At the third time of asking, Robert Madley will take charge of his first QPR game since 2015 this evening as the R’s head to Luton.
Referee >>> Robert Madley (West Yorkshire), rejoined the Premier League and Championship list the season before last after being dismissed by the PGMOL four years ago.
Assistants >>> Blake Antrobus (Manchester) and Darren Williams (Newcastle)
Fourth Official >>> James Bell (Sheffield)
Charlton 2 QPR 0, Saturday August 8, 2015, Championship
Charlton: Pope 7; Solly 5, Diarra 5, Bauer 6, Fox 6; Gudmondsson 7 (Ceballos 90, -), Kashi 6; Ba 6 (Bergdich 76, 6), Cousins 7, Ahearne-Grant 5 (Watt 46, 7); Mackienok 6
Subs not used: Jackson, Charles-Cook, Lennon, Mitov
Goals: Watt 52 (assisted Ba), Fox 72 (assisted Watt)
Yellows: Diarra 56 (foul), Ba 59 (foul), Watt 90 (foul)
QPR: Green 4; Perch 5, Onuoha 6, Hill 6, Konchesky 5; Luongo 6, Henry 5 (Faurlin 71, 6); Phillips 5, Chery 7 (Emmanuel-Thomas 71, 5), Mackie 7; Austin 5 (Polter 85, -)
Subs not used: Hall, Lumley, Doughty, Hoilett
Yellows: Hill 83 (foul), Konchesky 89 (foul)
Referee — Robert Madley (West Yorkshire) 7 One infuriating decision in the first half where Clint Hill was penalised for shirt pulling despite his own jersey being lifted almost completely over his head, and one in the second half where it looked like Charlton had a very good shout for a penalty, aside he was fine. Decent.
QPR 1 Sunderland 0, Saturday August 30, 2014, Premier League
Fortunately, everything fell right for them on Saturday. The game was decided by a single goal scored at the perfect time. In one minute of time added on at the end of the first half by referee Robert Madley, Leroy Fer intelligently nodded Joey Barton’s deep corner back into the path of Charlie Austin - back in the team after a hamstring injury - and he swept home with his left foot through a crowd of players. Austin had earlier lost out in a one on one situation with Sunderland keeper Vito Mannone at the end of a flowing move thanks to a heavy touch on the edge of the box but he kept plugging away and got his reward in the end.
Sunderland, and Giaccherini in particular, felt they had good cause to be angry with referee Robert Madley who first ignored substitute Will Buckley’s pleas for a free kick on the cusp of the QPR penalty area following an apparent trip by Chilean full back Maurcio Isla. The referee awarded a goal kick, suggesting Buckley had gone down too easily, and the replays made him right, but a yellow card handed out to Giaccherini in stoppage time for diving on the edge of the area when he looked to have been fouled for all money was more controversial.
And Rangers were reasonably annoyed themselves when Mutch was yellow carded in the second half for a nothing foul on Steven Fletcher. The Sunderland man made a lot of the contact, and Madley seemed to reach his decision with a good deal of guesswork.
QPR: Green 8; Isla 7, Ferdinand 7, Caulker 7, Hill 7; Barton 6, Mutch 7, Fer 8 (Taarabt 90, -); Hoilett 6 (Traore 83, -), Phillips 6, Austin 7 (Zamora 69, 7)
Subs not used: Onuoha, Murphy, Henry, Dunne
Goals: Charlie Austin 45 (assisted Barton/Fer)
Bookings: Mutch 56 (foul)
Sunderland: Mannone 7; Vergini 5 (Altidore 82, -), Brown 6, O’Shea 6, Van Aarnholt 6; Cattermole 7; Larsson 6, Rodwell 6 (Giaccherini 69, 7), Johnson 5, Wickham 6; Fletcher 6 (Buckley 69, 6)
Subs not used: Pantilimon, Jones, Bridcutt, Gomez
Bookings: Cattermole 36 (foul), Giaccherini 90 (diving)
Referee — Robert Madley (West Yorkshire) 5 I dare say the Sunderland mark for the referee would be a good deal lower, judging by the stick he was taking from the away end, but in the end he just about managed to keep control of a niggly, competitive fixture with a number of strong characters on both sides. The decision to ignore an appeal from Will Buckley for a foul by Isla on the edge of the area was correct — it was a dive. Whether he got the one with Giaccherini right at the end I don’t know, haven’t seen it again. I thought the Mutch booking was a joke. Not the greatest display of refereeing, but not the worst.
Brighton 2 QPR 0, Tuesday March 11, 2014, Championship
Brighton threatened only very occasionally. A wayward shot from 20 yards out from man Utd loanee Jesse Lingard failed to trouble Green, then when the impressive Will Buckley cut in well from the right and drew a foul from Clint Hill referee Robert Madley played a good advantage that allowed Leonardo Ulloa to advance into the danger area but with the goal at his mercy and Keith Andrews an Lingard waiting for a tap in to his left he lashed the ball into the side netting. A real waste.
Brighton: Kuszczak 8; Bruno 7, Upson 7, Dunk 6, Ward 6; Andrews 7, Ince 7, Forster-Caskey 5 (Lua Lua 75, 6), Buckley 7 (Stephens 90, -); Ulloa 6, Lingard 5
Subs not used: RodrÃguez Sánchez, Calderón, Ankergren, March, López
Goals: Ulloa 77 (assisted Bruno), Ward 86 (assisted Lua Lua)
Bookings: Lingard 79 (foul)
QPR: Green 6; Onuoha 6, Hill 6, Dunne 6, Assou-Ekotto 5 (Maiga 79, 5); Barton 6, Jenas 7; Traore 7, Morrison 7, Hoilett 5; Keane 5
Subs not used; Hughes, Kranjcar, Benayoun, Murphy, O’Neil, Henry
Referee — Robert Madley (West Yorkshire) 9 No real controversial incidents in the game but I certainly can’t recall him getting very much wrong at all. Sensible refereeing, plenty of advantage, just the one card.
Madley has been down to referee QPR twice in the last two seasons and withdrawn both times. He was bumped up to another game while QPR drew 0-0 at Norwich with Andy Davies in charge on the night of the randy 6ft 18-year-old in 2022/23, and then last season was meant to do our relegation six pointer at home to Millwall – potentially pulled from that as he’s a Huddersfield fan who at that point were just above QPR in the table.
It means this is his first appointment with Rangers since the opening day of 2015/16 when Chris Ramsey’s side lost 2-0 at Charlton and it’s the first time he’s been at Loftus Road since a year before that when QPR registered a rare Premier League win – 1-0 against Sunderland with a Charlie Austin goal.
Brentford’s 1-1 draw with Wolves in autumn 2022, in which Diego Costa was sent off in stoppage time, marked Madley’s return to Premier League refereeing for the first time since his dismissal four years ago. Madley was sacked by the PGMOL after a video he took on his phone mocking a disabled person hobbling past his car and shared with a friend, was then forwarded onto his employer and became public. After time living away in Norway, where his wife is from, Madley returned to refereeing in League One and Two in 2020/21 and has been working his way back up since then.
In 2021/22 he showed 134 yellows and six reds in 34 games in the lower two divisions, and he was rewarded with a play-off semi-final between Northampton and Mansfield in League Two. He returned to the Championship in Wigan’s 0-0 opening day draw at home to Preston in which Ched Evans was sent off for a horror tackle. That was one of six yellow cards to go with 96 yellows in 24 appointments last year which included just that one Premier League fixture and a play-off semi-final first leg in this division between Coventry and Boro.
In 2023/24 he finished with 124 yellows and five reds in 27 games. He never topped the eight yellow cards shown on opening night at Sheff Wed 1-2 Southampton when of course we were having one of our big, and almost immediately abandoned, clampdowns – this time on time wasting, kicking the ball away and so on. Two Championship games this season, five yellow cards, Preston 0-2 Sheff Utd and Derby 1-0 Boro.
His last Luton game was not a happy one for the Hatters. They were beaten 4-0 by bitter rivals Watford at Vicarage Road and Gabriel Osho was sent off seven minutes from time. They have a 2-2-1 record from five games with this official while QPR are 1-0-2 from three.
The Twitter @loftforwords
Pictures — Action Images