fell Kachunga and allow Mounie to slam home from the spot. Dom Ball complained bitterly to referee David Webb, but it looked a pen at first glance and was the ninth Rangers have conceded this season — all but one of them scored. Rangers well on their way to conceding in excess of 70 goals for the fourth season in a row.
Huddersfield: Lossl 6; Simpson 7, Stearman 6, Schindler 6, Toffolo 7; Hogg 6, O’Brien 6; Kachunga 8 (Willock 90, -), Smith Rowe 7, Bacuna 6 (King 74, 6); Mounie 7 (Campbell 72, 6)
Subs not used: Chalobah, Coleman, Pyke, Stankovic
Goals: Kachunga 57 (assisted Toffolo), Mounie 61 (penalty, won Kachunga)
QPR: Kelly 6; Kane 6, Masterson 6, Hall 5, Wallace 5; Ball 7, Amos 5 (Clarke 67, 5); Osayi-Samuel 5 (Oteh 87, -), Eze 7, Chair 6 (Pugh 67, 5); Hugill 5
Subs not used: Lumley, Manning, Rangel, Barbet
Bookings: Hugill 27 (foul), Amos 41 (foul), Ball 82 (foul)
Referee — David Webb (Durham) 7 Not my favourite, often over-fussy, but perfectly fine here with all the big decisions correct.
Derby 1 QPR 1, Saturday November 30, 2019, Championship
In actual fact, Rangers grew into the game still further. Malone was carded for hauling down Osayi-Samuel. Manning tried a shot from range that was nervously parried by stand in home goalkeeper Ben Hamer — Kelle Roos dropped after a number of recent gaffes. The keeper saved again, well, off to his right, when Jordan Hugill hit a first time shot on the turn. Referee David Webb awarded a goal kick.
Webb was the official here last Easter that awarded that nonsense injury time penalty against Luke Freeman which won Derby the game. That was one of several decisions at the back end of 2018/19 that QPR received a letter of apology for from the PGMOL, but such contrition starts to ring a little bit hollow when they then decide to send the same referee back for the next meeting between the sides at the same ground. Thankfully Waghorn’s rash hack at Osayi-Samuel in the penalty area in first half injury time, after a prolonged period of QPR possession, was so blatant a penalty was the only possible outcome. Eze trolled the goalkeeper, and those who haven’t read the rules on penalty run ups, with the trademark run and calm finish from 12 yards.
Derby: Hamer 6; Wisdom 6, Davies 6, Forsyth 6, Bogle 5 (Whittaker 67, 6); Holmes 6, Lawrence 5, Evans 5, Malone 5; Waghorn 6 (Martin 81, -), Marriott 6 (Knight 81, -)
Subs not used: Paterson, Dowell, Roos, Lowe
Goals: Waghorn 23 (free kick, won Marriott)
Bookings: Malone 16 (foul)
QPR: Lumley 6; Rangel 7, Leistner 7, Hall 6, Manning 6; Cameron 6, Amos 6 (Scowen 71, 6); Osayi-Samuel 7, Pugh 6 (Wells 78, 6), Eze 7; Hugill 6
Subs not used: Kane, Smith, Ball, Chair, Barnes
Goals: Eze 45+4 (penalty, won Osayi-Samuel)
Bookings: Osayi-Samuel 49 (foul), Cameron 75 (foul), Manning 88 (foul)
Referee — David Webb (Durham) 7 Feared the worst when I saw it was the same referee as the one who shafted us here last season but this was a much better display with few errors. The penalty was blatant and Eze’s run up perfectly legal despite all the complaints. Geoff Cameron very lucky to stay on after chipping the ball away after a Derby free kick had been awarded late on when he was already on a yellow card.
Derby 2 QPR 0, Monday April 22, 2019, Championship
A defeat, QPR’s twenty second of the season and thirteenth since January 12, away to a much better team that still has things to play for was not unexpected. We said as much in the preview. In fact, we thought it might be a deal worse. But to actually play reasonably well, as QPR did by their admittedly pitiful standards, create the better chances in the game and make it to the last minute level only to lose amidst a refereeing brain explosion seemed particularly cruel on a club that has suffered enough over the past few weeks.
When we play poorly, as we did against Blackburn and Bolton and Rotherham and Norwich, we lose. When we play alright, as we did here and against Bristol City and West Brom and Watford, we also lose. It’s like we’re going out of our way to find new and creative ways to do it. The two goals Derby scored in a ludicrous 12 minutes of stoppage time added to this game (more, much more, on that later) were the seventh and eighth goals we’ve conceded after the 90 minute mark this season — more than any other team in the league. The nonsense penalty that gifted them their first (more, much more, on that later) was the ninth spot kick Rangers have conceded this term — again, a division high. We’re like Kif with the Women of Amazonia in Futurama — suffering death by a thousand blows to the groin. You will be snoo-snooed by the last-minute goals, then your own crass incompetence, then a dreadful piece of refereeing. THEN THE LAST-MINUTE GOALS AGAIN.
But, in actual fact, Rangers, with Tomer Hemed and Nahki Wells together up front and Luke Freeman and Bright Osayi-Samuel on the wings, didn’t do too badly at all. An early Derby free kick whipped in from wide by set piece specialist Harry Wilson had Lumley diving right to make a save from a flicked header, but Rangers marched straight down the field and caused panic of their own in the Derby area with a low cross from Manning that was turned back to his own goalkeeper by a home defender amidst a scramble and hurried clear. Roos’ handling of the deliberate back pass ignored by referee David Webb.
The loan players looked their best hope. Wilson tried a free kick from somewhere out near Strutt’s North Mill which Lumley saved reasonably easily, Mason Mount got a sight of goal but spooned a shot over while unbalanced. I thought QPR had a decent appeal for a penalty on 53 minutes but I haven’t seen it back since and in the ensuing Derby counter attack Scowen picked up a yellow card for a typical bit of ratting. Ten minutes later Luongo saw yellow for much the same. Luke Freeman was tackled and the ball went out of play. Derby throw in. In amongst the obvious calls there were, to put it mildly, some odd refereeing decisions.
Still, a point is not to be sniffed at when you’ve been as bereft as QPR of late. What came next was cruel.
First of all, nine minutes of added time. Nine. In actual fact, Webb ended up playing more than 12. Now this has been a bugbear of mine all season. In the Championship now, as soon as you take the lead in a game, or not even that if you’re an away side, the time wasting begins. Blatantly, flagrantly, obviously. Sometimes as little as 15 minutes into a game. Throw ins passed around between would-be takers, keepers swapping the sides of their goal kicks, prolonged debates over corners and free kicks, substitutes completing a lap of honour at the speed of Thora Hird before trudging off, goalies catching routine crosses and then falling theatrically to the ground in several stages like a collapsing ironing board. We’ve had it done to us, and we’ve done it to other teams. It’s cheating, it’s rife, and the referees have not only done nothing about it and allowed it to fester, they’ve actually been willing participants and facilitated it — refusing to issue yellow cards other than the odd token gesture here and there, as we saw with the Blackburn keeper on Friday, and spending all afternoon pointing at their watch only to add a nominal amount of time to the end of the game that bears no relation to anything that went before it. Including, it should be said, this same referee against this same opponent in the first meeting at Loftus Road before Christmas. "Prior to the equaliser he’d been another example of a referee enabling and encouraging time wasting by failing to do anything about some pretty flagrant clock running,” we said of him that day.
Then, suddenly, here, from nowhere, 12 minutes. Nine advertised and three more played on top of that. Is this the standard now? Good. Long overdue. I welcome our new ant overlords. But it wasn’t the rules we played to against Blackburn three days ago, and I’ll bet you a Coke it’s not the rules we’re playing to against Forest next Saturday. Twelve minutes. In a half of four substitutions and no goals. Have a fucking day off mate, we didn’t play 12 minutes at Aston Villa on New Year’s Day when the game was stopped for Lumley to have his face stitched back on.
Sadly, Webb was still very much at work. Three minutes into said chunk of stoppage time he awarded Derby a penalty for what was, pretty obviously, a fair tackle from Luke Freeman on Jayden Bogle. A disgraceful decision, clearly wrong, the second time this season Rangers have lost out to an injury time penalty that was the incorrect call. Joe Lumley’s been letting the weak spot kicks beat him recently so he was never likely to save a proper one from Wilson, buried into the corner for the game. Rangers have now lost out on five points by conceding penalties this season, and another four to goals scored in injury time.
Still an evening session left to play of course, during which Marriott curled one wide from range and then Derby were able to add a second goal in unfathomable circumstances. Trying to get a quick restart away and launch a hunt for an equaliser, Ryan Manning took a hurried throw in back to Joe Lumley who was miles out of his goal. The goalkeeper, perhaps believing the final whistle had blown, took a lazy, frustrated, wild swing at a bouncing ball he had plenty of time to take a touch on. This presented the home team with possession, men, and no defence between them and the goal, and they were able to basically walk the thing in from there. Wilson with a brace. Bizarre stuff. Lumley, like most of his team mates, needs this season to end soon.
Derby: Roos 6; Bogle 6, Keogh 6, Tomori 6, Malone 6; Bryson 5 (Bennett 37, 6), Johnson 5; Mount 6, Wilson 7, Lawrence 6 (Nugent 78, 6); Waghorn 5 (Marriott 69, 6)
Subs not used: Carson, Evans, Cole, Huddlestone
Goals: Wilson 90+3 (penalty, won Bogle), 90+11 (assisted Marriott)
Bookings: Bennett 90+9 (foul)
QPR: Lumley 5; Wszolek 6, Furlong 6, Cameron 7, Manning 6; Osayi-Samuel 7 (Eze 82, -), Scowen 6, Luongo 6, Freeman 6; Wells 5 (Walker 90+6, -), Hemed 5 (Smith 73, 5)
Subs not used: Ingram, Shodipo, Phillips, Tilt
Bookings: Wszolek 41 (foul), Scowen 54 (foul), Luongo 67 (foul)
Referee — David Webb (Durham) 3 I thought there’d been some pretty weird and wonderful calls across the regulation 90 minutes anyway. What followed in a ridiculously protracted spell of stoppage time was just rank bad refereeing, plain and simple.
QPR 1 Rotherham 2, Wednesday March 13, 2019, Championship
A fourth more effective tactic was a quick release from Joe Lumley, over the head of Joe Mattock, for Bright Osayi-Samuel to chase after. The former Blackpool man was treated to a rare start here with Pawel Wszolek benched and set about the task nicely. He was patently quicker than Mattock, and caused the full back problems right from the off, giving him a ten yard start and beating him to the first ball, then doing the same again moments later and drawing a foul and a yellow card from referee David Webb. This was wonderful. Exactly what you want: young, quick, talented winger looking confident; creaking, painfully slow, full back looking frightened and booked early. Keep doing that. Keep going there. Keep picking away at that. There’s joy there. There’s low hanging fruit. McClaren, after 25 minutes, moved Osayi-Samuel to the other wing.
QPR: Lumley 5; Furlong 4, Leistner 5, Lynch 5, Bidwell 5; Osayi-Samuel 6, Luongo 6, Cousins 4 (Shodipo 72, 6), Freeman 5; Eze 5 (Wszolek 80, 6), Hemed 3 (Wells 72, 5)
Subs not used: Ingram, Cameron, Scowen, Manning
Goals: Osayi-Samuel 86 (assisted Wszolek)
Bookings: Bidwell 43 (foul), Furlong 90+4 (foul)
Rotherham: Rodak 6; Vyner 6, Ihiekwe 8, Wood 6, Mattock 5; Taylor 7, Ajayi 8, Towell 7 (Crooks 64, 6), Newell 7 (Forde 83, -); Smith 6, Wiles 6 (Jones 90+2, -)
Subs not used: Palmer, Price, Yates, Williams
Goals: Ajayi 71 (unassisted), 90+5 (assisted Forde)
Bookings: Mattock 17 (foul)
Referee — David Webb (Durham) 6 Gave a lot of free kicks, but then QPR committed a lot of fouls. Bit fussy, and as during the Derby game did a lot of gesturing towards his watch during blatant time wasting and then added a pitiful three minutes onto the end of the game (though played a more realistic five).
QPR 1 Derby County 1, Saturday October 6, 2018, Championship
And so, with an hour still to play and only one goal in it, began, once again, the excruciating palaver of a goal kick only being taken after the keeper has walked out to the edge of his box to speak with his defenders, walked all the way back to retrieve the ball from behind the goal, found a towel in the net to clean the ball (presumably in case it’s too wet and dirty to kick), picked a side to take the goal kick from (the opposite one to where he’s cleaning the ball naturally), walked over there, placed the ball, taken a few steps back, taken a few steps forward, picked the ball up again, replaced the ball, taken a few steps back, pretended he hasn’t understood what the referee is shouting, acknowledge the second time what the referee is shouting, take a few more steps back, and then finally kick the ball down the field. Every. Single. Time.
We also had players repeatedly throwing themselves up in the air and screaming as if they’d been the victim of some sort of David Buust-style leg annihilation under the bare minimum of contact, followed by a prolonged period of rolling around on the floor, treatment from two physios (we have to have two physios now for some reason), a long, drawn out, laboured, pained, agonising stroll to the touchline, and then a swift 180 and sprint back into the action once play had resumed and the opponent had been punished. Lawrence, a bit of an underrated shithead for me, ended up being booked by struggling referee David Webb along with Angel Rangel for a ridiculously overblown clash between the pair under a quick throw out from Carson. Bradley Johnson and new England call up Mason Mount were both guilty of literally screaming after innocuous challenges on them that were barely fouls, and yet both were miraculously able to jump up and sprint about again moments later. One day somebody will snap one of them properly, but referees will be so accustomed to them letting out these weird banshee impressions that they risk being left to lay seriously injured on the turf while play goes on around them — you could hear their cries of wolf from White City tube station. In actual fact the only serious injury suffered all day was Jake Bidwell’s suspected broken collarbone, from a bad challenge that apparently didn’t even warrant a yellow card.
Referees can clamp down on this, as we saw during the World Cup. Book early and often for time wasting and it stops. Allow the play to go on and invite the player to go to the sideline for treatment if it’s really necessary and they’re soon up and about again. But we are seeing time and time again this season, from QPR in games they’re winning and against QPR in games they’re losing, this ball acheing twattery just allowed to go on and on and on unchecked. Webb barely had a control of the game all afternoon - ignoring serious stuff, penalising stuff that could have been allowed to go, a grasp of the advantage rule as thin as tracing paper - and as per usual completely ignored everything that had gone on in the respective halves and added the regulation two minutes to the first and four to the second regardless. Championship football is a bracing watch at the best of times, and this sort of Portuguese league-style game killing is suffocating it even more.
Rangers were level almost immediately. Tomori was adjudged by Webb to have fouled Eze on the edge of the area when he’d done nothing of the sort giving Luke Freeman a presentable free kick opportunity. Scott Carson has enjoyed a career revival at Frank Lampard’s Derby County, and is rated by many of their fans as the best keeper in the league, but he has a history of mistakes at Loftus Road and is always a keeper I feel gives you a chance. Caught between a catch and a camera save from Freeman’s shot he did neither, parrying the ball straight to Nahki Wells who pulled it back blind from the byline for Geoff Cameron to slam in a first goal for the club.
QPR: Lumley 7, Rangel 6, Leistner 6, Lynch 7, Bidwell 6 (Wszolek 30, 7); Luongo 6, Cameron 6; Cousins 6 (Hemed 69, 6), Eze 6 (Smith 90+3, -), Freeman 7; Wells 6
Subs not used: Ingram, Scowen, Baptiste, Osayi-Samuel
Goals: Cameron 48 (assisted Wells)
Bookings: Rangel 9 (shithousery), Luongo 37 (foul), Leistner 86 (foul)
Derby: Carson 5; Bogle 6, Keogh 6, Tomori 6, Forsyth 6; Bryson 6, Johnson 5 (Huddlestone 75, 7); Jozefzoon 6 (Wilson 56, 7), Mount 7, Lawrence 6 (Waghorn 78, 6); Marriott 6
Subs not used: Roos, Nugent, Davies, Malone
Goals: Marriott 24 (assisted Johnson)
Bookings: Lawrence 9 (shithousery), Bryson 83 (foul)
Referee — David Webb (Durham) 5 A difficult game to referee, with several players (Bradley Johnson) trying every trick in the book to con him, screaming blue murder as if they’d had their leg snapped after every challenge. But, overall, not the best. Derby were, rightly, stewing over the free kick which led to the goal which was never a foul in a month of Sundays, although it’s a bit much to accuse the referee of costing you the game with one mistake across 90 minutes and it rather ignores Scot Carson’s part in it. It was one of several very soft/blatantly wrong free kicks given against both sides, often when there was an obvious advantage to wave on, while other much more serious stuff was ignored — the challenge that broke Jake Bidwell’s collar bone, for instance, not even a yellow card. Prior to the equaliser he’d been another example of a referee enabling and encouraging time wasting by failing to do anything about some pretty flagrant clock running.
So far this season 63 yellows and one red in 16 games for Webb, topping out with three separate hauls of six. Last season a flurry of four reds in his final ten games saw him finish with 122 yellows (3.05) and nine reds in 40 games. QPR are 1-2-9 with this referee from 12 played, and that’s not looking like it’s going to get a lot better this week. He had Ipswich for their 4-2 home win against Preston in October and the Tractor Boys are 3-3-3 from nine.
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